IPM Coordinator Tasks: Maintain Records

Keep records for both pest sightings and pesticide use on school grounds. Knowing where, when, and what pests are seen on school grounds will help focus pest control efforts and will be helpful to professional pest control operators. This information can be maintained in a log book in the main office of the school. Maps of the school building and grounds will aid in describing where pests are sighted and pesticides are used {49}.

Maintenance staff, teachers, and students should contribute to pest sighting logs. Pesticide use logs should be filled out by the person applying pesticides. 

Maintaining IPM Records

The success of an IPM program is very much linked to the record keeping system. Records function as the memory of the IPM program. Human memory is unreliable and can lead to erroneous conclusions when comparing effects of treatment or other variables on the pest problem.

Record keeping is important to you because

• you can learn about your specific pests and their management faster if you write down your observations

• you can learn more about your specific pest problems because you won’t forget what you observed, which treatments you tried, and when you tried them

Record keeping is important to the school system and the IPM program because

• monitoring records form the basis for making decisions on the most sensible distribution of available resources to the areas most in need of attention or observation

• information can be easily and accurately passed from one employee to another

• information is not lost when employees leave or retire

What Should The Record Show?

The record should always show

• what you are monitoring—name of the pest (common name and scientific name, if possible), stage of the pest (immature, adult), and for landscape pests, the name of the plant

• where you are monitoring—a map is always useful

• when you are monitoring—date and time

• who is doing the monitoring

Pest patterns emerge quickly when data gathered during monitoring is made visual, facilitating decision-making. This can be done by hand on graph paper, or by using one of the many graph-making computer programs included in spreadsheet software.

No Time?

Try to make record keeping as easy and practical as possible. A person who is on the site frequently should be the person who monitors and keeps records. Try other solutions such as

• asking an interested parent to help record monitoring information, either by following the pest manager or by interviewing the person later

• setting up a small student project to follow pest managers around and record what they do

• having a quarterly or monthly meeting to discuss monitoring and using a cassette recorder to record the information

Evaluating Your Actions

Without evaluating the actions you took to reduce the pest problem, you will not be able to improve your management program from year to year. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Was the pest problem a significant one?

• Were the actions I took necessary or would the problem have gotten better if I had left it alone?

• Did the actions I took and the treatments I used adequately solve the problem?

• Could I manage the problem better next time? If so, how?

• Do I need more or better information to make treatment decisions in the future?