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2020 is the Year of the Rat and Rodent Academy is going Virtual

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The Texas 2020 Rodent Academy is going virtual!

Register early to join us for this unique urban rodent management virtual workshop. Come spend two-days with experts from around the country discussing better ways to understand rodent ecology and integrated pest management (IPM). Learn about rodent disease, monitoring, trapping, urban rodent surveys and much more.

This event will be December 1 & 2, 2020 via Zoom and will be from 8:00 AM until 4:30 PM with time for you to chat with our speakers.

Cost is $75 per person and we ask that you register by Nov. 30th at 3:00 PM to give us time to send you the video link for the meeting.

Who Should Attend?

This course is intended for pest management professionals, municipalities, universities, public schools, and food safety personnel involved in the rodent control programs.

Curriculum Content

The topics will include:

  • Health significance of rodents
  • Rodents and allergens
  • Biology and behavior of rodents
  • Overview of Integrated Pest Management
  • Pesticide labels and federal regulations
  • Exterior bait boxes – what, where, how?
  • Alternative tools & techniques for rat control
  • Rodent Sensing Systems – which one is right for your business

 Class Size:  since we are going to be virtual, we will allow for a larger class than our in-person events. However, it will still be limited to 75 people to keep the group somewhat small so we can chat at the end of each day.

Academy Completion Certificate and CEU Credits

To Receive a Certificate of Academy Completion

  • Students will be expected to participate in class activities via chat or online polling.
  • Both sessions must be attended and completed by the same student from each company.
  • All students must also pass a final exam, which will be given via an online survey software.

Video or audio taping of any session of the Academy is prohibited, except with the express and prior permission of Texas A&M AgriLife Research & Extension

Meet some of our speakers:

Dr. Claudia Riegel, Director, New Orleans Mosquito, Termite and Rodent Control Board. She is currently leading a city-wide program of rodent baiting not only considering the increased pressure from the coronavirus pandemic, but out of concern that the higher pressure could spread disease among the homeless population.

Dr. Niamh Quinn, Human-Wildlife Interactions Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension Area Vertebrate Pest Advisor, based at the UC ANR South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine.CA. She facilitates interactions and information exchange among campus-based academics, CE advisors and community stakeholders. Her focus is directed on the coordination of Cooperative Extension programming regarding human-wildlife conflicts, particularly within the residential and industrial areas within Southern California where significant human-wildlife conflicts are occurring, with concentration in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties.

Timmy Madere, Pest Control Specialist, New Orleans Mosquito, Rodent and Termite Control Board. Madere has worked on research studies and urban pest issues concerning everything from termites and bed bugs to coyotes and raccoons, but his primary focus is on commensal rodents and urban rodent control.

Sylvia Kenmuir, BCE Sylvia is an Industrial Entomologist and chair of the West Coast Rodent Academy. She is currently the Western US Technical Specialist with BASF where she is responsible for product support.

Dr. Michael H. Parsons is a Visiting Research Scholar in the Department of Biological Sciences at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY. His work focuses on creating novel biological field assays to explore how scents influence risk assessment, disposition and decision making in small mammals. As a multi-disciplinary researcher, his assays with wild, city rats have been adapted into neuroethological assays and have been utilized for urban pathogen surveillance.

There will also be a discussion about the banning of rodenticides in California, how they got there and what steps everyone should learn from this.

Have you heard about rodent remote sensing?  Are you unsure what it is or how to use? Then Wednesday afternoon will be the day to learn more about this new technology.

Both days will end will a roundtable discussion that will allow participants to ask questions and share ideas with others.

Here is the Rodent academy agenda I will have more detailed information closer to the event.  In the meantime, get registered now.  If you need SPCS CEUs or a certificate of training you must register Online Here  I will notify each participant with the Zoom invite for the meeting.  Once you receive the invite from Zoom, you will have to register again to get the room code.  Please do not share the link.

I look forward to “seeing” you on December 1 and 2, 2020 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM

 

Finishing 2019 Strong at IPM House

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We are please to offer three courses for pest management professionals this November and December at IPM Experience House. All IPM House classes provide a mix of lecture, demonstration and hands-on practice.

The PMP Toolbox

Successful pest control requires being familiar with the tools of the trade.  Tools of the Trade: Equipment and Materials for Pest Control, is a new class to be offered on November 8. This class will provide an overview of essential pest control tools, how they work, how to use them, and how to maintain them.  We will also cover exclusion materials and techniques for pest proofing. All topics will be covered from the perspective of Integrated pest management (IPM) and new technologies will be discussed.  This will be an excellent class for both new and seasoned technicians.  Guest trainers include Randall Kennedy, with Dallas Fort Worth Wildlife Control, and Greg Orr with B&G Equipment Company.

This is a one-day class that runs from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Certificates will be given for 7 hours of verifiable classroom training for apprentices. Up to 3 Structural CEU credits will be awarded. Lunch is provided. Cost is $60 preregistration. Click here to register today, class size is limited.

Rats!

We are proud to offer Rodent Academy for the third year in a row with Dr. Bobby Corrigan.  Rodent Academy is in demand across the U.S. and this is your only Texas opportunity to take it. The course is intended for pest management professionals, municipalities, universities, public schools, and food safety personnel involved in the rodent control programs.

This year’s course will be held December 17-19.  In addition to Dr. Corrigan, we will have distinguished presenters Dr. Claudia Riegel, from the City of New Orleans, Travis Gates with ABC Home and Commercial Services in Dallas, Scott Smith with Bell Laboratories, as well as the IPM House faculty, Dr. Mike Merchant and Janet Hurley.  If your company does rodent control or exclusion, or would like to expand into this lucrative area, you’ll want to sit in on this fascinating three days of lecture and hands-on activities.

Note that Rodent Academy will be held in a new location this year. While still at the Texas A&M AgriLife Dallas campus, we have moved into the classroom located in the new Water Education building on the north end of the main parking lot.  Check the map on the registration page for directions. Cost for the three-day class is $300, lunches and snacks included.

ACE Prep

If you’ve been a pest control professional for five years or more and would like to be recognized by your peers and your customers for your hard work and professionalism, consider the Associate Certified Entomology program. This program is available to qualified professionals who can pass a certification exam.  The ACE Prep class is an intensive one-and-a-half day class designed to help prepare you to take the ACE exam.

The ACE Prep class is really for three kinds of people. It’s for young professionals starting out who would like a succinct overview of the science of entomology and pest control.  It’s for the ACE candidate who has studied hard on their own and just wants a final “cram” and confidence booster before the exam.  And it’s for anyone interested in preparing for the ACE exam, but who isn’t sure how best to study.  If you fall in this last category the ACE Prep class is just the thing to orient you to what to study, and get you pumped up to hit the books.

This year’s ACE Prep class will be held in the Healthy Living Building Classroom (formerly the Education Building) on December 12-13.  Lunch is provided. Cost for the two-day class is $100.  Mark your calendar now; registration is coming soon.