Summary
Due to the changes in economic times, county budgets have been reduced in many areas including personnel and in the school system.
Situation
One area that has suffered from this cut is pest control. Monthly contracts are becoming rare. Each pest problem now requires a visit and bid by the pest control operator. Pickens County Extension has worked with the school system in developing pest control strategies for their campuses. An affiliated school program was told how we were working together, and they called us in response to an insect outbreak at Head Start.
Response
When the director of Head Start called, there were insects biting students and teachers in the afternoon while kids were on the playground. A pest control operator had given them a price of $2800 to treat the playground for a mite. School personnel then collected samples of the offending insects for me to identify. Upon visiting the site and looking at the environment and the sample, it was determined to send the sample through the DDDI system at UGA CAES to determine exactly what it was we had on our hands. Meanwhile, the thought was to have the school system spray the site to save money, as they had been trained recently by the extension service.
Impact
Due to the quick response time of Dr. Dan Suiter at UGA CAES DDDI, it was determined that our insect was one that would be untouched by the pest control operator's recommendations. This was great news to the leader of the Head Start facility, as the $2800 was not in her budget to treat for this uninvited guest. The ability of the County Agent to quickly travel to the site, evaluate the circumstances and utilize DDDI was a budget saver for this facility.
State Issue
Other Programming
Details
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Year:
2008
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Geographic Scope:
County
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County:
Pickens
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Program Areas:
- Agriculture & Natural Resources
