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How do pests get into your home? What makes them pests? What are the risks of different pest problems?
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How do pesticides get into your home?
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What kinds of pest control measures do you and your family take?
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How do you make these decisions?
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Do your pest control practices at home meet the standards of Integrated Pest Management? Why or why not?
Learning goals:
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To apply understanding of IPM to a particular context.
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To understand how pests enter human environments, the relative risks they pose, and the role humans play in encouraging or discouraging pest problems.
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To observe the life cycle of particular pests and understand what responses are most effective at different stages of that cycle.
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To analyze a pest problem, weigh the relative risks and benefits of different pest control scenarios, and decide and implement the most appropriate response.
Length:
2-3 class periods plus homework
Activity Descriptions:
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Students work in pairs. One student is responsible for mapping her or his home and the other is responsible for conducting research on a particular pest common in the home.
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Students can work together to create keys for the map. Use IPM Pyramid of Tactics (http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/pdf/PyramidPDF1.pdf) to create key of tactics, with different symbols for structural, sanitation, physical and chemical. Create second key for pests with symbols for species of pests.
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"Map" student works at home to draw map and use symbols to mark pest entry points by species and pest management strategies used.
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"Research" student researches life cycle and possible pest control alternatives for a particular pest common in the home.
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Students work together to discuss the map and write a reason for each pest entry noted. Together, they decide on the most appropriate (i.e. safest and most cost effective) method for dealing with the particular pest studied, write a step-by-step guide to this method, and present their findings to the class.