The Alabama School IPM program now has pilot schools in six school systems. School IPM programs have and are continuing to develop strategies based on exclusion and sanitation that are proven to drastically reduce, indeed remove any exposure of school workers and students to chemical controls. More and more citizens of the state are being taught IPM method useful in all walks of everyday life. There are a total of 35 schools that have eliminated regularly scheduled pesticide applications. Pesticides are now used in these schools only in response to a problem identified by monitoring. This results in a reduction of pesticides used in the schools, reduction of exposure to pesticides and reduction of pests. The program now affects over 63,500 students in the schools now implementing IPM programs and has the potential to reach over 107,000 students as the program expands into the entire school system. This program is led by Dr. Lawrence Graham, Department of Entomology & Plant Pathology, Auburn University.
