Extension News

Hurley recognized as integrated pest management pioneer for schools

January 7, 2021 by Rob Williams

by Adam Russell, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service school IPM specialist Janet Hurley leads a school IPM training for school district IPM coordinators.

Janet Hurley continues to be surprised by her career choice. She envisioned a job in health care, but despite fighting on a different front line, public health is still her focus.

Hurley, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service integrated pest management, IPM, program specialist, Dallas, was recently awarded the International Integrated Pest Management Award of Excellence for IPM Practitioner – Academic by the IPM Symposium for her outstanding work in school IPM.

The IPM Symposium is a 100% volunteer run group of practicing IPM professionals across the nation. The conference meets every three years, but due to COVID concerns, the 2021 conference is being put off and Hurley will have to wait until 2022 to officially receive her award.

Hurley was recognized for her efforts to establish and solidify Texas’ school IPM program. She was recognized by the IPM Symposium as one of the pioneers focused on school IPM education and program implementation at the school district level

“[Hurley] is a strong advocate of hands-on training, including field trips and demonstrations, and continues this approach in all educational events she organizes even today, such as the interactive Rodent Academy for schools and pest management professionals,” the award announcement read. “Through her successful program, Ms. Hurley has maintained regular training courses for school IPM coordinators and staff, hosted a nationally recognized school IPM website, served on national and regional school IPM committees, and established strong working relationships with a variety of organizations that have supported her school IPM efforts.”

Hurley recognized by IPM peers

In his nomination letter to the IPM Symposium, Mike Merchant, retired AgriLife Extension urban entomologist, Dallas, praised for Hurley’s continued efforts to make schools safer and train pest management professionals.

“Janet Hurley’s job has always been a frontline, boots-on-the-ground position. She works tirelessly to learn and teach IPM,” Merchant wrote. “She is the glue that holds the Texas school IPM program together, keeping good records on contacts, remembering names and faces, and attending to the dozens of details that must be tracked for every training class. She has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of school districts and their IPM personnel. This serves her well in establishing the trust and relationships that encourage schools to adopt IPM.”

Hurley said being recognized as one of three recipients among hundreds of IPM specialists in the nation makes her feel she has made a difference in the profession and for her clients from Texas school districts, pest control professionals and ultimately the public.

Membership in the Symposium Steering Committee and participating in the conference are ideal for networking and sharing information among IPM professionals from around the nation, she said. It also allows collaboration with players involved in national programs like U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“The conference is where we talk about new invasive species and cutting-edge integrated pest management tools and techniques,” she said. “So, for me, the symposium award is the highest recognition I could ever receive because it’s 100% from my peers.”

Hurley said it has taken a “village” – including AgriLife Extension specialists, various federal and state regulatory agencies and the school districts – to initiate and enforce an effective IPM program that focuses on protecting schools, students, and staff from pests and pesticides

“On our side, and the regulatory side, we want verifiable IPM within schools, and we work with school boards, administrators and facility managers regarding specific problems whether it’s proactive or dealing with infractions,” she said.

Leading the way in school IPM

In 1995, the Texas Legislature passed a law effectively creating pest management standards in school districts across the state, including mandated inspections. Hurley was hired in 2001 to oversee a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to help promote school IPM through developing resources.

In 2002, the Legislative Budget Board’s mandated the Structural Pest Control Board, SPCB, to inspect 20% of the state’s 1,052 school districts each quarter that fiscal year. It was the first of its kind of regulatory inspection of school IPM rules in the nation.

Overnight, Hurley became someone school administrators and facility managers were seeking out and engaging. By summer 2002, the SPCB had completed 830 school IPM inspections of which 80% were non-compliant. This led Hurley to create the two-day school IPM coordinator training that is now recognized as a leading example of school IPM education.

Over time, school districts recognized the impact Hurley’s recommendations had on the way they fought pest problems, whether fire ants on campus, lice in a classroom or rats and roaches in storage and kitchen areas. They also recognized that budgeting properly and addressing problems proactively could save money in the long term.

Hurley’s goal as a specialist is to make recommendations based on scientific data and to establish best management practices with a focus on proactive measures that preempt the need for chemical control.

“Door sweeps would solve three-quarters of my problems,” she said. “Simple things like that. We are so engrained with the need for immediate gratification – ‘It comes in a can and kills bugs dead, so that’s what I will use.’ No, sometimes it’s not that simple, so my job has to be about changing that behavior and educating people about better, healthier, more cost-effective approaches to IPM.”

Making a difference

Hurley said she especially enjoys working with school districts because she has seen her efforts make a difference. But building and maintaining effective IPM programs in districts is an ongoing effort due to regulatory changes regarding treatment options, technology improvements and how specific pest populations ebb and flow if given an opportunity or build resistance.

There is also the loss of institutional knowledge due to turnover in districts. Hurley produces a monthly newsletter that is distributed nationally to 1,642 school staff members, pest management professionals and interested stakeholders to keep them informed about potential problems.

Each district is different and implements individual IPM plans, she said. But there are many standard practices all facility managers need to perform, such as preparations for summer and winter breaks, a time when pest problems can get out of control quickly.

Hurley said it’s important to recognize the efforts by school districts and their support staffs.

“It’s important to get recognition, but it’s also important to give the districts praise for their hard work,” he said. “Being a trusted resource, that is what sustains me. That and engaging with people around the state in a field I am passionate about and one that I believe makes a difference every day.”

Texas honey production tops 7.4 million pounds

October 21, 2020 by Rob Williams

Beekeeper looking at comb while bees flying around him — A beekeeper tends to one of 68 bee colonies staged for honey production and pollination near a 90-acre field of Silver River Sweetclover being grown for seed production. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo by Adam Russell)

by Adam Russell, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications

Texas remained sixth in the nation for honey production in 2019, and is home to thousands of overwintering hives that contribute to the nation’s agricultural economy each growing season, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service experts.

Molly Keck, AgriLife Extension entomologist, Bexar County, said Texas beekeeping falls into three categories – hobbyists, sideliners and commercial.

Hobbyists are backyard beekeepers who keep bees, typically less than 10 hives, to meet Texas’ agriculture exemption for property taxes and/or to produce honey for their household, to share and/or sell locally. Sideliners typically have 50-250 hives but also maintain a full-time job.

“The plight of the honeybee and beekeeping to protect populations is a part of the increasing trend of hobbyist beekeepers,” Keck said. “But around 75% of the residents who participate in our Beekeeping 101 course are doing it to get that ag exemption with the bonus being honey for themselves and to share with family and friends and maybe sell at local farmers markets.”

Commercial beekeepers are those who keep 500 colonies or more. Their livelihood depends on bee husbandry and by moving large numbers of hives around the state and nation to pollinate crops and/or produce honey.

In Texas for instance, a commercial beekeeper may deliver hives in the Rio Grande Valley to pollinate watermelon fields and move those same hives to the Texas Plains to pollinate cotton later in the growing season. Then in the summer they may move their colonies to South Dakota or North Dakota for clover honey production.

Honey production and home base

Juliana Rangel, Ph.D, AgriLife Research honey bee scientist in the Department of Entomology, Bryan-College Station, said Texas is home to many beekeepers because they hold bees here in winter and then take them to other states for pollination services in February and throughout the year.

Rangel said as Texas is not among the states that require apiary permitting or registration, it is difficult to keep an accurate tally of beehives, activities like queen and bee sales and honey production.

The annual U.S. Department of Agriculture honey report in March 2019 showed 132,000 honey-producing colonies in Texas. By comparison, North Dakota, the No. 1 honey-producing state, reported 550,000 colonies. Texas colonies produced 7.4 million pounds of honey in 2019, according to the USDA report. Total U.S. honey production topped 154 million pounds.

Even though the top honey-producing states are North Dakota and South Dakota, California, Florida and Minnesota, Rangel said thousands of those hives are based, or at least overwinter, in Texas as the state offers a mild winter climate for bees.

“A lot of these major producers who provide pollinator services and produce honey have a residence in Texas, but travel throughout the year before returning their bees to the state in preparation for winter,” she said.

Honey production requires nectar sources from wildflowers like bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush and almond verbena, Keck said. East Texas’ climate provides the best conditions for a long honey “flow” that typically starts in February or March and can continue until the end of the year, depending on temperatures.

“Honey bees produce throughout Texas, but there’s less production in West Texas because it’s dry and there’s fewer nectar sources,” she said. “Central Texas typically gets a sizeable flow in the spring and a tiny one in the fall. Freezes in the Panhandle limit production there, but there’s also an abundance of agricultural settings that they benefit.”

Honey bees prefer monocrops, or large swaths of a particular nectar source, whether it’s bluebonnets, cucumbers, fruit trees, watermelons or clover, Keck said. Native bees, on the other hand, prefer to pick and choose nectar sources.

The Dakotas are top honey-producing states because of massive fields of clover that provide a good nectar source for honey production, Rangel said. Bees are taken there in late spring and early summer for honey production.

Nectar harvest in Texas coincides with major wildflower blooms in early spring, Rangel said.

“Nectar harvest in Texas is short but abundant and spikes in mid-to-late spring. By early summer there’s not much, but then there’s a fall bloom that produces some honey as well,” she said. “During summer and after that bloom, those honey-producing hives are fed sugar syrup.”

Trends in beekeeping

Rangel and Keck said interest in honeybees and beekeeping is on the rise, but that the number of active beekeepers in Texas is difficult to nail down. Rangel believes the number of hobbyists likely stays steady due to attrition and addition each year. Keck said participation in AgriLife Extension’s Beekeeping 101 program, which is designed for beginners, suggests beekeeping is on the rise, especially in South and Central Texas.

“The number is at least staying steady,” Rangel said. “The problem when you’re a beginner is that you may be discouraged by a colony’s death in winter and wash out within three years, but you have new hobbyists starting. And over the last 10 years, because of pollinator awareness, the numbers have definitely gone up.”

Rangel said controlling Varroa mites is the biggest challenge for beekeepers. This pest can introduce dozens of viral pathogens that cause colonies to collapse if untreated.

In Texas, Rangel said there are fewer crops that require foliar pesticide applications, which are detrimental to honeybee populations. The landscape is also populated with diverse plants that pollinators, including native bees and honeybees, can feed from year-round.

But urbanization is impacting that landscape, she said.

“People should be aware of the importance of pollinators,” Rangel said. “Bees provide pollination services that represent over $16 billion to the U.S. economy every year, and one-third of the food we eat is pollinated by honey bees. They just need to be aware that avoiding harsh chemicals to control weeds and planting pollinator-friendly areas on their properties can go a long way in protecting pollinators, including the honey bee.”

Excerpted from “Texas honey production tops 7.4 million pounds”, which originally appeared in AgriLife Today.

How Texas became leader in safe public school pest management

September 17, 2020 by Rob Williams

Human, environmental health remain focus as AgriLife Extension makes school pest control safer

by Gabe Saldana, Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing & Communications

Janet Hurley checking chairs at a school in Wylie — AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley and Wylie Independent School District IPM coordinator Tony Jacinto inspect a storage space of stacked chairs for pest issues at Wylie High School.

Anyone returning to a Texas public school this semester is safer from pests and pesticides, thanks to a host of integrated pest control practices required by the state and taught to licensed professionals by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Requirements for integrated pest management, or IPM, in Texas schools were passed by the Texas Legislature in 1991. IPM is the practice of controlling pests with alternatives to pesticide. It employs other methods that consider environmental safety and human health.

New laws, shift in focus

By the time school IPM became law, AgriLife Extension’s state pesticide safety coordinator Don Renchie, Ph.D., and urban entomologist Mike Merchant, Ph.D., had already been training pest control professionals in safe application for schools across the state. They were steeped in collaboration with the Texas Structural Pest Control Board — of which Merchant was a member — to develop comprehensive curricula for the training.

AgriLife Extension state pesticide safety coordinator Don Renchie, Ph.D., leads school IPM training in an industrial school kitchen.

“There had been major incidents of human contact with pesticides in Texas schools, due to application by unlicensed applicators, leading up to passage of the IPM laws in 1991,” Renchie said. “In Texas, we decided that our children were most important, and that’s why IPM is the law here.”

Only 23 states have school IPM laws or regulations, according to the National Pest Management Association.

As provisions of the Texas’ school IPM law took effect in 1995, Renchie and Merchant shifted focus to developing a training series for the IPM coordinator. This staff position is still required at every Texas school district today. They are responsible for ensuring safe school district spaces by adhering to all IPM mandates, existing and emerging.

IPM coordinators continue to be trained by AgriLife Extension, but the agency’s training reach, evaluation systems and advanced IPM techniques help make schools safer for Texas students, faculty and staff than ever before.

A boost for school IPM training in Texas

In 2001, a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allowed Renchie and Merchant to hire AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley, Dallas. The grant also created the Southwest Technical Resource Center for School IPM. Hurley joined AgriLife Extension as director of the center, whose education materials live on as part of AgriLife Extension’s comprehensive teachings. Her work to organize school IPM training across Texas dovetailed with a previous grant that Merchant and Renchie were awarded to create “The ABCs of IPM” video series. The series is still taught to IPM coordinators as part of state requirements.

AgriLife Extension entomologist Mike Merchant, Ph.D., leads school IPM training.

By that time, she said, roughly 80% of Texas schools had fallen out of compliance with state IPM standards. Additionally, a more streamlined system for professional training was needed across the state.

Seeking solutions

“When I got there, it was six hours of training, pat ‘em on the back and ‘see ya later, bye,’” Hurley said. “I said ‘No wonder the schools look like deer in headlights with IPM standards.’ And my bosses said ‘well that’s why we hired you. Now what are you gonna do about it?’”

She began to develop — with Merchant, Renchie and EPA grant colleagues in New Mexico and Oklahoma — one-day and two-day school IPM trainings, which emphasized hands-on work. It is the same model AgriLife Extension uses to deliver emerging school IPM information today at the IPM Experience House.

AgriLife Extension IPM Experience House, Dallas

While Hurley worked to broaden AgriLife Extension’s reach, Renchie and Merchant could still lead school IPM trainings and focus on expanding responsibilities of entomology and pesticide safety — the overarching areas of urban pest management statewide.

Hurley created a map of Texas’ roughly 1,030 school districts and began reaching out to them with what she calls “the gospel of IPM.” By 2008, she built enough enthusiasm among Texas schools to form the nation’s first statewide association of school IPM professionals — the Texas IPM Affiliates for Public Schools. Before the group disbanded, it welcomed more than 1,000 attendees to its annual meeting between 2009 and 2014.

These early efforts all contributed to making AgriLife Extension a driving force in the unique success of IPM in Texas schools and beyond.

School IPM impact

Since 2002, AgriLife Extension has offered 234 full days of school IPM training classes and reached 5,861 participants from 1,638 school districts. Hurley’s efforts alone include 265 personal site visits to Texas school districts. She assists with compliance issues and helps IPM programs prepare for inspections and awards.

AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley leads a school IPM training for school district IPM coordinators in North Texas.

As a result of these efforts, more than 20 Texas school districts are winners of the IPM Institute of North America’s national IPM Star award — more than any other state.

Among the state’s recognized districts is Wylie Independent School District, whose IPM coordinator is Tony Jacinto. The district failed to meet state IPM standards in 2016, before Jacinto heard about Hurley and AgriLife Extension from colleagues in another district.

“At that time, I had no experience with IPM and asked Janet to come teach me the ABC’s,” Jacinto said.

By 2019, Wylie ISD had become one of Texas’ national IPM Star districts, and Jacinto had scored 103 out of 100 during the award audit — above a perfect score.

Hurley is also a founding member of the IPM Star award, which exceeds even Texas’ standards for IPM.

What’s next

Today, Renchie continues to train pest control professionals for licensing, and Merchant retired in August following more than 30 years with AgriLife Extension.

“It’s widely recognized that IPM adoption benefits health and the environment,” Merchant said. “These accolades and increased compliance numbers show that Texas schools are safer as a result of AgriLife Extension’s reach and work.”

Meanwhile, in conducting 75 regional two-day trainings and 84 one-day trainings since 2002, Hurley remains the most active coordinator of school IPM training in Texas, and likely in the U.S., Merchant said.

“She has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of Texas school districts and their IPM personnel,” he said.

AgriLife Extension school IPM specialist Janet Hurley leads a school IPM training for school district IPM coordinators.

Through AgriLife Extension, Hurley also maintains a school IPM hotline and the Texas School IPM website, providing learning resources and training information. Her industry newsletter, School Pest News, is in its 137^th edition since 2002, and it circulates to a readership of about 1,600 per issue. She is active in the International IPM Symposium steering and awards committees and is on the National School IPM Steering Committee.

Over the next year, AgriLife Extension will expand IPM offerings with its public Residential IPM course series, which covers general integrated pest management for homes.

Hurley will propose a comprehensive research initiative to determine rat presence in Texas as well as the types of communicable diseases they carry, which remains largely speculative, she said.

“We’re just going to keep on building,” she said.

Mike Merchant Awarded with Honorary Membership at the Entomological Society of America

September 11, 2020 by Rob Williams

Congratulations to former Professor and Extension Specialist Dr. Mike Merchant as he was named an honorary member of the Entomological Society of America in 2020.

Merchant recently retired from Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and was one of five entomologists in the nation that were named honorary members. The award acknowledges members who have served the ESA for at least 20 years outstanding work throughout their careers to advance the organization at an extraordinary level.

For 31 years, Merchant has been serving the state as Professor and Extension Entomologist working in the field of urban entomology. His responsibilities include providing county agents and the public with technical assistance on structural pest control, turfgrass and ornamental insects, and public health entomology.

Merchant’s research spanned across a wide variety of pest problems including fire ants, scale insects, spider and scorpion management, and the economics and implementation of IPM programs for schools.

Dr. Mike Merchant training — Dr. Mike Merchant teaching a session at the Texas A&M University Urban Pest Management Conference and Workshop. Photo by Rob Williams

He has trained dozens of pest management professionals and led establishment of the IPM Experience House training facility in Dallas. He is a co-author of the ESA publication titled IPM for the Urban Professional: A Study Guide for the Associate Certified Entomologist.

Along with colleagues Drs. John Jackman and Carlos Bogran, Merchant also developed the Master Volunteer Specialist in Entomology program. This training consists of a course which offers in-depth training in entomology to Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists and created an online outreach tool for professionals and general public called Insects in the City.

To help improve pest management training, Merchant oversaw the renovation project in 2016 that eventually became the Texas IPM House, which is a hands-on training facility for pest management professionals to learn about IPM and pests that invade homes or used structures as a source of food and shelter.

Merchant also created an interactive website called “Mosquito Safari” to help teach homeowners and businesses about proper mosquito control. During the emergence of the Zika virus, Merchant worked with Dr. Sonja Swiger to develop a statewide outreach program to educate about controlling mosquitoes and prevention of Zika in Texas. In 2016, they enlisted the help of several Extension agents, specialists, and program specialists to create and distribute materials.

Their efforts in mosquito control educational programming resulted in 339 education events, directly training nearly 140,000 people plus over 2 million media contacts engaged with the programs. In addition, 76,400 people received newsletters with Zika information and more than 11,000 printed copies were distributed throughout the state.

Merchant became an ESA member in 1982 and has attended more than 30 annual conferences and continuously active in ESA volunteer roles including student judging, helping organize the first Insect Expo, chairing and serving on multiple committees, and organizing symposia.

Merchant also served as Section F officer and then as first president of the newly formed Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology (MUVE) section. Before serving as an officer and MUVE president, he led the startup of the Associated Certified Entomologist program, which as since increased membership in the ESA and strengthened the certification program.

“Mike has impacted many professionals in entomology. However, his dedication and support of the Certification Programs for the Entomological Society of America stands out. As Certification Director, Mike recognized that professional credentialing for Pest Management Professionals could serve an important need for the industry,” said Bob Davis, Technical Services Director at BASF. “He helped drive the creation and implementation of the Associate Certified Entomologist (ACE) program.”

Davis also said that with Merchant’s help, the ACE program has grown tremendously.

Consequently, ACE membership from 2004 to present grew from zero to over 1000, and is still on an upward trend,” Davis said. “The Pest Management Industry and ESA owe much to Mike for his work with the Certification Program.”

Associate Department Head for Extension Programs and Statewide IPM Coordinator Dr. David Kerns was very proud of Merchant and his accomplishments.

“Dr. Mike Merchant epitomized the perfect blend of applied research and extension outreach. He developed one of the nation’s top research driven extension programs,” he said. “Mike’s innovations, discoveries, and implementations provided better IPM based solutions to urban pest issues, and he developed premier, cutting-edge programs for delivering his information to the public. Dr. Merchant demonstrated unparalleled success with every project he pursued.”

“Mike is patient and kind and one of the best mentors I have ever had,” Extension Program Specialist Janet Hurley said. “There are times Mike and I agree to disagree, but that is rare. He is a friend, a mentor and a coworker and someone I am so blessed to call a friend. I truly want everyone to know that Mike has done a lot over his career with AgriLife Extension.”

Former student Janis Reed said that Merchant’s materials and blogs have been very helpful in her career. “Throughout my tenure in industry, I have used Dr. Mechant’s blogs and printed materials to support conversations with homeowners,” Reed said. “I could always count on Mike to be succinct, factual and use language any reader could understand. Having the large breadth of topics he’s covered over the years to use helped me to communicate with folks by using a reliable source of information.”

Reed was proud of Merchant and his accomplishments.

“I always enjoyed listening to Dr. Merchant give CEUs and other educational meetings,” she said. “He was always down to earth, approachable, knowledgeable and helpful. The industry will miss having him to call on!”

Cassie Krejci is a former student and works as an animal health specialist at MGK. She commended Merchant on his dedication to Extension and urban entomology.

“Dr. Mike Merchant has put a face to extension entomology in Texas, helping to bridge the gap between science and applied entomology for Pest Management Professionals across our State. As an allied researcher, I have always appreciated the attention Dr. Merchant gives to advances in applied entomology and the work he does to take new developments to the PMP. This award is well-deserved, as Dr. Merchant has made important contributions to our industry and continues to so.”

Kimberly Engler worked with Merchant as an IPM Program Specialist in Dallas for 8 years and currently works as the Educational Coordinator at ABC Home and Commercial Services. In those 8 years, she said that Merchant has been very helpful.

“I was privileged to work across the hall from Mike at the Dallas Center for almost 8 years. He helped me personally in so many ways from handling the media, to assisting with in person presentations and outreach programs, to helping in formatting and editing publications, and designing protocols to test pesticides and devices in the urban sector,” she said. “His attention to detail and striving to provide science based research to the general public helped shape my career providing the fundamentals for being a good scientist.”

Engler was very proud of Merchant and said his award was well-deserved.

“Dr. Michael Merchant receiving ESA’s Honorary Member is well deserved since he is a distinguished leader in both the study of Entomology and with Texas Extension programming,” Engler said. “He graciously and generously devoted his time and energy in educating Texas residents about all urban pests and IPM methods of control through his blog posts, in person presentations, online forums, newsletters and emails. Mike is a lifetime learner who constantly strives to solve urban pest problems posed by the general public and pest management professionals.”

Professor Retires After 30+ Years with Extension

August 10, 2020 by Rob Williams

The Department of Entomology and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service celebrated the retirement of a longtime professor and Extension Entomologist during a virtual celebration held on August 7.

Merchant, a Professor and Extension Entomologist in Dallas, will be retiring on August 31. He has been with Extension for more than 30 years when he joined as an Urban Entomologist in the District 4 offices located in the Dallas area.

His career highlights started in 1993 when Merchant was named Chair of the statewide School IPM Advisory Committee. As chair, Merchant served as principal drafter of the original regulations establishing the Texas School IPM program. Since then, he has created video training tapes and wrote a handbook for school IPM coordinators, and a training conference.

In 2001, Merchant and Program Leader and Extension Specialist Dr. Don Renchie were awarded a multi-state grant in to develop the Southwestern Technical Resource Center for IPM in Schools and Daycare Facilities. The grant also allowed Merchant to hire Extension Program Specialist Janet Hurley to help create the Texas School IPM Team, which gained national recognition for their outstanding work developing training materials and courses in integrated pest management for schools.

In the early 1990’s Merchant was the author of the original fact sheet for the “Texas Two-Step” method of controlling fire ants that was developed by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. The sheet was the most frequently requested publication from 1995-1997 and is now being used by commercial fire ant bait manufacturers and is recognized as the most effective control program available in the nation.

Dr. Mike Merchant teaching an Associated Certified Entomologist training class.

Over the past decade, Merchant led a team of entomologists to identify a new insect pest of crape myrtle, officially named the crape myrtle bark scale or Eriococcus lagerstroemiae. The scale has now spread throughout the southern U.S. Merchant demonstrate that neonicotinoid soil drenches controlled the scale, and his research has focused on safe and effective methods of control that are also safe, economically feasible, and do not adversely impact pollinators who use crape myrtle as a source of pollen in the late summer.

In 2003, Merchant along with colleagues Drs. John Jackman and Carlos Bogran developed the Master Volunteer Specialist in Entomology program. This training consists of a course which offers in-depth training in entomology to Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists and created an online outreach tool for professionals and general public called Insects in the City. He also oversaw the renovation project in 2016 that eventually became the Texas IPM House, which is a hands-on training facility for pest management professionals to learn about IPM and pests that invade homes or used structures as a source of food and shelter.

Since 1995, Merchant has also maintained another highly popular website called Insects In The City, or citybugs.tamu.edu, that allows visitors to sign up for insect updates, post questions, and view fact sheets. The site receives at least 1.2 to 1.5 million visitors and an average of 3.2 million views per year.

In addition to Extension, Merchant was very active in the Entomological Society of America where he made significant contributions through his service, including co-authoring a 208-page study guide Associate Certified Entomologist program titled IPM for the Urban Professional: A Study Guide for the Associate Certified Entomologist.

Merchant also served on the Entomological Society of America’s Certification Board, a board that is responsible for the Society’s certification programs, and the Director of the BCE program in 2001-2002. Since he was director of the BCE, he led the reorganization of the program committee and established the Associate Certified Entomologist program.

Extension Program Specialist Wizzie Brown said that Merchant will definitely be missed by everyone.

“Mike has been an excellent mentor over the years and will be sorely missed by myself, other entomologists, and people within the pest control industry,” Brown said.

“Dr. Merchant has always been some whom I could depend on whenever I had a question or an issue,” Associate Professor and Extension Specialist Dr. Sonja Swiger said. “He has provided guidance, wisdom, compassion and steadfast for all of us in the Extension Entomology group. While his retirement is well deserved, he will be deeply missed by all.”