January 2002 Training Drive a truck, flip a switch or two, and spray for mosquitoes, seems pretty simple doesn’t it? Operating a spray truck is the most obvious activity that Mosquito Control Programs do. Why? Because it is usually at night, it is noisy, the trucks operate with a yellow beacon light flashing and depending upon the product being applied, there is usually an odor involved. However, to apply pesticides into the public’s environment for the control of mosquitoes requires a license in Public Health Pest Control (PHPC) certified by the State of Florida, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In order to obtain certification in PHPC an employee must pass 2 exams, the CORE exam and the PHPC exam.
The CORE exam deals with applying pesticides correctly. The study manuals provided to prepare for this exam cover areas of pesticide application in regards to insects and other arthropods, plant diseases, weeds, vertebrate pests, pest control methods, environmental conditions, formulation of pesticides, pesticide labels (their terminology and how to read and interpret them), potential environmental hazards and benefits, various application equipment that is available, the calibration of such equipment, how to measure an area to be treated, regulations by which pesticides must be used, the agencies that govern pesticide usage and pesticide safety. Pesticide safety includes applicator protection – the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), how to handle pesticides, first aid and how to recognize the signs and symptoms of pesticide poisoning. The CORE exam is the primary exam that all pesticide applicators must pass no matter what area of pesticide application they are involved in, whether it be for Private, Commercial or Public licensing. The CORE exam can usually be taken at a local County Agricultural Extension Office.
Once the CORE exam is passed, an applicator must then pass an exam that deals specifically with the type of pests to be controlled. In our case it is the Public Health Pest Control exam. The PHPC exam deals with the habitats, biology, disease, control methods, materials, surveillance, regulation, equipment, and research facilities dedicated to the control of arthropods of public health importance such as fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, and other biting flies. The PHPC exam is provided and supervised by the State of Florida, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control. This is the State Agency that issues PHPC licenses and oversees mosquito control operations throughout the State of Florida.
Licensing in PHPC is the basic qualification requirement for our area of pesticide applications and is good for 4 years. To renew licensing, an employee must obtain 16 continuing education units (CEUs) in PHPC and 2 CEUs in the CORE within this 4 year time period or retake and pass the 2 exams. CEUs can be obtained by attending workshops, seminars and short courses that are offered by the Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), Bureau of Entomology and Pest Control, the Florida Mosquito Control Association (FMCA), the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory (FMEL) of the University of Florida, the John A. Mulrennan, Sr. Arthropod Research Laboratory (JAMSARL) of the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), mosquito control product and equipment vendors, and through local County Agricultural Extension Offices.
Continuing education is one thing, the actual application of the education or hands on training is another. At South Walton County Mosquito Control, as pesticide application activities are done, in field training is done. When adulticiding (operation of spray trucks at night), operators of the vehicles are required to learn the route they are spraying which involves “No Spray” areas, “waivers” that allow us to come onto private property, learning streets that are dead ends so we can spray out instead of driving through the spray, operating procedure when pedestrians are encountered, awareness of the weather conditions, conducting landing rate counts to justify an application, awareness of the proper mechanical operation of the equipment, etc., etc. So, as you can see, operation of the spray trucks is not just a matter of flipping a switch and driving around.
The application of larvicides (to kill or control the larval or aquatic stage of the mosquito) requires the learning of what products to use in specific habitats, when to apply them, determining the area to be treated, the amount of material to apply, and the learning of the ever changing source books we’ve developed to treat roadside swales, drainage retention areas, catch basins, and natural mosquito producing areas.
The source reduction activities we do, the maintenance of over 45 major drainage ditches, requires many hours of training on our heavy equipment. All operators of our heavy equipment require CDL licenses, an understanding of erosion control, Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Department of Environmental Protection rules and regulations, and our in house procedures for obtaining permission from private property owners, upon which most of the ditches we maintain are located. Maintenance of some drainage systems require labor, hand tools and chainsaws. The training and use of personal protective equipment is continually stressed both while working in the field and in the maintenance of our equipment, by our mechanics, in our shop. South Walton Mosquito Control also provides safety training in First Aid and CPR for the employees. The First Aid training is regularly used by our employees, both on the job and at home, while the CPR training has saved at least one life, to my knowledge, in the last 3 years. This person was my elderly neighbor, who eventually required a valve replacement, but is still alive today.
In summary, the continual changes that occur in the products, equipment, rules and regulations that govern our activities, new discoveries in mosquito control, and improvements in procedures used to carry out mosquito control activities, will require us to constantly update the education and training of our employees. By doing this, we can provide the public service of mosquito control in a safe, cost effective manner with a minimal impact to our natural environment. |