New Specialist Named to Help Pennsylvanians Implement Integrated Pest Management

Oct 10, 2024

By Hannah Tiffin

The Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management (PA IPM) program, which is a collaboration between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, has announced the appointment of Raymond R. Delaney as its new community program specialist.

The PA IPM program provides educational and logistical resources to help develop and implement effective, sustainable and environmentally conscious pest management practices to serve Pennsylvania’s diverse regions and sector-specific needs.

Program leaders pointed out that to protect human and environmental health, Pennsylvania residents should implement an integrated pest management, or IPM, approach to reduce the risk of pesticide use and exposure while mitigating pests in and around properties. However, many residents do not have the expertise to develop effective IPM programs for a variety of settings — including agriculture, and urban and suburban areas around homes, schools, businesses and other facilities.

Based in Philadelphia, Delaney will offer services to residents and organizations seeking expertise and advice on implementing integrated pest management in urban and suburban communities. With a wealth of knowledge in environmental public health, vector control and pest management — and experience working with pest control service providers — Delaney will help identify areas prone to pest infestations and develop IPM plans targeted to these areas and the overall needs and available resources.

As part of his role as the community program specialist, Delaney will work to establish and sustain integrated pest management programs in homes and facilities, as well as provide training and educational resources for teaching IPM concepts.

Specifically, he will share expertise with the community in the following ways:

— Diagnosing causes of pest challenges
— Developing IPM strategies for homes and buildings
— Offering guidance on implementing IPM
— Providing in-person IPM assistance and training
— Delivering IPM presentations and staffing educational displays at events

A life-long Philadelphia resident, Delaney said this role will allow him to bring his experience in public health and integrated pest management to the residents of the Philadelphia area. PA IPM leaders noted that his appointment signifies the program’s continual commitment to supporting safe and effective pest management strategies throughout the commonwealth.

For inquiries or to schedule consultations, contact Delaney by phone at 814-863-4111 or by email at rmd5595@psu.edu.

About the Pennsylvania Integrated Pest Management Program

The PA IPM Program is a collaboration between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture designed to promote integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. Its mission is to promote effective pest management that results in the efficient protection of food, fiber, health, home and industrial resources in a manner that is profitable, safe and environmentally compatible. For more information, visit https://extension.psu.edu/ipm.

Source : psu.edu

Video: From Students to Solutions | On The Brink: Season 2, Episode 14

Ask Canada’s most decorated soybean breeder his favourite part of the job and he doesn’t name a single variety. He names the students.

Istvan Rajcan is a professor of soybean breeding and genetics in the Department of Plant Agriculture at the University of Guelph, where he has run the soybean breeding program for 28 and a half years. In that time he has developed 87 soybean cultivars, published 140 refereed papers and trained 51 graduate students. In 2025 he received the Public Sector Impact Award from the National Association for Plant Breeding.

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The formula he is defending is the public-private matching arrangement his program runs on. Private seed companies fund the work, provincial or federal money matches it, and the combined pool stretches each dollar further than either source could alone. At the National Association for Plant Breeding annual meeting in June, he says American public breeders were often surprised at how well that collaboration works in Canada.

He also describes how the people entering plant breeding have changed. His early graduate students came mostly from farms. More recently they include, in his words, "city kids who just became excited about genetics."

Topics covered:

Why public-private plant breeding funding in Canada needs a long-term

commitment rather than a larger one

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How the graduate student pipeline into plant breeding has shifted from

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