Broadening educators' perspectives about pest control is exactly what Florida education officials had in mind when they joined forces with university entomologists to reduce the need for pesticides through sanitation improvements. Mr. Althouse estimates that IPM reduces the risk of pesticide exposure for 1 million Florida schoolchildren each year while keeping the pest problem under control. Some critics of alternative pest-control methods say the health hazards of pesticides are overblown. But Louisiana, Michigan, Texas, and West Virginia have all adopted laws or regulations in the past decade to reduce pesticide use in schools. Experts estimate that thousands of individual districts nationwide have traded in their spray cans for vacuums.
Grease is what they love.
At nearby Spacecoast Middle School, head custodian Andy Steinert boasts that his janitorial crew can make the cafeteria sparkle 30 minutes after the school's 1,150 students finish lunch. After the last student leaves, workers wipe each table with a low-toxicity disinfectant, cart the trash to the outside dumpster, fold the tables, and polish the floors. Every bug in Florida would move in quick. Eliminating pests, many of which can cause health problems in children, is daunting in Florida's hot and humid climate. Cockroaches and their droppings provoke asthma, rats can carry viruses, and some spiders can be deadly.