Agricultural Sciences

Pesticide Recertification Meeting Information Available

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State's Office of Pesticide Education offers three new services to help certified pesticide applicators locate open meetings approved for recertification credits.

"Many times, county extension offices and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture offices are overwhelmed by phone calls from applicators seeking information," says Winand Hock, professor of plant pathology and director of the Pesticide Education Office. "These new services will allow applicators to get up-to-date information at a central source."

Hock says the Pesticide Education Program Web site features a search engine that will locate open meetings in any of the seven Department of Agriculture regions. The Internet address for the Web site is http://www.pested.psu.edu.

"You can find out when and where core and category pesticide recertification meetings are being held and when pesticide applicator certification examinations will be held," Hock says.

Another service is a toll-free phone line: 1-800-Penn-IPM (736-6476). Callers must use a touch-tone phone. Listen for the voice prompt and push "1" for pesticide information.

Callers are prompted to select one of seven regions and select a category of pesticide certification. Core programs are selected by pushing "00." All others are listed "1" through "25." "Check your certification card for the categories you need," Hock says.

A listing of all meetings within a category will be read in alphabetical order by county and date. Each announcement will include county, date, number of credits and a contact phone number.

Penn State also offers a FAXBACK system, which provides callers with a printed list of all open meetings approved by the Department of Agriculture.

Callers should use the phone on their fax machine and call 814-865-1636. A voice prompt will welcome you to the Penn State Fax-on-Demand System. Press "1" for Pesticide Information. Another prompt asks you to select a region number from "1" through "7." If you are interested in out-of-state meetings or correspondence courses, push "8." After entering your choice, the prompt will ask you to press the "Start" button on the fax machine, and the information you requested will be faxed to you.

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EDITORS: To contact Winand Hock, please call 814-863-0264.

Contacts: John Wall jtw3@psu.edu 814-863-2719 814-865-1068 fax

Last Updated March 19, 2009