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Steinhauer New IPM Coordinator - September 2002

September 1, 2002

HARRISBURG, PA - Jim Steinhauer, chief Apiary Inspector for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA), was recently named as the PDA's Integrated Pest Management Coordinator for the statewide program.

Integrated pest management, or IPM, aims to manage pests -- such as insects, diseases, weeds and animals -- by combining physical, biological and chemical tactics that are safe, profitable and environmentally compatible. The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between Penn State and the PDA aimed at promoting IPM in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. Ed Rajotte continues to fill the role of Penn State's IPM Coordinator.

Steinhauer was made aware of the benefits of IPM early in his academic career. "IPM was on the rise when I was an undergrad at the University of Delaware. After obtaining my Masters in Entomology, I was the leader of a project researching pest management on Conifers. To narrow the scope of the project, I focused on Juniper and it effectively became IPM on Juniper. I conducted a biological study of juniper scale, life history, and researched biological and chemical controls, all of which are part of an IPM system," Steinhauer explains.

After completing his Conifer IPM project , Steinhauer went to work as a Bee Inspector for the PDA. "This was almost 30 years ago, and I had to convince beekeepers I wouldn't put their bees under quarantine and burn them," says Steinhauer. "I worked on gaining their trust, and helping the small and large beekeepers work together for the good of the industry."

During his 30 years as a bee inspector, Steinhauer worked closely with the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association and Penn State Cooperative Extension to develop educational materials and distribute them to beekeepers. Steinhauer also routinely speaks at county and state beekeepers meetings about bee diseases, parasites and the bee law and inspection program. Steinhauer has faced some challenges in the last 15 years as a bee inspector. "The discovery of such major pests as tracheal mites, varroa mites and small hive beetles and determining how to combat these problems has been very challenging," Steinhauer says. "Up until 15 years ago, bee keeping has largely stayed the same over the last century. The new pest problems have brought about a lot of change, however, especially in quarantine regulations."

In 1984, when faced with making regulatory decisions regarding tracheal mites, Steinhauer established the Beekeeping Advisory Committee to deal with these new developments. The advisory committee is composed of representative beekeepers throughout Pennsylvania and provides input on regulations and other matters affecting the bee industry. "In the beginning, the meetings were very challenging. Many of these individuals had never sat down together to talk about the issues they were facing. Small and large beekeepers alike were able to hash out their problems and it really got the industry working together," Steinhauer explains. In cooperation with advisory committee, Steinhauer established quarantine regulations for tracheal mites, vorroa mites and small hive beetles.

In addition, Steinhauer worked with the advisory committee and other beekeepers to develop a new bee law, which was passed in 1994. "The new law requires registration of all apiaries, and requires us to implement and maintain the apiary registration program," Steinhauer explains.

Steinhauer is the Pennsylvania regulatory representative to the Mid Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium and has been involved with research, education and promotion of IPM for control of mites in beehives. He decided to apply for the IPM Coordinator position after talking with retired IPM Coordinator Lee Bentz. "Lee's enthusiasm and excitement about IPM is really infectious," says Steinhauer. "I've always been a believer of the concept, and it felt like the next logical step. Besides, the bee hives were getting awful heavy!"

Steinhauer feels that demand driven IPM is the future of the agricultural community. "As the public becomes more exposed and more aware of IPM, they are going to demand it from the producers. I feel we need to target our efforts on agricultural producers who probably have heard of IPM and concentrate on getting them to adopt IPM programs," Steinhauer explains. He would like to see the PA IPM Program producing more IPM manuals similar to the new Pennsylvania Mushroom Integrated Pest Management Handbook in the future. Steinhauer would also like to expand PA IPM's greenhouse IPM program and establish a nursery IPM program.

Steinhauer is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting, fishing, hiking and canoeing and also enjoys spending time with his wife and two grown sons. He can be reached at (717) 772-5204 or by e-mail at jsteinhaue@state.pa.us.

For more information on the PA IPM Program, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu.