Each fall, the Spencer County Cooperative Extension Service hosts a meeting for commercial pesticide applicators to help them receive Continuing Education Units so that they can keep their licenses from year to year.  With COVID 19 disrupting in-person meetings, the Agriculture and Natural Resources agent started planning a ZOOM meeting for the applicators in July and the meeting was held in November.

                Topics for the meeting included:  Diagnosing Plant Diseases, Dealing with Nuisance Wildlife, Pests of Turf and Ornamentals, and Turfgrass Updates and Sprayer Calibration.  The meeting was advertised on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture CEU Training schedule.  

There was an excellent turnout as a total of 291 participated on this ZOOM meeting, representing 62 of Kentucky’s counties and included out of state participants from Arkansas and Wisconsin.  

                For many participants, this was their first time using ZOOM and comments from a follow-up survey that was given at the end of the meeting reflected the positive attitude that most had during this meeting.  Some of the comments included:  “Presentations were very informative. Nice to be comfortable at home while learning! Felt very one on one, as if I were sitting at a desk with the presenters and they were just explaining something to me. Wonderful experience!”, “I have learned more doing these zoom meetings because I normally don't have the opportunity to attend these.”, “Good meeting and very needed due to COVID ... thanks Spencer County Extension and specialists!”, “You should have virtual option even after Covid is over.”, “My first on line class I enjoyed it good job to all!”, and “Great Training made it much easier to attend.”

                Other questions on the survey showed the economic value of the participants to not have to pay a registration fee and to pay travel for the employees to attend trainings that could be many miles away from their work location.  A total of $19,405.00 saved was given by those responding to the survey.  Other questions dealt with pesticide safety and 81% said that they would use Proper Protective Equipment as recommended on the label.  When it comes to improving or maintaining good practices in chemical handling, storage, or disposal, 92% said that they would improve their program.  Overall, everyone, including the agent and presenters, were very pleased with this program.