School Nurse to Spot Tick and Mosquito Borne Illness

Remember when you were at school and you had to visit the school nurse for a band aid or sit in a quiet room if you were feeling a little sick? Since then, the responsibility of the school nurse has changed quite a bit as not only do they fix up a child who has had a scrape during recess, they also need to be aware about diseases spread by ticks (such as Lyme disease) and mosquitoes. Here’s an article with more information.

The Role of School Nurses in Integrated Pest Management for Public Health

School nurses do more than just apply bandages to scraped knees and administer asthma inhalers. They are also health educators, they help control communicable diseases, and they even do some pest management. In the past, the dreaded head louse (Pediculus humanus capitis) was likely the only pest a school nurse needed to worry about. But, with the rise of arthropod-borne diseases like Lyme disease, West Nile, and Zika, nurses increasingly find themselves thinking about tick and mosquito control as well.

A school campus is often a large publicly owned space with many outdoor areas and therefore, there is a responsibility to ensure that the kids that frequent the school are protected by pests with adequate mosquito and tick control.

It’s common practice for schools to have an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Policy. This should help put parents at ease, so should you be in any doubt, it’s worth finding out from the school where you can view a copy of their policy. You can find out more about State and Local School Pesticide Policies in the following article.

State and Local School Pesticide Policies

All across the country, communities are taking action to protect children from pesticide use in schools, by establishing least-toxic pest management strategies through adoption and implementation of state and local policies. Raising the level of protection across the nation to meet the highest possible standards regarding these issues is an important goal.

Here at Backyard Bug Patrol all of our mosquito sprays are extremely safe. So you can make sure that even in your own surroundings, when your child is home from school, they are safe from these disease spreading pests.