KY FY24 Invasive Pest Outreach 5.0389.01

We will use three strategies to engage and educate the public about signs and symptoms of invasive pests, pathways of movement, and ongoing survey and eradica on e?orts statewide and na onwide. First, we will con nue and expand the ci zen scien st program that we started in FY22 using PPA funding. We trained ci zens to deploy spongy moth traps and, in FY22, the program was a great success with ci zens se ng and monitoring 286 traps. Eleven of those traps captured a total of 13 spongy moths! These individuals learned about invasive pests more broadly in a training session and then got hands-on experience with the spongy moth detec on survey. Their par cipa on in ci zen science fosters interest and enthusiasm and will inspire them to share their experience and knowledge with others. In FY23, we expanded the program and, as of the wri ng of this proposal, ci zen scien sts have set over 500 spongy moth traps. We would like to con nue expanding this program in FY24. Second, we will educate speci?c groups such as county extension agents, Master Gardeners, and 4- H groups about invasive pests that threaten Kentucky, pathways by which they move, detec on and eradica on techniques, and our ci zen scien st program. In FY23, we began crea ng an invasive pest module for an online learning pla orm that these groups will be able to use for con nuing educa on credits, etc. We have been producing short videos about invasive pests and expect the module to go live by the end of the 2023 calendar year. In FY24, we will update and expand the content in the module. Third, we will educate the general public about invasive pests through in-person events and via our website www.UnluckyForKentucky.com. We will have booths and give talks at outreach events throughout the year and across the state. Our booths will have informa onal pamphlets, promo onal items, pinned specimens, and examples of pest damage. We will keep track of numbers of booth visitors/talk a endees and numbers of events a ended. These three strategies will increase the knowledge of the public and the likelihood that they will look for and report invasive pests. We will demonstrate the e ectiveness of this outreach program by keeping records of the following: numbers of citizens educated via the citizen scientist training, number of traps set by citizen scientists, number of target insects captured, numbers of county extension agents, 4-H participants, etc trained by the invasive pest module, results from a pre- and post-test in the module, numbers and reach of social media posts, and quantities of outreach materials developed. We will generate survey maps from the data gathered by the citizen scientists and will develop an assessment to determine the e icacy of the invasive pest training module.