Newly certified ACEs and BCEs

Our congratulations to these new ACEs who have passed their Associate Certified Entomologist exam and are now proudly able to display the three important letters of A.C.E. next to their name on meeting badges, newspaper articles, and on company marketing materials.

ACE:

Mr. R. Michael Adams, ACE, (Advanced Services for Pest Control), Martinez, GA  USA.  Became certified on 6/21/2013.

Mr. Joseph R Yates, ACE, (Future Services, Inc), Grayson, GA  USA.  Became certified on 6/21/2013.

Mr. James Frederick Miller, ACE, (Industrial Fumigant Company), Bowling Green, OH  USA.  Became certified on 6/11/2013.

Mr. Philip Mathew Miller, ACE, (The Industrial Fumigant Company, LLC), Holland, OH  USA.  Became certified on 6/11/2013.

Mr. Danny Eugene Molter, ACE, (Molter Termite and Pest Control), Bradenton, FL  USA.  Became certified on 6/10/2013.

Mr. Samuel W. Bonderov, ACE, (ABBA Termite & Pest Control, inc.), Whittier, CA  USA.  Became certified on 6/6/2013.

Mr. Edward P. Foley IV, ACE, (Modern Pest Services), Brunswick, ME  USA.  Became certified on 6/3/2013.

Mr. Gregory Alan Bunch, ACE, (Action Pest Control), Evansville, IN  USA.  Became certified on 5/20/2013.

Mr. Daniel Metiva, Jr, ACE, (Rose Pest Solutions), Lansing, MI  USA.  Became certified on 5/16/2013.

Mr. Barry Lee Bradley, ACE, (Tomlinson Bomberger), Lancaster, PA  USA.  Became certified on 5/15/2013.

Mr. Dylan Morrison, ACE, (City Wide Exterminating Inc), Charlotte, NC  USA.  Became certified on 5/15/2013.

Mrs. Marie A. Horner, ACE, (Terminix), Greensboro, NC  USA.  Became certified on 5/15/2013.

Mr. Johnathon Steven Arnold, ACE, (Specialty Exterminating Co.), Madison Heights, VA  USA.  Became certified on 5/15/2013.

Mr. Gregory D. Bird, ACE, (PacWest Exterminators), Buena Park, CA  USA.  Became certified on 5/15/2013.

Mr. William Jeffrey Hope, ACE, (Florida Pest Control), Saint Johns, FL  USA.  Became certified on 5/9/2013.

Mr. Casper Xavier Branagan, ACE, (Bug Nerds), Christmas, FL  USA.  Became certified on 5/9/2013.

Mr. Michael Bartlett, ACE, (Univ of Florida, Dept of Housing), Gainesville, FL  USA.  Became certified on 5/9/2013.

Mr. Michael P. Ryan, ACE, (Tempco Pest Control, Inc.), Fort Myers, FL  USA.  Became certified on 5/7/2013.

Mr. Charles Patrick Oelig, ACE, (Guardian Pest Solutions Inc), Duluth, MN  USA.  Became certified on 5/1/2013.

BCE:
Mrs. Latife Stephanie Evans, BCE, (Florida Pest Control), Gainesville, FL  USA.  Became certified on 5/9/2013.
Mr. Jonathan Adam Holt, BCE, (Terminix), St Augustine, FL  USA.  Became certified on 6/11/2013.

How do I host an ACE Prep Course?

A lot of the incredible growth of the ACE program has come from ACE prep courses. Which leads to lots of questions at ESA HQ about "how do I host a course?". Anyone can teach a prep course, but not everyone has access to the powerpoint slides that are used in many of the presentations.  That said, the process of organizing and hosting a course is actually pretty simple. Here are the steps to host a course.

Think about your audience
Who do you want to come to your class?  Is it just your employees/staff/co-workers, or can you open this up to others in your area?  Class size is really up to you, but if you get more than just a handful of people, you'll need to also give some thought to structuring your teaching room. Will you need a microphone to speak to them? Will you need a screen and projector to display your slides?

Think about your speakers

In most cases the speaker who leads an ACE Prep Course is a BCE. The slides that many courses use were developed by Drs. Mike Merchant and Bob Davis (both BCEs). They hold the copyright and control all access. If you would like to offer a course, contact ESA and we can e-introduce you to them. Of course, you can create your own slides as well. We simply suggest that you follow the content outline for the ACE exam so that your students are as well-prepared as possible.

Organize your meeting location

The size of your audience may well determine your meeting location. If you have 3-4 people to teach then you can likely do this in almost any office. Larger classes may need to reserve a conference room at an office or even a meeting room in a local hotel.  

The larger your room, the larger your expense (most likely). You'll want to keep that in mind when you decide how much (if anything) to charge for prep course.

Market your course

Whether or not you open your course to the PMP public at large will determine how extensively you want to market your course.  If this is an in-house class only, then you'll only need to let ESA HQ know about your plans so that we can coordinate scheduling the exams. 

If you are opening up to a wider audience, be sure to alert pest control publications, your state and national pest management association, and even the general press news outlets in your area.  

For any classes that are open to the general public, we try to list them all on our website here, and then also push out to our Facebook and Twitter pages, if appropriate.  So be sure to contact ESA and we can help you market your class.

Prepare to teach the material

And finally, knuckle down to prepare your class. Be sure to set up an agenda so that you don't jump all over the many subject areas covered by the exam. We've found that a good structure for an ACE prep course tends to be a full day (about 8 hours) followed by the actual exam the following morning.

If you have specific questions on hosting a course, contact ESA and we can help get you started.

A great podcast to follow

I'm a runner. Not a good or a fast runner, but I try to get out several times a week. And when I do, I've found that there is nothing like a good podcast to take my mind off of the fact that I'm not a very good runner.

For those of us that work with, appreciate, study, or just want to know more about insects, Radio Lab is one of the best "easily accessible" podcasts that I've come across. Part of what I like is that they often feature insects as their subject.  With the coming emergence of the cicadas, two recent shows have focused on the 2013 brood.  There's this one that talks about entomophagy (the eating of insects), and this one that breaks the sound that you hear into individual songs of the cicadas.  For while you and I might just hear a steady buzz when the cicadas are out, the insects themselves hear a distinct mating call, based on species, and the females have a very definite response.

Other cool Radio Lab insect-influenced podcasts are these:

• Argentine ant turf battles.
• Emergence.
• Pain.
• And one of my all-time favorites, this podcast features ESA Fellow and ant expert, Dr. E.O. Wilson discussing the discovery of the purpose of pheromones.

So whether you plug your i-pod into your truck or just find the show on your local public radio station, this podcast is a good way to pick up on some quick (and fun!) insect information to share with your friends and customers.