Unwelcomed guests about to appear
By ROBERT KESSLER Penn State Cooperative Extension Franklin County office

COMING EVENTS

April 3, 10, 17 and 24 - Beginning Beekeeper's Shortcourse, Franklin County Cooperative Extension office, call (717) 263- 9226.

April 5 - Gardening 101 - XRated Gardening by the Franklin County Master Gardeners, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Extension Office, pre-register by calling the Extension office at (717) 263-9226.

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BUILDING

COMMUNITY

CAPACITY - ONE

LEADER AT A TIME

This was provided by Judy Chambers who resides in Franklin County, but works in Gettysburg (Adams County) as a Community Development Educator in Penn State Cooperative Extension.

Recently I had the opportunity to write about Penn State Cooperative Extension's community development goals for the Gettysburg Times special section on Progress 2008. I described our plans for land use education, local government training sessions, encouraging citizen participation, leadership development and collaboration with other community organizations - in other words, building community capacity.

What exactly is community capacity? It's the assets and resources a community draws on from its citizens. It's the mixture of knowledge, expertise, experience, common sense and compassion that makes leaders, volunteers, advocates, and even critics out of us all. In short, it's why we care - it's why you're reading this article right now. So how do we build community capacity?

By helping people recognize the leadership skills they possess, and by showing them how to put those tools to work. Individuals and organizations throughout our community are doing just that. Let me give you a few examples:

- Healthy Adams County has two dozen task forces working on a wide range of community health issues, from teenage pregnancy to tobacco prevention to breast cancer. These task forces are groups of volunteers who come together to work on the issues they are concerned about. The Latino Services Task Force works on issues in our growing Latino community, and recently held a conference for human services professionals on understanding and serving Latino clients. Imagine 70 people - professionals and volunteers - gathered together talking about barriers to effective service delivery and how to overcome them. That's building community capacity.

- Leadership Adams Hanover, also known as LEAD, got its start a few years ago offering a 9-month leadership development program for up-andcoming business leaders. The program offers not only effective leadership skills and practices, but also helps participants view their community from a variety of perspectives: education, government, arts and culture, health, technology and economic development just to name a few. LEAD is a non-profit organization led by a volunteer Board of Directors and many community leaders volunteer their time to teach sections of the curriculum. Look for a new session starting this coming September. That's building community capacity.

- The Adams County Partnership for Land Use Education sponsors free seminars each month on issues related to growth and land use. January's workshop on the build-up of the defense industry in Maryland and its impact on Adams County drew a sell-out crowd (well, it would have been a sell-out if it hadn't been free) and created an ongoing dialogue among elected officials and Adams County residents. Our next seminar on March 25 is on "Understanding Density" and will help people sort out their ideas about housing, residential developments and open space. Building capacity? You bet. And bringing good information to the people who need it most - our county's citizens. By the way, we often have Franklin and York county visitors at the seminars, and we are happy to see the information we provide cross county lines.

There are thousands of examples just like these throughout our community, and some of them include you. Maybe you're involved with your church, youth sports, a service club or professional organization, the local school or library or nursing home. Perhaps you volunteer with your local fire or rescue service, or maybe you support their fundraisers. Take a moment to reflect on the ways you help build community capacity, and then think about family, friends, co-workers and fellow congregants. Now pat yourself on the back, and hand out a few thank yous. That's building capacity.

FLYING INSECTS AT YOUR

HOME

The annual invasion of flying insects at some people's homes is about to begin. Ants and termites will begin to swarm as weather warms up in the spring. Finding some winged insects coming around your wood work in your home can be very alarming.

If you have these unwelcomed guests show up, don't call the exterminator just yet. You need to identify what you have before you panic. Both ants & termites are social insects and as part of this life style they will swarm so a new colony can start.

If you have flying insects show up at your house, capture a few and look at them closely with a magnifying glass. Ants and termites are easy to tell apart by looking at their wings and body.

When you look at your insect, look closely at their wings. An ant will have two sets of wings, but the front pair is larger than the second pair. Termites also have two pairs of wings, but they are all the same size. When you look at the body, an ant will have two distinct sections with a constricted "waist." A termite will have a body that is essentially the same size from head to tail.

You can also look at the antennae to tell the difference. The antennae of an ant has an "elbow appearance," meaning there is a 90-degree bend in the antennae. Atermite's antennae will not have an elbow, but will stick straight out in front of the head.

If you are lucky and find you have ants, you can control ants in your house with ant traps and other commercial baits to control them. Many baits work by the ant carrying the food from the ant trap back to the colony and feeding them the poisoned food. If you have large black ants about one-half inch long, you may have carpenter ants, which means you need to locate the nest, which could be inside or outside the house. Carpenter ants may or may not mean you have a problem in your house. It means you need to follow up to see why they are there.

If you find you have termites, then you need the service of a professional to get rid of them. Swarming termites usually mean you have termites working in your home. If you need a professional, there are many listed in the yellow pages in your phone book. It is recommended that you get at least three estimates on the job and ask for references before you hire someone to rid you of termites. This is not a job you want to do yourself.