Odds n' Ends

Earn pesticide applicator CEUs at home or in the office. In Florida, pesticide applicators may earn CEUs for license renewal via "distance learning". The CEU "modules" consist of educational materials, worksheets and instructions. Applicators complete the worksheets on their own time and submit them directly to the Pesticide Certification Office to obtain their CEUs. For more information, contact Pamela D. Houmere, Environmetal Specialist/Coordinator, Bureau of Compliance Monitoring, Division of Agricultural Envrionmental Services, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, 3125 Conner Blvd., Md-1 (L33), Tallahassee, FL 32399-1650. (850) 488-6838. E-mail: houmerp@doacs.state.fl.us

Bugs for sale. A biological control insect for Eurasian water milfoil, the milfoil weevil, Euhrychiopsis lecontei, is commercially available from EnviroScience, Inc. 1212 Portage Trail, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223, (800) 840-4025. The insects are sold as the "Middfoil process".

Aquatic weed harvesters online. Aquarius Systems, a leading manufacturer of aquatic plant harvesting equipment, now has a web site: http://www.aquarius-systems.com

"Springs of Florida" book online. Florida has 27 "first magnitude" freshwater springs. (First magnitude springs discharge more than 100 cubic feet per second.) Some 300 Florida springs discharge more than 8 billion gallons per day. This famous and informative book (Florida Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 31, 1977) lists, pictures and describes the springs of Florida. Thanks to the Preservation Department of the University of Florida Libraries, this excellent resource can be downloaded in its entirety from http://karamelik.eastlib.ufl.edu/projects/forum/aaj7320/index.html

Report deformed frogs. Finally. A place to report those one-eyed, six-legged amphibians: the North American Reporting Center for Amphibian Malformations, is a project of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center of the U.S. Geological Survey. Although deformed frog reports date back to the 1700s, it is possible that malformation frequency is increasing. This web site tells you what all the hubbub's about, shows pics of deformed frogs, has a clickable map showing where malformations have been reported, etc. Online report forms for biologists and non-biologists alike make it easy to help track this possibly serious problem. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/narcam/

Water bug video and fact sheet. Want to introduce students to aquatic entomology? This video and fact sheet are intended to serve as tools to be used in aquatic ecosystem teaching units. The 18-minute video includes close-up and underwater photography, and covers habitats, sampling methods, taxonomy and life histories. It was produced by the Wisconsin Lake Superious Water Watch program at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. $7 for the set; contact Media Resources Center, University of Wisconsin-Superior, (715) 394-8340.

Aquatic nonindigenous list server. Find that you're talking to yourself a lot about aquatic nonindigenous species in the Pacific Northwest? How about talking to a virtual self about these important issues? Perhaps you should join the new list server meant to "facilitate discussion of invasion, impacts, and management" of aquatic invaders in the northwestern corner of the U.S. The list owner is Mark Sytsma. Send the message: subscribe PNW_ANS-L to listserv@freya.cc.pdx.edu Contact Sytsma at sytsmam@pdx.edu

Download Florida's most invasive species. According to the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FEPPC), there are plants that are invading and disrupting native plant communities in Florida (Category I) and there are plants that have shown a potential to disrupt native plant communities (Category II). Download both lists, from Abrus precatorius to Tradescantia fluminensis, and from Adenanthera pavonina to Xanthosoma sagittifolium, from their web site: http://www.fleppc.org/97list.htm

Swamp buggies for sale. Sometimes airboats are just too loud, cumbersome, expensive or unmaneuverable for work in aquatic and wetland situations. Consider the Argo 6- and 8-wheeled, or tracked, amphibious vehicle, big enough to hold 4 people and a payload. Manufactured by Ontario Drive and Gear Limited, POB 280, Bleams Road, New Hamburg, ON, CANADA NOB 2GO. E-mail: sales@odg.com WWW: http://www.argoatv.com

Join the rare plant search team. The Lake Wales Ridge of south central Florida is a strange place of brilliant white sand dunes dotted with rosemary and oak scrub bushes. It also has a few wet depressions that have wetland plants. The ridge is home to quite a few endangered and threatened plant species. The area is being studied by Dawn Berry of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission and by the Nature Conservancy, and they need volunteers for the rare plant search team. For information, contact The Nature Conservancy, 225 E. Stuart Avenue, Lake Wales, FL 33853, (941) 678-1551; or contact Ms. Berry at (941) 699-2469.

About Ramsar. The objectives of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty signed in 1971, are "to ensure the wise use and conservation of wetlands because of their abundant richness in flora and fauna and their economically important functions and values." 112 member countries have designated 931 sites (69 million hectares) of wetlands that have "international significance in terms of ecology, botany, zoology, limnology or hydrology". Their comprehensive web site is at http://ramsar.org

Overwhelmed with duckweed questions? Visit The Duckweed Clearinghouse web site at http://www.prism-usa.org The site is maintained by PRISM-USA, a "tax-exempt charity for the promotion of Lemnaceae technology in the developing world." As of a year ago (the time of the last update), this site had a bibliography list of 800 annotated citations, a couple of full text publications about duckweed aquaculture, and links to dozens of duckweed web sites (including ours).