The following is forwarded on behalf of Mel Kaufman:

__________________________

March 20/2024

Hi Everyone,

Thankyou everyone for your input in making this happen for me here at the POINT. The right connections were made and Mike from ABELL Pest Control stopped by and I toured him around the buildings pointing out all the clipboards listing mouse sittings and the spot to sign as visited on at least one of the various sites and clipboards and the Mandatory Whiteboard sign in visit for every visit. He was nice and very diligent and understood our position of need for him and I asked him to setup a visit every week to take future care of our problem areas from our perspective (Clipboard Documented Sittings) and his perspective!

Communication and understanding go hand in hand and I view this as a Successful Visit!

He notified me with all the findings and corrections (listed in UPDATES below) that he made and we are good for a week! We both smiled and parted on good terms!

UPDATES! March 20/2024

All Traps in the Seed Storage, seed processing, pre-seed processing, Clipper room and Drying room were empty or near empty of control pellets and were cleaned and filled and repositioned. The chances of seeing dead and near dead mice will be in effect now so don't be alarmed but be vigilant in recording your sittings on the clipboards and please let me know if you need me (Mel Kaufman) to remove the dead mice. I have no fear doing this and will wear proper PPE and happy to help you out with this anytime as I am part of the Safety Group here as well now! The Plant Science Field Station faired very well with no mice activity accounted for by both ABELL Pest Control and stations where checked and replacement of fresh Control Pellets were accomplished! I will setup a clipboard to the Left of the Whiteboard in the hallway to the left of the lunchroom doorway for recording of Mouse sittings and ABELL Pest Control Viewing and signage of a visit option as well to cover all aspects of this task force in place.

I will keep vigilant on their performance here and be available to assist them when restrictions come in effect April 1/2024 and the 15 minute time allowances come into play.

With thanks,

(Mel) Melvin Kaufman

University of Manitoba Plant Science Agricultural Biological Technician 3 The Point - Shop Lead/Maintenance and Grounds Cover Crop Manager Email: Melvin.Kaufman@umanitoba.camailto:Melvin.Kaufman@umanitoba.ca Text: +1-204-648-7570

________________________________ From: Rob Duncan Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2024 8:54 AM To: Bev Godard Cc: Mel Kaufman; Rob Gulden; Doug Cattani Subject: Re: Mice at the Point and need for better understanding on how to deal with ABELL Pest control

Thank you for your time on this Mel,

And thanks Bev. Somehow Abell has dropped the ball on this again.

Rob

On Mar 20, 2024, at 8:34 AM, Bev Godard <Bev.Godard@umanitoba.camailto:Bev.Godard@umanitoba.ca> wrote:

Good morning Mel, I will contact Physical Plant, who will contact Abell Pest Control. I have already requested weekly maintenance of pest control on a weekly basis for the mouse house. I am told they are voles, not mice, however, they carry the same diseases, so I am not sure why the need to differentiate. I will put in a work order request this morning for the Point. Thank you for bring this to our attention. Bev ________________________________ From: Mel Kaufman <Melvin.Kaufman@umanitoba.camailto:Melvin.Kaufman@umanitoba.ca> Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 5:05 PM To: Bev Godard <Bev.Godard@umanitoba.camailto:Bev.Godard@umanitoba.ca> Cc: Rob Duncan <Rob.Duncan@umanitoba.camailto:Rob.Duncan@umanitoba.ca>; Rob Gulden <Rob.Gulden@umanitoba.camailto:Rob.Gulden@umanitoba.ca>; Doug Cattani <Doug.Cattani@umanitoba.camailto:Doug.Cattani@umanitoba.ca> Subject: Mice at the Point and need for better understanding on how to deal with ABELL Pest control

March19/2024

Hi Bev,

I have attempted to record and set up a recording method at the Point for mouse sittings and ABELL Pest Control visit's recording. I have attached the file of the recording above for your viewing.

The clip boards with pen attached for recording have the file above and are at these locations at the Point:

1) Seed Storage East access door.                   2) Seed Processing North access door.                   3) Clipper Room East access door.                   4) Seed Drying Room East access door.                   5) Seed Drying Room North access door.

The White Board ABELL Pest Control sign in Chart location at the Point Field Station:

1) The West side of the Lunch room Doorway.

It was my intention to record the sittings of mice both alive and dead at the same time the location found and date so that ABELL Pest control would have an idea of the mouse activity to be filled out by whoever encounters these sittings. It was also my intention to have the ABELL Pest Control person indicate their visits to the various locations or just indicate on the closest or any of these clipboard stations that they were present and checked and cleaned out their traps. ABELL Pest Control was notified to sign in at the White Board location listed above. BUT the last indicated visit was September 27/2023. In my opinion that is way too long in between visits to properly control Pests such as mice. Do we have in place a regular visit scheduled interval with ABELL Pest Control? If not I would say that they need to show up at a bare minimum of once every 2 weeks. Do I need to set this up or who do I communicate with to get this setup? What is our account name or number or indicator that its us to visit? What is ABELL Pest controls Contact information?

I need help in sorting this out so w3e can work safer and have less or no mouse droppings present for us to inhale as we work in these environments.

Please let me know if you have any solutions for me or can help me connect with ABELL Pest Control.

Vanessa Clemis has also been to the Mouse House and found old dead carcasses and just plastered with mouse droppings. I realize that only the deer mice carry this virus called Hantavirus and we mostly have field mice but the poop looks all alike and who's to say that the one time we get the infected droppings we start dropping.

Give me your thoughts. I am starting a daily walk through of the various sites and recording on these clipboards and will report the mouse sittings to somebody not sure who could you help me with that and we are going to get more vigilant with controlling these critters for our own safety here. Getting a plan in place with education of what is going on in this area is key!

Thanks for your input in advance!

With thanks,

(Mel) Melvin Kaufman

University of Manitoba Plant Science Agricultural Biological Technician 3 The Point - Shop Lead/Maintenance and Grounds Cover Crop Manager Email: Melvin.Kaufman@umanitoba.camailto:Melvin.Kaufman@umanitoba.ca Text: +1-204-648-7570