Daniel Suiter

2018 D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Extension

Daniel Suiter
Extension Entomologist, UGA Cooperative Extension

There are hundreds of pest insects found in and around Georgia homes, and Dan Suiter — coordinator of the Georgia Structural Pest Control Training Facility on the University of Georgia’s Griffin campus — has made it his business to learn the best way to control all of them.

Suiter, who is a professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department of Entomology, has spent the last 18 years helping the university and UGA Cooperative Extension build a reputation for expertise in the control of urban insect pests.

Suiter coordinates activities at the Georgia Structural Pest Control Training Facility, a more than 3,000 square foot, partially built home designed to showcase many common construction practices and how they may be attacked by structural pests. The facility is invaluable for the training of Georgia’s pest management professionals and county Extension agents.

In 2014, mock residential and commercial kitchens and a residential bedroom were added to the facility to allow for the delivery of additional workshops on home integrated pest management (IPM), commercial IPM, school IPM, and controlling bed bugs and termites.

In 2006, Suiter developed a 10-week Certificate in Urban and Structural Pest Management, which provides nontraditional students with a broad overview of the pest control industry. Although the program is fee-based, veterans of the U.S. military service can attend free of charge.

Furthering his commitment to continuing education, Suiter worked with UGA’s Center for Urban Agriculture to host a popular webinar series on urban pest control that attracted attendees from states ranging from Georgia to New Jersey
and from countries as far away as Afghanistan and India.

While the program ran from 2014 to 2017, videos of the presentations — taught by the faculty of major research universities — are archived at GTBOP.com and continue to serve CAES faculty and UGA Extension agents as sources of expertise for their classes and workshops.

Since 2007, Suiter has garnered more than $1 million to support his Extension and applied research program, and he has taught more than 30,000 pest control professionals and entomologists in more than 20 states.