(10/23/25) BATON ROUGE, La. — When Qian “Karen” Sun first moved to Baton Rouge, the entomologist was able to experience something she had never seen in her life: a swarm of Formosan subterranean termites.

The event, which happens around Mother’s Day yearly and can include millions of alates, shows the scale that termites can reproduce and destroy.

This regional problem is why the LSU AgCenter has operated the Lois Caffey Termite Training Program for more than 30 years.

“There is a need. I know a lot of people need to take the training. And they need to take the training to take the licensing exam,” Sun said. “Companies want to send their new employees to this program so they can learn.”

The program, now led and organized by Sun, is offered in October with two classes. The basic class is aimed at exterminators who have been working for no more than a year with termites, and the master class is designed for those with a year or more of experience. Each class is taught twice annually: in the spring and the fall.

The classes are taught at the Lois Caffey Termite Training Facility, which is located south of the LSU campus at the AgCenter Doyle Chambers Central Research Station. The program is a joint effort of the AgCenter, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the Louisiana Pest Management Association.

In the basic class, students are taught the biology of termites, minimum requirements for treating termites and basic procedures on how to use different techniques to safely apply termiticide. Sun is joined by Aaron Ashbrook, an entomology professor at the AgCenter, as well as Tyrone Dudley and Milton Schleismann, both former LDAF employees, to teach the classes.

The classes are taught both in a classroom and outside at the termite training facility, where the hands-on demonstrations are done. To be a part of the class, students are sent to the program from their employers. There are usually 15 students in the basic classes and about 30 in the master class each time.

The master classes are a more in-depth look at termite behaviors and techniques to manage them.

After the completion of the master class and following a passing grade on the exit exam, participants are presented with a certificate that is recognized as an important achievement for exterminators. This certificate is only one of three in the state that is officially recognized by the LDAF Structural Pest Control Commission, which is a requirement for termite control license application.

“The certificate shows the students have attended this class and they also passed the test, and their employer will know the results, and that’s something that would motivate the participants to learn and pay attention to the lectures,” Sun said. “We try our best to help them learn and pass the test, in particular for the master program because a lot of participants are going to take their licensing exam, and it has to be after this.”

In Louisiana, there are nine species of termites. The most common and most destructive are the non-native Formosan subterranean termites, which experts believe came to Louisiana on battleships that were stationed in the Pacific Ocean following the end of World War II, Sun said.

Termites have been the focus of government-funded programs in New Orleans, as they decimated old wooden building structures. With problems persisting in New Orleans and other parts of south Louisiana, it is important for up-and-coming exterminators like Kelvin Johnson, an exterminator in the basic training class, to learn background information along with practical skills.

“I’m doing this for the knowledge and a license, and so if I ever decide to move somewhere else, I’ll have this under my belt, and I can use it in my own house as well too,” Johnson said.

Tyrone Dudley, one of the lecturers for the termite training program, speaks to a class about the rules and regulations of termite extermination. Photo by Qian Sun/LSU AgCenter

Milton Schleismann shows students the best techniques and practices for spraying and eliminating termites. Photo by Qian Sun/LSU AgCenter