The only thing I found was start() in the sample programs.
I can’t even find how to stop, remove the particles.
All of it’s functions are undocumented panda3d.org/apiref.php?page=ParticleEffect
Contributions to improve the documentation are always welcome.
I think you will find that disable() is the appropriate way to stop a running particle effect. Eventually you should also call cleanup() when you are completely done with it. If you call cleanup() immediately, you don’t need to call disable().
David