[Meeting Review] What's Hot, What's Not?

The 53rd annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) was held Dec. 15-18, 2005, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The meeting originally was scheduled for early November but extensive hurricane damage to local hotels and the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center caused the meeting to be postponed. Nevertheless, thousands of entomologists from academia, government and private industry descended upon Fort Lauderdale for four days of sharing, reporting, discussing and debating the latest and greatest breakthroughs and discoveries in the entomological world. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Sex, Bugs and Rock ’n Roll — Entomologists Impacting Health, Hunger, Biodiversity and the Environment.” What follows are highlights from topics of interest to pest management professionals.

WHAT’S making news? One thing that you can definitely get a great feel for at this meeting is what pests in our areas of urban/structural pest control are getting the most attention at the “research” level. Have any guesses as to which bug reigns supreme based on the number of papers and displays at this meeting? It was no surprise to me that the overwhelming amount of material presented was on termites compared to other “money bugs” in urban entomology. More than 125 presentations were dedicated to either eastern subterranean termites or Formosan termites alone with another 25 papers pertaining to lesser niche termite species.
By way of comparison, there were only 43 presentations relating to fire ants, and another 15 to 20 relating to all other pest ants (i.e., Argentine, Pharaoh, carpenter and pavement). Eleven presentations focused on one of our old but new emerging pests — the bed bug; four papers were about fleas of which only one pertained to cat fleas; and finally the lowly cockroach. There were only six papers about Blattella germanica, the German cockroach; and three papers for Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach. Additionally there were more than 100 presentations relating to either Culex or Aedes mosquitoes; of course many of these presentations were about research done in parts of the world outside the United States, but the continued importance of the mosquito, due largely to its impact on humans as a disease vector, was quite evident in the number of researchers studying these species.

HOT: TERMITES. As for termites, there is certainly not enough room in this article to cover each topic. The “IPM for subterranean termites, are we there yet?” symposia focused on not only what control methods could be employed but how education, community-based participation, and learning from past case studies can contribute to a better understanding of termite IPM. By jumping around to the student paper and poster presentations, as well as the submitted papers sections, I also was able to get up to speed on the latest efficacy testing results for various companies’ active ingredients. Seeing the similarities and differences in how different labs address similar-type research questions reminded me of how there are many varying methods available to the pest management professional to get the same job done. And, of course, the good, well rounded technician should have an understanding and mastery of the many possible ways to attack the same pest problem.
Another hot research topic in the termite world, evidenced by the number of papers relating to distinguishing colonies and individuals from each other, was determining what a termite colony is and how to distinguish if an individual worker termite came from one “colony” of termites or another.

HOT: BED BUGS. Another fascinating pest area for those of us that weren’t around in the 1930s and ’40s are bed bugs. ESA speakers gave a fantastic overview on many aspects of this pest. Bed bug research topics discussed at the ESA meeting included a history of bed bugs in the U.S.; a survey of where we stand against this pest in varying parts of the country; non-chemical control techniques; an overview of current bed bug chemicals available to the pest management professional; the importance of public education/awareness; the ecology of foraging and feeding behavior; and human skin response to actual bed bug bites.

NOT: ANTS. As stated earlier, the vast majority of pest ant presentations focused on biology and control of the Solenopsis invicta, the red imported fire ant. In addition to this fire ant research, I had a chance to see a presentation on field evaluation of baits and insecticides for the white-footed ant, an evaluation of perimeter treatments for Pharaoh ants, a number of talks about competition between pest ant species around a structure and at food sources.
 
PCO ATTENDANCE. Many PCOs never have had an opportunity to attend an ESA annual meeting. While many of our industry meetings are specific to structural pest control, the ESA meeting offers a bigger picture of what is going on in the entire entomological world. It’s also a great opportunity to see and talk with many of the same top industry and academic representatives that are regulars at other meetings, as well as a lot of other people with whom you normally don’t get to interact.
If you ever have an opportunity to attend an ESA meeting, I strongly recommend it; you will learn a lot about the in-depth research taking place on the bugs you are at war against. And in our area of the business, urban entomology, that research is often focused on improving pest control products and practices.

The author is a senior research scientist at SC Johnson & Son, Racine, Wis., in the Pest Control Division of the company’s Worldwide Consumer Products Business. He can be reached at rkopanic@giemedia.com.