[Technically Speaking] Anyone Can Kill Pests

To me the greatest sense of accomplishment in pest management is not “the thrill of the kill” but solving a customer’s problem. Every pest management problem is unique — some easily resolved, some take time and hopefully only a very few remain unresolved. While many pest management professionals seek prescriptive treatments for pest problems, simply stated, there are none. Each facility and each pest problem are unique and require information gathering and creative thinking to solve the problem.

I am still not a big fan of the term “Integrated Pest Management” (IPM) because I think that pest management goes beyond choosing from a list of tools, throwing them out there and waiting to see if they work. Successful pest management is predicated upon analyzing the situation, formulating a plan using these IPM tools, implementing the plan and evaluating the outcome.

From an urban pest management standpoint there are five principles of IPM that pest management professionals must understand and accept if they are to be successful:

• Pests will continue to exist despite our best intentions and efforts. No pest species have been eradicated or are on the verge of extinction as the result of our efforts. Even pests we thought were virtually non-existent, e.g., bed bugs, are back.
• Each pest management situation involves a unique ecosystem. No two situations are identical. Even if you service 10 fast food restaurants with the same floor plan, there are inherent differences that must be evaluated and understood.
• There are a host of natural control agents, e.g., heat, light, cold, moisture, predators, parasites, etc., that affect the behavior and survivorship of pests. Management strategies can affect these  natural con-trols positively or adversely.
• Pest management may produce unexpected results and undesirable effects. Dramatic examples of this are behavioral resistance in cockroaches toward baits; caulking and sealing create inaccessible harborages that are impossible to inspect and/or treat; and the rebounding of bed bugs as PCOs shift from sprays to baits and the loss of more efficacious products.
• The success of pest management programs depends on interdisciplinary actions, i.e., it is virtually impossible to solve a drain fly problem without cleaning the drains; a rat problem without clutter removal, sanitation and exclusion; and a cockroach problem without harborage removal.

TOP 12 LIST. Before attempting to resolve a pest problem there are 12 issues that should be addressed:

1. Inspect the property. Evaluate the ecosystem and the various niches that exist to support pest activity (conducive conditions). This is applicable to both interior and exterior situations.

2.  Identify pests and life stages. Do not rely on the customer’s identification. Often it is important to identify the pest to species so that the biology and habits are properly understood and the source of the infestation can be identified.

3.  Determine distribution and density. Where the pests are and how many there are affects what procedures can be used because of the sensitivity and/or accessibility of the area and what measures can be used to quickly reduce the population.

4.  Determine the origin of the infestation. Examples include where ants are entering a structure, Surinam cockroaches imported in potted plants, stored product pests in pet food and mice in pallets of food.

5.  Map it. This often is a mental exercise but in chronic situations, actual mapping of the infestation using monitoring data can be invaluable in identifying points of entry, harborage and conducive conditions, and in measuring the success of the management plan.

6.  Determine the age of the infestation. The length of time an infestation has existed helps in determining whether the population is increasing or decreasing; it reflects the efficacy of previous pest control interventions; and is important in understanding the distribution of the pest.

7.  Identify conducive conditions. This is probably one of the most important items to consider because minimizing or eliminating conducive conditions can go a long way to providing a long-term solution to the pest problem.

8.  Determine activities and behaviors sustaining pest activity. This could almost be included under conducive conditions except this is the human factor. Some examples of human activities that lead to ongoing pest problems include poor waste management, poor sanitation, improper product rotation, poor storage practices, keeping pet food accessible 24/7, storing accessible food items in desks, etc.

9.  Locate key sites or critical control points. If we can identify how pests are entering structures, where they are breeding/nesting and where the populations are the greatest, we can target these areas, eliminate the source and significantly impact the problem.

10. Determine factors that affect product selection and use. There are a lot of factors to consider when selecting and using products such as indoor/outdoor application, children and pets, food or non-food areas, proximity of water, target pest, regulations, the label, etc.

11. Document findings. Documentation is a process often neglected and when carried out incorrectly the information (if reported) is not useful in solving the problem. One of the most under utilized tools in the industry is the insect light trap. When I have reviewed company records regarding the use of ILTs frequently the only thing reported was changing of the bulbs. How much more useful would it be to record the date, numbers and types of insects caught, even if the ILT only is used to harvest flying insects.

12. Develop a management plan. In many cases this is going to be mental or in the form of a proposal. In larger contracts typically this is a formal document used by the PCO and management to outline the pest management processes to be used. The plan is always subject to change to meet the changing needs of the customer.

It’s easy to kill pests — but it’s not about “the thrill of the kill” — it’s about solving pest management problems.

The author is president of Innovative Pest Management, Brookeville, Md. He can be reached at 301/570-3900 or via e-mail at rkramer@giemedia.com.