[Technically Speaking] You Should Be The Voice of Reason

"Protectors of Health" — how far should we push this envelope? The National Pest Management Association (through the Professional Pest Management Alliance) is going to great lengths to promote this aspect of our industry to society — the question is how far do we go?

I applaud the association’s efforts in doing this because it really draws attention to one of the greatest benefits of our industry — protecting human health from potential disease threats and the many other health implications of pests. In my opinion, we need to be responsible in how we promote our industry so that we do not overstate our abilities, i.e., that we can prevent diseases, such as West Nile virus and Lyme disease.

Typically, we can stand back and let the media speculate and promote the spread and ravages of these diseases. We then have the opportunity to step in and be the voice of reason and explain to the public what they and we can do to reasonably protect them from insect- borne diseases.

The following is a brief overview of the threat arthropods pose to human health — use this information wisely:

Entomophobia: This is the fear of insects, or more broadly, the fear of arthropods. To most of us these fears may seem unfounded but to those individuals who are deathly afraid of spiders, cockroaches and lady bugs it is a serious problem. From their perspective, whatever it takes to achieve total annihilation of the pest is fair game.

Delusory Parasitosis: This is an individual’s unfounded belief that their body is infested with insects that typically are described as too small to see, flying around the face and burrowing into the skin. In these cases samples presented frequently consist of fibers, dust, fuzz, skin scrapings, scabs and various other tissue samples and rarely, if ever, an arthropod fragment.

Annoyance and Blood Loss: This is the most common reason people request pest management services for health-related causes. Many of the blood- feeding pests we deal with do not transmit any diseases, however, their bites are extremely annoying and can cause significant skin irritation. Until recently, mosquitoes were the blood-feeding pest of greatest concern in many parts of the country. But now in major metropolitan areas, mosquitoes have been displaced by the reemerging bed bug. In many areas, bed bugs are reaching epidemic proportions infesting homes, hotels, motels and apartments. Furthermore, they have no preference for any socioeconomic class. There are many other blood feeders such as ticks, other biting flies, fleas and lice that feed on animal and man alike.

Accidental Injury to Sense Organs: This is of minor importance, however anyone who has gotten an insect in the eye, throat, nose or ear knows how excruciatingly painful the experience can be. It is not uncommon for persons living in structures heavily infested with cockroaches to occasionally seek medical attention to have a cockroach removed from their ears. Typically, removal can be difficult and painful because insects tend to dig in with claws and spines when attempts are made to extricate them.

Envenomization: In my opinion, arthropods that inject venom are a greater health threat than those responsible for any other medical event described in this article. This is because hypersensitivity to envenomization can be an immediately fatal event resulting from anaphylaxis. The most common stings are those associated with bees, wasps and fire ants. A variety of spiders have venoms that can produce necrotic lesions taking months to heal.

Dermatitis: This is a skin inflammation that usually results from contacting a substance secreted by an insect, such as blister beetles. This differs from envenomization in that the substance is not injected into the skin and does not elicit a hypersensitivity reaction. Chiggers, on the other hand, inject an anticoagulant material into the bite site to prevent the fluid they are sucking from coagulating and this material frequently produces dermatitis accompanied by severe itching.

Myiasis: This is described as an infestation of human tissue by fly maggots. This is uncommon in the U.S. and is typically associated with hospital patients, incapacitated individuals in long-term care facilities and persons with injuries that do not receive immediate medical attention. While the thought of this infestation is repulsive, there is generally no significant health threat.

Allergies: Within the last 10 years this topic has garnered a lot of attention in the media and in medical research literature. Originally most of the attention was focused on house dust mites until a study on inner-city children was published in the New England Journal of Medicine elucidated the more significant role cockroaches play in childhood asthma. In fact, 50 percent of the asthmatic children in the study were sensitive to cockroach allergens. The solution to this problem does not simply involve eliminating the cockroaches but also includes removing their bodies, cast skins, droppings and possibly even their pheromones.

Disease Transmission: In the early 1970s, Lyme disease was identified as a major public health threat and in terms of persons affected, remains the No. 1 arthropod transmitted disease in the U.S., affecting more than 20,000 individuals per year. However, in 1999 interest in Lyme disease took a back seat when West Nile virus was found in New York City. In subsequent years, as WNV spread, it has taken its toll leaving several hundred people dead in its wake. However, these are not staggering numbers when we consider other encephalitic diseases transmitted by mosquitoes (SLE, EEE, WEE and JE) that on occasion have killed that many people in one year. In the United States we have also seen a reoccurrence of the once-eradicated disease malaria.

CONCLUSION. Our industry needs to be the voice of reason for the media and the public providing accurate information about the true threat of arthropods and the diseases they carry. We should not play into the hype typically surrounding vector-borne disease outbreaks but should be ready to respond and do what we do best — provide vector management.

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.