Industry News, July 1999

Former Congressman, PCO Richard Ray Dies At 72

MACON, Ga. — When Richard Ray sold his pest control business in 1972 to enter politics, the pest control industry may have lost a respected owner/operator, but it gained an invaluable force who gave pest control a voice in Washington for many years.

Ray, 72, a Georgia Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 1993, died May 29 in a hospital in Macon, Ga., after surgery for a heart ailment.

“He was, to my knowledge, the first PCO to hold an important elected federal office and he had a major impact on policies that affected the industry that came out of Washington,” said Bob Rosenberg, NPCA director of government affairs.

From 1950 to 1972 Ray owned and operated a pest control business in Georgia. In 1972 he sold his business and went to work as an administrative assistant to Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) in Washington. He worked for Nunn from 1972 to 1982. Ray then ventured out on his own in 1983 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, an office he held for 10 years. During his years in Congress, Ray worked on a number of pest control issues, such as legislation impacting when and how local governments can enact pesticide bans.

“He really believed in what we (NPCA) did and was a tireless supporter of PCOs. He never distanced himself from the industry,” Rosenberg said.

Rosenberg added that Ray was always available to help PCOs who were having problems with the Department of Labor and he discussed with U.S. senators the importance of defeating proposed pesticide pre-notification legislation in 1991-92. Ray also helped secure funding for the University of Georgia’s Urban Pest Research Program.

Ray is survived by his wife, Barbara Giles Ray; three children; two brothers; a sister; and three grandchildren.

CPCO SHOW A SUCCESS FOR FLORIDA ASSOCIATION

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — About 1,000 people attended the 5th Certified Pest Control Operators Association of Florida show in late April. The event featured speakers and a tradeshow floor that, according to exhibitors, produced good PCO traffic.

“The educational sessions were really well-attended,” CPCO’s Mel Edelstein said. Among the many speakers on the program were George Rambo, Austin Frishman, Don Jamison and Lloyd Smigel.

This year also marks the fifth anniversary of CPCO. Five years ago the association formed and has since become the largest state association in the country with more than 1,400 members, Edelstein says.

WORKING TOGETHER, STATE ASSOCIATIONS SLOW CONTROVERSIAL FLORIDA BILL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The phrase “united we stand and divided we fall” certainly applies to PCOs in Florida, where three industry trade groups recently joined forces to fight a controversial bill that could put PCOs offering turf and ornamental spraying “out of business,” according to Mel Edelstein, executive vice president of the Certified Pest Control Operators Association of Florida (CPCO). The Florida Pest Control Association and the Certified Operators of Southwest Florida joined CPCO in fighting the controversial legislation.

Legislators introduced Senate Bill 1760 following complaints from Florida residents that aerial applications of malathion, an insecticide used to control Mediterranean fruit flies that periodically threaten the state’s citrus crops, covered their cars, floated in their pools and even made them sick.

As a result of the public outcry, legislators took action, authoring a bill that stated if a person could prove they were adversely affected by the spraying, they would be paid up to $100 each time they were forced to leave their home.

While the proposed legislation was not of particular concern to PCOs in its early form, when lawmakers decided to use the state’s “chemical sensitivity registry” to determine who would be eligible for the $100 payout, trade groups representing the industry balked.

“The reason CPCO balked was not because we don’t feel for these people, but because we feel that it’s fine if they want to have this bill, but we don’t want them to impose on the pest control registry,” Edelstein said. “If the government people are doing the spraying, then it should be their registry.”

The registry is commonly used by PCOs and lawn care operators (LCOs) to notify chemically sensitive individuals prior to pesticide applications. Expanding the registry to include those adversely impacted by aerial applications of malathion could further burden PCOs already stretched by the state’s pre-notification requirements.

The result? Hundreds of PCOs and lawn care professionals, as well as the NPCA and the three Florida pest control associations, banded together to fight the bill.

Gene Harrington, government affairs manager for the NPCA, made calls to the Florida House, as did Erica Santella from TruGreen-ChemLawn, to persuade legislators that the bill could have serious implications for the two industries if passed in its current form.

The bill passed the Florida Senate, but failed to make it through the House. Although the bill is dead for the summer because the legislature is currently out of session, Edelstein says that like a cat with nine lives, “it will be back.”

In a related story, at least 100,000 people who claim they suffered health problems because of exposure to malathion are part of a lawsuit against the product’s manufacturer, according to the Associated Press.

The class-action suit was filed in U.S. District Court against Cheminova Inc., Wayne, N.J., earlier this year. The lawsuit claims the company improperly handled and stored the chemical, which was sprayed in 1997 and 1998 in several Florida counties, including Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota.

An estimated 1 million people lived and worked in the spray zone and some com-plained of sinus congestion, headaches and respiratory problems. Those suing the company say they were exposed to contaminated batches of malathion. They are seeking unspecified damages to pay for past and future medical bills, property damage and other expenses.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Students from the University of Florida’s Urban Entomological Society (UES) recently toured the pest management operations at Disney World, Orlando, Fla. The students were introduced to the IPM strategies designed by Jim Warneke of Disney Pest Management. These strategies included extensive use of baits, monitoring and scouting, as well as the release of beneficial insects such as lady beetles and parasitic wasps. The pest management practices at Disney demonstrated to the students the effectiveness of a well-designed IPM program. Support for the trip was provided by George Pickhardt of Arrow Pest Control & Lawn Care, Sarasota, Fla., and Van Waters & Rogers. Also, UES recently raised more than $3,000 by putting together ant collections for Zeneca. The students made 150 collections that contained 11 species of pest ants in alcohol vials. The collections were given to PCOs at Zeneca’s Ant Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. At least a dozen students were involved in putting the collections together. Funds generated from this collection will be used for student scholarships and various club-related activities.

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ANNOUNCES SHORT COURSE DATES

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The 29th Annual University of Kentucky Pest Control Short Course will be held Oct. 12-14, in Lexington, Ky. This year’s theme is “Managing for the Millennium” and the conference again includes a money-back satisfaction guarantee.

Featured topics include two half-day “workshop style” symposiums on emerging termite technologies and progressive pest control, a regulatory roundtable, women and pest control, cutting ant callbacks, servicing food plants, baiting restaurants, paperwork pitfalls, wood-infesting beetles and IPM in the Magic Kingdom.

The keynote address, Managing for the Millennium, will be presented by Don Jamison of Jamison Consulting. Also presenting will be 30 other industry innovators, including Drs. Nan-Yao Su and Laurel Hansen, Mike Holcomb, Stoy Hedges, Paul Hardy, Judy Dold and Fred Strickland. For more information, contact Dr. Michael Potter at 606/257-5955.

ASIAN BEETLE QUARANTINE EXPANDED IN ILLINOIS

WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a Reuters news story, U.S. regulators have expanded a quarantine on certain wood products in the Chicago area to prevent the spread of the Asian long-horned beetle, Agriculture Department officials said. The action restricts the movement of products that include firewood, logs and some lumber materials from three more areas in and around the city. The department also expanded a quarantine around New York City to control the pest.

“This rule is necessary to prevent this tree-eating pest from spreading to non-infested areas of the country,” said Mike Dunn, the Agriculture Department undersecretary who oversees the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The large black-and-white spotted beetle with long antennae was described last year by Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman as “one bad bug” and is considered the worst imported pest since the gypsy moth.

Hundreds of trees in New York and Chicago have been cut down over the past year to keep the insect from spreading. Economists estimate up to $138 billion in damage to the U.S. economy if the beetle were to spread nationwide.

The pest, which has origins in southern China, Korea and Japan, threatens such tree varieties as maple, chestnut, willow and elm. The beetles bore finger-sized holes in the trees to lay eggs and the larvae eat their way through the tree’s circulatory system, eventually killing it. Because the larvae live inside the trees, pesticides are ineffective.

Officials believe the Asian long-horned beetle arrived in larval form in wooden crates from China. Since December 1998, the U.S. government has required that all wood packing materials in shipments from China be treated and certified free of the long-horned beetle.

Illinois already has restrictions on the movement of wood products within the state. The expanded federal quarantine is necessary to prevent regulated items from being transported to other states, the Agriculture Department stated.

NEW ATTRACTANT AND REPELLENT TO TARGET COMMON PEST ANTS

BELTSVILLE, Md. — A new attractant and repellent means double trouble for pest ants, including fire ants that infest southern states and are now showing up in California.

Many commercially available baits have oil- or sugar-based formulas that attract either oil-loving or sugar-loving ants — but not both. The new patent-pending attractant, developed by USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS), is attractive to multiple ant species. It can be used in combination with water-soluble toxicants to create a bait. The attractant degrades easily and has little environmental impact, ARS reported.

ARS entomologists conducted studies showing that the bait attracted imported fire ants, Argentine ants, Pharaoh ants, little black ants, carpenter ants, ghost ants, big-headed ants, little fire ants, acrobat ants and crazy ants. Many of these pest ants are problems both indoors and outdoors and cause either structural, agricultural or other damage.

Scientists from ARS, the primary research agency for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are also using this attractant for routine monitoring of pest ants with the U.S. Department of Defense and integrated pest management researchers. The repellent relies on chemical scents repugnant to ants, discouraging them from entering certain areas or forcing them to leave. It also reduces reliance on insecticides.

The patent-pending repellent should be useful against the red imported fire ant and several other pest ants in the United States, according to ARS scientists. In addition, the repellent could potentially be effective against pest ants in other parts of the world.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL PESTICIDE BILL PASSES FROM COMMITTEE

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A bill that would ban pesticides with Proposition 65 ingredients (a list of chemicals that are identified by the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm) and those that are Category 1 and Category 2 pesticides has passed unanimously from the California Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. The bill passed as amended to the Committee on Appropriations.

The legislation, A.B. 1207, was opposed by the Chemical Specialties Manufacturers Association (CSMA). CSMA claims that the legislation fails to provide sufficient protection against insect and rodent threats to children and that posting notice restrictions would preclude the timely, emergency use of products against stinging insects or rodent threats.

The bill would require the Department of Pesticide Regulation to establish least-toxic pest management training for school personnel and require licensed PCOs to include certain information on any school pesticide application they perform as part of their regular pesticide use reports.

The bill also would make it unlawful to apply designated pesticides on school grounds and would authorize a school administrator to suspend application of this prohibition in a pest control emergency. CSMA stated that routine use of antimicrobial products should be permitted without requirements for posting and notification, or restrictions on use. The products reduce disease transmission in restrooms, lunchrooms and pools, CSMA added.

A measure in the bill will exempt bait stations and antimicrobial pesticides. Last year CSMA was successful at negotiating a compromise language with the sponsor, but then-Governor Pete Wilson vetoed the bill at the urging of the agricultural pest control industry.

MISSOURI PEST CONTROL ASSOCIATION OFFERS PR ASSISTANCE FOR PCOs

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The Missouri Pest Control Association (MPCA) has made it easy for its members to promote themselves and their companies by commissioning a camera-ready press kit for each member. For more information on the press kit, contact MPCA at 800/848-MPCA. The kit includes:

• a professionally written press release;
  
  
• a professionally written story on the value of professional pest control with space allowed for a personal quote by the company owner;
  
  
• a list of 12 unique publicity ideas;
  
  
• a camera-ready newspaper ad with space allowed for a pest control company’s name and number;
  
  
• a camera-ready promotional postcard with space allowed for a pest control company’s name and number;
  
  
• a thank you note to customers to be used as a guide for pest control companies to send to valued customers;
  
  
• two 30-second radio ad/public service scripts;
  
  
• and, an informational sheet titled “10 tips to Reducing Pest Problems in Your Home” for pest control companies to mail or hand out to customers and prospects.
  
  

BIRD BARRIER HAS FLOWN THE COOP

CARSON, Calif. — Bird Barrier has moved into a new facility. The new address is 20925 Chico St., Carson, CA 90746.

MIDDLETON PEST CONTROL MOVES OFFICE

DAYTONA, Fla. — Middleton Pest Control, Inc. has moved to a new pad. After 12 years in the same Daytona location, Middleton Pest Control has moved to 2444-A South Nova Road, a 4,500 square foot building with an 8,000 square foot warehouse. The new Daytona building is modeled after the Orlando branch and corporate office, according to the company.