PMP’s Encouraged to ‘Move at the Speed of Technology’ at Purdue Conference

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Technology and artificial intelligence took center stage at the 89^th Purdue Pest Management Conference in West Lafayette, Ind., Jan 13-15. Nearly 300 registered pest management professionals (PMPs) learned how to best use artificial intelligence (AI) tools, like Chat GTP, in everyday business operations to create more efficient and user-friendly processes.

© Amanda Joerndt

Kicking off the conference Monday morning, Purdue’s conference director Dr. Barry Pittendrigh provided feedback on where the committee sees the conference’s future headed as we get closer to its 100-year anniversary.

Pittendrigh said innovations in pest control are at the interface of academia and private sectors. “Our goals are to continue these discussions on technologies and shaping the way we move forward into the 100^th year of the conference,” he said.

Purdue’s Head of Department of Entomology Dr. Catherine Hill said her job is to make sure the department is making an impact in the real-world setting of in-field pest control work. For example, finding entomological advancements through research, studying emerging invasive species and focusing on human health issues.

Rose Pest Solutions Manager of Education and Training Mark VanderWerp shared some headlines from 2024 in his annual “yearly review,” including the Gulf Coast tick expanding its range, new research developments and the periodical cicada emergences. VanderWerp also said that at the 2024 Purdue conference, he predicted that bird flu had the potential to turn into a big problem. And the start of 2025 has been nothing but challenges in that area.

© Amanda Joerndt

Sprague Pest Solutions’ Darren Van Steenwyk held an AI “crash course” and said the majority of the pest control industry is getting up to spend when it comes to using AI tools, like Chat GTP.

“Our industry is behind the curve right now at using AI to become more effective at what we do. How can we be more effective when most of our work is done in the field or walking around food facilities? A lot of this can be done behind the scenes,” Van Steenwyk said.

Some tasks that employees can use with AI include processing data, helping to write emails and create excel files, gathering information to make quicker decisions, brainstorming ideas and reorganizing information. 

He stressed that AI can also process data in ways that we don’t even know or can imagine yet, but PMPs have to be careful with tools like Chat GTP because it works by gathering information from the internet, including sources like Wikipedia, Reddit, Buzz Feed, which are not always reliable.

 “We all use the same tools and products and equipment,” he said. “It’s not the tools and people, but how you use the tools and treat your people.”

Moderated by Rose Pest Solutions’ Bob Dold, a panel consisting of National Pest Management Association’s J.D. Darr, BASF Sylvia Kenmuir and Leo Reed with the Office of Indiana State Chemist,  discussed regulatory and legislative issues facing the pest management industry.

Darr said with a Republican trifecta in government, NPMA will continue to reassess relationships on Capitol Hill to get the main issue at hand - the state level pesticide preemption via Farm Bill - across the finish line.

“The industry is eager to get to work with the Trump administration as we had a lot of success in the 2016 administration, but there were some roadblocks, like funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” Darr said.

Another legislative hurdle has been the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act, which Darr believes has been one of the industry’s biggest concerns. The bill will have to be reintroduced to be considered in Congress this go around, he said.

Hill held an interactive presentation Wednesday morning on transforming mosquito and tick-borne diseases with AI. Hill said approximately half of the world’s population is at risk for disease transmission, and that U.S. health agencies are pretty poorly prepared for tackling this issue.

© Amanda Joerndt

A special guest was up on stage with Hill — a robot dog that detects tick and mosquito hotspots — that will help transform how the pest control industry will hopefully begin implementing AI technologies to transform and identify mosquito and tick-borne diseases.

Hill circled back to last year’s Purdue Pest Management Conference theme on the One Health initiative and using that approach in vector-borne diseases. “It’s a very important concept in medical entomology because if you think about vector-borne diseases, they very much fit the One Health scheme and it’s all about the synergy that happens at human animal and environmental health.”

Other highlights include:

• A termite panel took place Monday with Paul Bello, entomologist with PJB Pest Management Consulting; Alan Feuer, ACE, Doug Foster, Burt’s Termite and Pest Control; and Darren Hunsaker, owner, All Clear Pest Control and co-founder of Smarter Launch. The panel included audience participation on the evolving termite control market and the importance of utilizing resources, like training and handbook materials, and tools, like flashlights and cameras, for thorough treatments.
• PCT's Digital Editor Amanda Joerndt caught up with the Dold family of Rose Pest Solutions at the Purdue Pest Management Conference. Bob Dold Sr. was honored with a prestigious lifetime award for his 60+ years of commitment to the pest control industry.
• Dini Miller, professor in urban pest management, Virginia Tech, discussed several different cockroach species and highlighted important facts to remember when out in the field identifying cockroaches. Some cockroach control measures to remember, Miller said, included “poor sanitation [which] provides numerous resources of food moisture and harborage. Clutter is the domestic cockroach’s best friend and greatly hinders us from getting access to those individuals.”
• VanderWerp took a deep dive into different spider species and reminded PMPs that many customers deal with arachnophobia, a developed fear of spiders, and that “knowledge is bravery and power” in overcoming fears.
• Rose Pest Solutions’ Stan Cope presented on the history of the yellow fever disease found in mosquitoes in Africa and South America, along with the most recent concerns on the spread of dengue fever in states like Texas and Florida. Cope shared the importance of remembering how mosquito-borne illnesses have shaped the way researchers and scientists identify these vector-borne diseases.
• Brian Walsh, spotted lanternfly researcher at Penn State University, said misinformation about controlling these invasive species are everywhere, and to be aware of news articles out there saying they carry diseases that harm humans, which Walsh said is not true. “You can go out and try and treat eggs but they’re everywhere. There is no silver bullet, and the problem is you can’t spray it everywhere,” he said.