Summer flu often spells West Nile Virus

Dr. Robert Haley, Chief Epidemiologist of the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, recently wrote a short and easily readable summary of the West Nile virus situation for the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  Click here to read a free copy of the article.

Based on his medical observations over several years, Dr. Haley concludes that "diagnosis of WNF should be suspected in anyone with unexplained fever from late June through September, the season when other causes of fever are least common. Fever with disorientation, stiff neck, or neurologic deficits suggests WNND."

It's estimated that since its discovery in the U.S. in 1999, over 30,000 Americans have contracted either West Nile fever (WNF) or the most serious form of the disease, West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND). While even I may have been tempted a few years ago to dismiss this as an "old person's disease" (older persons with underlying health problems are most likely to die from the virus), at over 50 myself I now fall into the susceptible age group. And I don't feel that old.

It would be a mistake to underestimate this disease. It can even develop in younger people, as a 14 year-old Dallas girl discovered this summer, although this is not common.  Even the milder form of the disease can be debilitating for extended periods of time, with an average recovery time of 60 days in one study.

For PMPs working in residential environments, especially, it's important to take WNV seriously. Higher concentrations of DEET, picaridin and IR-3535 remain the best repellents for outdoor workers due to their longer residual and highly effective repellency for WNV mosquitoes.  For more information and assistance in choosing the right insect repellent for you and your employees, check out the highly useful repellent calculator developed by the National Pesticide Information Center.

What can schools do about mosquito control?

In case you haven't heard, mosquitoes have been big news in Texas lately. This summer has turned into the worst summer on record for West Nile virus (WNV) in Texas, and both Dallas and Houston have resorted to aerial attacks to attempt to stem the tide of the mosquito and the virus.

Now with a new school year starting up, many school districts are asking themselves, "What should we be doing?" Parents will be concerned about their children waiting at bus stops and participating in band and athletics practice.  And let's not forget about Friday Night Lights, and weekly football games.  What responsibility do schools have to take part in community wide mosquito control?  And if you work for a school district, what will you tell parents when they ask what the district is doing to keep their kids safe from West Nile virus?

Source Reduction
Perhaps the most important single thing a school district can do is make sure that school grounds are not contributing to local mosquito problems. It's especially important to check water catchment basins, storm drains, low areas, and equipment storage yards, athletic and playground equipment for places where water might be caught and held. If you do pest control in a school district, expand your vision at this time of year to look for and report potential mosquito breeding sites.

If a suspected breeding site is found, report it to your local health department, or if possible, drain the water or treat with it. Effective mosquito treatments include Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) dunks or methoprene (Altosid®) granules or briquets.  Both of these are Green category insecticides.

Treating Mosquito Resting Sites 
Mosquitoes are primarily active in the evening and morning.  During the day, adult mosquitoes typically rest in vegetation or other shaded sites. We can use this information to reduce mosquito numbers. Treatment of mosquito resting sites can dramatically reduce bites and biting rates in the immediate area of treatment.

If you know of areas of vegetation, or shaded doorways where mosquitoes are a problem, consider treating such sites with a residual pyrethroid spray. Pyrethroid insecticides like deltamethrin, cyfluthrin, bifenthrin, and lambda-cyhalothrin (Yellow category) can provide up to six weeks control on vegetation or building surfaces. These products can be applied via hand-held pump sprayer, backpack mist blower, or power sprayer to doorways and trees, shrubs and ornamental grass around buildings and entryways.

Such sprays are probably not necessary on most campuses, but in sites with heavy shade and vegetation, and populations of biting mosquitoes, such treatments may be warranted.  If you choose to treat sites like this, remember to post the school 48 hours in advance, and keep students and staff out of treated areas until sprays have thoroughly dried.

Low Volume Treatments

One of the five planes used to apply mosquito
sprays over Dallas County this month. (Photo
courtesy of Dallas Morning News and Tom
Fox/Staff Photographer)

When most people think about mosquito control they think about trucks or aircraft applying a fog or mist. The treatments used by such government agencies are called ultra-low volume (ULV) sprays.  The very tiny particle sizes used in such applications allow better penetration into dense foliage, and generally mean quick dispersal and short life of spray residues.

Most school districts will not engage in ULV sprays, though some cities or mosquito districts may offer the district an option to be included in community-wide spray actions. If ULV insecticides are to be used for campuses or sporting venues, remember to follow posting and notification requirements. Yellow category justifications must generally be filed, because most ULV treatments use Yellow category products like resmethrin or permethrin.  Synergized pyrethrin applications may be considered Green, unless the synergizing additive in the spray concentrate (generally piperonil butoxide) is greater than 5% .

The effect on mosquitoes from ULV-applied sprays is generally short-lived (few hours to a day), so they should be used only on special occasions, such as an hour or more before a sporting event. Wind and weather also have an important influence on the effectiveness of ULV sprays, so be sure to measure and record wind speed prior to application and follow label restrictions carefully.

If your campus has been sprayed as part of a community-wide aerial spray campaign, no special precautions should be necessary.  However some districts have been making a point to let parents know that school play equipment has been washed after spraying.

Education and Awareness
Ironically for schools, one of the most overlooked components of an IPM program is education. Mosquito season provides an excellent opportunity to get mosquito control information out to the community, as well as raise awareness of your district's IPM program.

One of the most important messages that a school can send is the importance of wearing insect repellent when working or playing outdoors. Consider notifying parents and students advising them to wear a good repellent to school, or at evening sporting events.

Many districts have had questions about whether they can allow students to use repellents on school grounds. Personal use of repellents is not prohibited or addressed by state school IPM regulations. Therefore it is up to each district to decide whether students and staff can bring and use repellents at school.  Options include allowing students to bring repellents to a school nurse, and having the nurse apply if needed. Another option might be to allow only cream or non-spray repellent formulations, especially for band and athletic departments in middle and high schools.  The time to decide on the appropriate policy, however, is now, before students return to campus.  For more information on insect repellents, see the excellent repellent guide put out by the National Pesticide Information Center.

As a public service, consider assisting the Texas Department of State Health Services and other local health authorities get the message out about mosquito control.  There are many useful educational materials and websites (see below) that parents should be aware of. School districts can play a useful role in getting mosquito awareness information out to our communities. Consider linking this information in your school district’s website.

Some quick facts about mosquitoes and West Nile virus: 

• The southern house mosquito, Culex quinquefasciatus, is the primary carrier of WNV in most of Texas (different species carry the virus in other parts of the country). This mosquito is a container breeder.  It prefers to breed in small containers or puddles of standing water. 
• Water must stand for 10-14 days to be a problem for mosquito breeding.  It doesn't have to be a lot of water, but this is approximately how long it takes for mosquitoes to complete their life cycle at 85-90 degrees F.  
• Remember stagnant, polluted (stinky) water is the water that Southern house mosquitoes love.  Water where fish are present, such as a pond or permanent stream is not usually a big source of mosquitoes. 
• Not all people are equally attractive to mosquitoes. Body chemistry differs from person to person and some of us smell more attractive to mosquitoes than others.  Don't assume that because you aren't noticing bites that mosquitoes are not active.
• Remember the 4 D’s 
•  DUSK/DAWN- Stay indoors at Dusk/Dawn. This is the time of day that mosquitoes are most active. 
• DEET-Use insect repellents that contain Deet when going outside, especially at times closer to dawn or dusk when mosquitoes are most active. 
• DRAIN - Remove all areas of standing water. Examples are pet dishes, birdbaths, and water dishes under potted plants. Repair faulty French drains. Remove debris from rain gutters. Mosquitoes will breed in this debris since it is normally damp under the debris. Remove all piles of dead leaf material from under trees and shrubs. This also is a breeding site. 
•  DRESS- Avoid being bitten by mosquitoes by wearing light colored long sleeved shirts and long pants when going outside. 

Additional Resources

• Check out the eXtension school IPM action plan for mosquitoes.  If you don't have a plan for mosquito control in your IPM notebook, this may be just for you.
• Need a poster, flyer, or other information to hand out to teachers, parents or students? including a sample letter you can send home to parents? Check out this link.
• The Department of State Health Services website on school resources
• Frequently Asked Questions about aerial spraying for mosquitoes can answer many concerns parents (and customers) have about community-wide mosquito spraying
• Mosquito Safari is an Extension website with general information about mosquito identification, biology and control, including an interactive tour of common mosquito breeding sites. 
• Four new videos on how to mosquito-proof your home

Thanks to Janet Hurley and the Texas School IPM program in assembling much of the information for this post.

The Ugly American

American cockroach,
Periplaneta americana

If one were to poll pest control customers about what they thought was the most disgusting insect, there's a good chance the American cockroach would come out at top. First of all it's large and scary, it's very fast and, where it proliferates, it stinks. Add to this that the American cockroach is one of the few cockroaches that readily flies, and you've got a disgusting pest.

Since few people want to admit to having giant cockroaches in their homes, alternative names are often given to the American cockroach, waterbug and palmettobug being the two most common. One of our largest cockroaches (reaching lengths of just over two inches), they often look much larger to a surprised customer. They are often described as three or four inches long.

American cockroaches, while much longer lived and slower to reproduce than the more common German cockroach, can become quite prolific in the right environment.  While an American cockroach female only produces about 12 eggs per ootheca (egg case), compared to the German cockroach's 36, she lives much longer and produces more oothecae and potential offspring over her lifetime (an average 360 offspring vs the German cockroach's 320 offspring).  Left undisturbed, American cockroaches can build up impressive populations, as anyone who has opened an infested sewer manhole cover can attest.

Odors from the droppings and the insects
themselves can be noticeable in heavy
infestations of American cockroaches. Note
the stains from cockroach droppings on
these boxes in an infrequently used
storage area. Photo by Fudd Graham.

I guess one of the things that's always impressed me about the American cockroach is its ability to survive in places with little food.  They are relatively common in urban sewer and storm drain systems, as well as steam tunnels and basements and storage areas of institutional buildings like schools, hospitals, prisons and factories. These cockroaches are often living on the edge, nutrition-wise, making do with feeding on glues and starches associated with boxes and papers. They are opportunistic feeders and while they prefer fermenting foods, they will feed on dog food in the lab and will readily feed on various cockroach baits.

My colleague Dr. Fudd Graham, from Auburn University, was recently inspecting a courthouse with a chronic American cockroach infestation. Following his nose, his inspection led him to a storage room that hadn't been opened for over 18 months. The two tubes of  Advion cockroach bait Fudd applied were gone the next morning along with the cardboard on which the bait was applied. 

Typical of many infested areas of buildings, this room had a floor drain that, due to lack of use, was dry.  Dry floor drains are one of the most common entry points for American cockroaches to enter commercial buildings from sewage systems.  Many people, even building maintenance professionals, are unaware of the importance of periodically pouring a gallon or two of water into floor drains to fill the p-trap that is designed to block sewer gases and insects and other pests from entering buildings.  A dry p-trap allows cockroaches ready access to a utility room or food storage area in a building. Besides filling the p-trap, some companies have developed clever membrane devices that open for water flow, but close between use.  Trapguard and Sureseal are two commercial products and, while they can be expensive to install, provide a long term fix for gas and pest infiltration into storage and utility areas. 

The half-inch-long ensign wasp
(Evaniidae) is a sign of American
cockroach presence in a building.

Its important to remember that controlling American cockroaches has other benefits.  Eliminating American cockroaches helps reduce the potential food supply of rodents in a building. I'll guess that most PMPs have seen the disembodied wings and legs of American cockroaches left on sticky traps. This is often evidence of mice or rats, which are fond of snacking on live cockroaches plucked from sticky cards.  In addition, ensign wasps are a common parasite of American and smoky brown cockroach oothecae, and are often seen flying around buildings that have an American cockroach infestation.  While harmless themselves to people, the presence of these interesting insects is a sign of cockroach presence in a building.

Pyrethroid labeling confusion

New FMC videos explain pyrethroid label changes.

In April I posted information on the new pyrethroid label changes being required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  While the information in my April 17th post was correct, I later (May 1) posted a comment based on additional information I received from the EPA.  In that follow-up comment I said that, according to EPA, that ALL outdoor pyrethroid applications (not just preconstruction treatments as stated in the article) would not be permitted when windspeed was over 10 mph.  The problem is that I was misinformed by my EPA source.

I shared EPA's May 1 label interpretation with Dr. Jim Fredricks at the National Pest Management Association.  He and his legislative colleague, Bob Rosenberg, followed up with EPA on this information.  In an email dated 19 June 2012, Rosenberg received a response from EPA stating that their original "response (the one I received) was not correct... the 10 mph wind restriction applies only to products labeled for preconstruction termiticide applications." [my emphasis]

To those of you who read my comment, I apologize for passing on the wrong information.  Thanks to NPMA for following up and ensuring that all of us get the correct information about pyrethroid label changes and what they mean. BTW, this is a great example of the kind of service tha the NPMA provides its membership as it looks out for the interest of the industry.

I have since removed the incorrect information from the April post's comments; however pyrethroid labels may include advisory language recommending application should be made during "calm weather when rain is not predicted for 24 hours".  This may be more difficult to gauge and document than the 10 mph requirement.

As usual, if in doubt, read the label.  If it's a pyrethroid label, be extra careful over the next few months to check every pesticide container.  During this transition period some containers will have labels that have the new language, and others will not.  While technicians are OK if they use a product with the old language, it would be a good idea to train and require all your employees to start following the tighter restrictions now.

FMC Professional Products has produced some nice new videos explaining the new pyrethroid labels. Check them out at the FMC YouTube Channel.

A personal experience with bed bugs

One of the first bed bugs we discovered was this well-fed adult
on the mattress seam.

Last month, one of my daughters called me on the phone, panicked. "Dad, I think I've got bed bugs!"

It turned out to be more than a couple of bed bugs.  She had a full blown infestation.

Over the years my children have mostly just tolerated, if not ignored, my entomological passions. But this daughter is no slouch. She knew a few things about bed bugs. Like many people it just never occurred to her that bed bugs could happen to her.

The bites she'd started to notice in the morning? Probably mosquitoes.  The little red spots on the bedding? Probably from the mosquito bites. It wasn't till she saw two bed bugs frolicking on the sheets at night that it finally clicked..."Of course! How dense can I be? My dad taught me better than that!" (I added that last part)

Small blood spots on sheets are easily dismissed by someone
not familiar with bed bugs. Blood spots are a more sure
diagnostic sign of bed bugs than just "bites".

A visit to her apartment the next day revealed 200 to 300 bed bugs happily tucked away in the corners of the fitted sheets, dust ruffle and box spring cover of her bed.  We did some thinking back and concluded that we had probably introduced the bed bugs last February when she retrieved her mattress and box spring from a friend living in a (nice) uptown Dallas apartment.  She had loaned the bed to friend during a transition period when she was living at home after graduation.  I say "we" introduced the bed bugs because I helped her move the bed from friend's apartment to her new home in Fort Worth.  I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary at the time, but I wasn't really thinking bed bugs either.

Of course my daughter's first concern was where to sleep. As with all of us, ignorance is bliss. The night before her discovery it was OK to sleep in her infested bed. But now that she knew her bed was crawling with unwanted vampire bugs, it just wasn't the place for a restful sleep. I can't say I blamed her.

It's times like these that both she and I appreciated the availability of a pest control professional at the other end of the phone. In her case, the landlord was supportive and had a pest control company ready to come out and treat her apartment.  The problem was, what to do in the meantime.

In general it's not a good idea to abandon one's bed as a solution to bed bugs. The problem is that once you start sleeping on the couch, it's just a matter of time before the bed bugs figure out where supper has moved and you end up with bed bugs in another room of the home. But for at least one night I counseled her to sleep on the couch and I would be over the next day to help.

A dis-infested bed ready for clean sheets is now a
relative oasis from bed bugs until the PMP arrives. 

Because I wanted her to get back in her own bed as quickly as possible, we opted to make her bed safe while waiting for the professionals to arrive. With the generous help of friends at Target Specialty Products, I was quickly supplied with Mattress Safe® bed encasements, a set of Climbup® Bed Bug Interceptors, and a can of Zenprox® aerosol insecticide.  Vacuum at hand, we removed as many bed bugs as possible from the mattress, sheets and dust ruffle, box spring, and bed (At this point, long-suffering daughter had to put up with a dad who, every couple of minutes, had to stop and take closeup pictures to document the infestation--a small price to pay, I kept reminding her).  After slipping the mattress and box spring into their encasements, we continued vacuuming and tearing down the bed.  Once disassembled, I treated bed cracks and crevices with Zenprox, reassembled the bed and put Climbup® traps under the bed posts.  To keep anything from touching the floor, except the bed posts, we eliminated the dust ruffle.  All sheets and bedding were immediately stuffed into garbage bags and sealed tightly for transport to the laundry.

To make a long story short, daughter returned to sleep in her own bed that night, and after a month reports no more bed bugs. Of course the PMP arrived the next day and undoubtedly deserves much of the credit for  successfully keeping the infestation from spreading; but the experience taught me several things that I will take with me as I advise clients with similar problems.  I hope these thoughts will also help you too as you deal with frantic customers:

Bed bugs prefer laying eggs on rough
surfaces, like this bed slat. I initially
photographed this wood because of the
fecal droppings, but later counted at least
28 eggs in this image alone. Double-click
the image and see how many you can find.

• Don't think that just because a customer has an advanced case of bed bugs that they willfully allowed the situation to progress.  Many people experience mild to zero reactions to bed bug bites, and have no idea that they are feeding dozens to hundreds of bed bugs. A recent, informal study of Orkin employee reactions to bed bug bites reported by Ron Harrison at the NCUE found that less than one in 20 people showed any noticeable reaction to bed bug bites. 
• Because many people think bed bugs will never happen to them, they tend to overlook bed bug clues that, in retrospect, are obvious.
• Customers need guidance in how to survive the waiting period between bed bug discovery and when service can be provided. I know that many of you respond to bed bug calls with next day service, but inevitably there will be customers who will have to wait two or more days.  Providing landlords with a variety of sizes of mattress encasements, Climbup® or similar traps for bed posts, and vacuuming instructions ahead of time can help renters survive the agonizing wait for service. By creating an oasis of safety in the midst of an infested apartment, you allow the customer a chance to sleep comfortably in their own bed without running the risk of spreading bed bugs to other parts of the apartment or home.
• Remind your regular customers about the signs of bed bugs.  The earlier an infestation is caught, the better the chances of bringing it under control quickly.
• Use bed post interceptors wherever feasible.  Even after treatment these devices provide you and the customer with a sensitive way to monitor the effectiveness of control. In my daughter's case, not all bed bugs were killed with the initial treatment, as evidenced by several more bed bugs being caught in the Climbup® cups in the succeeding weeks.
• Plywood beds or rough wooden bed slats are especially favored places for bed bugs to lay eggs.  Study of closeup photographs of the wooden slats on my daughter's bed after I treated showed me  dozens of eggs I didn't see on inspection. Even though these slats were treated by me and by the PMP with insecticide and steam, we opted to remove the slats (they weren't necessary for supporting the box spring anyway) afterwards. 
• While I recommend bed bug-proof encasements as a less expensive (and more effective) alternative to throwing away infested mattresses and boxsprings, throwing away plywood bed stands or other types of rough wooden beds might be a good idea for some customers. Replacing such beds with a metal, or smoothly finished wooden four post bed, or an inexpensive metal bed frame on wheels, will allow you to create a safe, bed bug oasis even in the midst of a bed room that still harbors live bed bugs.
• Our industry needs better, more detailed explanations for customers on how to treat bagged clothing and personal items. My daughter didn't receive very helpful information about what to do with all her "junk" once it had been bagged in preparation for service.  Even the PMP had few, helpful suggestions on what to do with personal items other than "wash everything".  But more on that in a later blog.

My final, take-home lesson in all this is to not loan your bed and mattress to anyone.  Even if your dad's an entomologist.

Tarantulas go a-courting

My captive, 7+ year-old Texas brown tarantula was given me
 by PMP, Tim Sloane, who collected it from an urban backyard.

This has been tarantula week in Dallas. I don't get too many tarantula calls as a rule; tarantulas are nocturnal homebodies, rarely venturing more than a foot from their burrow...except during mating season. For a short time in the spring (and to some extent in the fall), usually after a rain, male Texas brown tarantulas (Aphonopelma hentzi complex) leave their burrows and hidey-holes in search of--what else?--romance. In some parts of the state dozens of spiders may be seen at once, especially at night along lonely west Texas highways.

According to Burr Williams of the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, who has observed tarantula courtship in west Texas, once a male catches a female's pheromone scent, they seem very good at orienting to a female's burrow. The male taps at the entrance and the female lunges out. The male grabs her, mates quickly, and it's over--sometimes permanently for the male.

Most authorities (e.g., Thomas Prentiss in Ubick et. al, Spiders of North America) say that mature male tarantulas don't live long. Whether this is because they usually get eaten, or just don't have what it takes to be a long-liver (females have been observed to live 30 years in captivity), I'm not sure.  But the male spider I placed yesterday in a terrarium with my 7-year-old female Texas brown Tarantula certainly didn't last long. This morning a leg and a few unidentifiable scraps of carapace were all that was left. I can only hope he enjoyed his final moments.

According to a 1999 study by Margaret Janowski-Bell and Norman Horner--who put little radio antennae on the backs of tarantulas and followed them around the desert (how cool is that!)--males in the wild may visit multiple females, and thus must have a better chance of escape from the than my unlucky captive.

Most of the folks who called about tarantulas this week seemed worried.  One gentleman was worried that his child would be bitten. Another was ready to sell his house and move (presumably as far away from Texas as possible) after finding his backyard and and exterior walls of his home hosting multiple tarantulas. 

Fortunately, tarantulas are not that dangerous. Forget Spielberg's Arachnophobia if you can, a tarantula is a shy giant of a spider. The venom is not considered especially toxic, on the order of a bee sting. But the chance of being bitten by a tarantula is slim. Add to that the fact that tarantulas, like all spiders, do much good by controlling the general insect population.

A tarantula mysteriously ended up on
Dr. Knutson's shirt while gardening in his backyard. 

Having said this, I am likely to undo all my "spider good will" by sharing a recent adventure of my friend and colleague, Dr. Allen Knutson. Allen lives in an older neighborhood of McKinney, Texas.  He and his wife notice tarantulas from time to time on walks in their neighborhood. Nevertheless it was a shock for wife when Allen walked into the kitchen after working in the garden recently with a hitchhiking tarantula. Thinking she was making a lot of fuss over a little spider, even entomologist Allen was surprized to find a 4-inch male tarantula clinging to his back.  After being quickly shooshed out of the house, Allen was brave enough to stand for the accompanying picture. He noted matter-of-factly that the spider looked much bigger in real life than it does in the picture. I'm sure.

Try as I might I can't force myself to encourage the pest control industry to kill tarantulas.  Yes, I know it's what some of your customers want. But to me tarantulas are just way too cool, and deserve their little hole in the ground where they (almost) never bother anyone.  So this is what I'm going to do--we'll compromise. According to my arachnologist colleagues, science has a need for tarantula specimens. If you collect a tarantula, I will accept it (live or dead) and send it to the spider community via the Texas A&M University insect collection. If you kill it first, put it in a jar of alcohol to preserve it, otherwise bring it live to my office, following the instructions on this page. I'll make sure the little guys and gals don't die in vain.

Tarantulas are a sign that things are as they should be. They represent a healthy ecosystem where pests must fight for their miserable lives. And they're a sign of Texas. After all, what would Texas be without its prickly pears, tarantulas, scorpions, rattlesnakes and brown recluses? I know one thing for sure. It wouldn't be Texas.

Urban entomologists in Georgia

Atlanta is home to historical memories of the Civil War and William T. Sherman's infamous march to the sea. It's also known for its peaches, the Atlanta Braves, Coca Cola world headquarters, and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.  It is lesser known as the home of Rollins Inc. and the Orkin University and Training Center, a state-of-the art training facility for Orkin sales and pest control staff. It is also lesser known for being the probable entry point into the U.S. for a new invasive insect known as the kudzu bug.

Orkin Trainer Jose Dolagaray explains the design and use of the
termite training facilities to conference attendees visiting the
Orkin University and Training Center at Rollins headquarters.

The last two points were of great interest last week, at least to the 220 or so entomologists attending the 2012 National Conference on Urban Entomology.  This is the largest conference in the U.S. (and likely the world) focused solely on the science of urban entomology, and is a great place to hear the latest news and research on bed bugs, cockroaches, termites, and many other urban insect pests.  Of the 43 talks I attended over three days, some of my personal highlights included the following reports [my apologies ahead of time to termite people--most of the talks I attended were bed bug-related]:

• Dini Miller of Virginia Tech provided a very practical case study of failure to control cockroaches in what she said was the worst multifamily housing cockroach infestation she had ever encountered (and for Dini, that's saying a lot). Student researchers averaged 200 cockroaches per unit per night in 36 "high-clutter and poor sanitation" apartments in a city housing authority. Miller showed that baits can be effective in such poorly maintained apartments when the infestation was reduced significantly with a simple service involving application of 30 grams of gel bait per unit followed by a 14-day followup treatment.  When the units were turned back to the pest control company for maintenance, the populations increased to above the previous infestations within 4 weeks.  The reason? One technician was not sufficient to service the number of cockroach infested units in the complex, and not enough bait was being used in each unit to halt cockroach population growth. Miller showed that 45 minutes was required to put out an average of 916 grams of bait per unit during an initial visit.  With a good first treatment it only took 6 minutes per unit, and an average of 494 grams of bait, on a 14-day followup visit.
      The take home lesson from Miller's research is that pest control companies can't just go through the motions of baiting to get control of out-of-control cockroach infestations. Adequate time to survey, locate and treat cockroach harborages, as well as enough bait to manage the population is essential to a good treatment.  Miller's baiting formula (she used Advion and MaxForce Magnum gel baits) required 60 grams of gel bait per apartment when overnight trapping yielded more than 500 cockroaches, 30 grams for 100-500 cockroaches, and at least 15 grams for 50-100 cockroaches. AgriSense Lowline traps were used for all monitoring in the study.
• The BASF folks generated food for thought with several studies of their products including two Phantom formulations, Alpine dust, and their pyrethrins aerosol, HydroPy. Jason Meyers reported that 4-month aged residues of Phantom SC, and 180 day aged deposits of Alpine dust, performed as well at controlling bed bugs as fresh deposits of the insecticides. Such long residual deposits are unusual in pest control, making it necessary for frequent re-treatments to prevent pest reestablishment.
       With this data in hand, Meyers made a case for what BASF will be calling proactive bed bug control.  Because of Phantom's long residual, the company is conducting field tests to see whether two proactive (=preventive) treatments a year can keep bed bugs from establishing in hotel rooms.  Treatments of Phantom aerosol are applied twice a year to bed frames/head board and luggage rack.  Alpine dust is used once a year and applied to hotel room box springs, electrical outlets, carpet edges, baseboards, picture frames, electronics and sofas/chairs.  So far no new infestations have occurred in a Kansas hotel being used as a proof-of-concept site.  Expect to hear a lot of discussion about whether this approach can be justified as IPM, and whether it works sufficiently well to write preventative contracts for bed bugs in hotels. According to Orkin entomologist Ron Harrison, Orkin is one large company that expects to do more proactive bed bug control with its hotel customers in the future.
• Standardized assay methods for testing insecticides for bed bug control are a hot topic right now with regulators. One of the points of contention is which bed bug strain(s) to use. Bed bugs vary wildly in their susceptibility to insecticides.  Currently it is possible to pick a strain, like the almost completely susceptible Harlan strain, that will make nearly every insecticide look like a winner. But, according to Mike Potter of the University of Kentucky, 88% of bed bug populations tested from 110 sites around the U.S., had at least one type of resistance to insecticides.  Hence testing products against only the susceptible strains is nearly meaningless as a predictor of real-world effectiveness. But which strain or strains to use? It turns out that even the search for the perfect test strain is a moving target. According to Sumiko De La Vega, of Sierra Research Labs, even insecticide resistant strains lose their toughness after a few years in laboratory colonies.  One of Sierra's standard colony types lost most of its 2000-fold permethrin resistance over a 2-4 year period of no exposure to pyrethroid insecticides.  Frequent resistance testing may eventually become necessary for the performance of insecticide testing with bed bugs, making such tests more difficult and expensive.
• Some of you may have wondered what happens to insecticide residues that are exposed to the high temperatures of heat treatments for bed bugs.  Apparently heat is not that destructive to residues of many of the commonly used bed bug materials. Temprid, Transport, Phantom SC, Phantom aerosol and a Phantom+IGR experimental formulation showed no loss in efficacy after 7 hours at 135 degrees F, according to PhD student Margie Lenhert from Clemson University.
• More of us may be providing dinner for bed bugs than we realize, according to an Orkin in-house study conducted by Ron Harrison.  Harrison noted that early research conducted 50+ years ago suggested that perhaps over 80% of people showed some kind of reaction to bed bug bites. However, his informal study, using over 1400 Orkin company volunteers, showed that only 3.8% reacted quickly to bed bug bites. Only 1.1% showed any delayed (4 days or more) reaction.  If these numbers are accurate, the number of biting cases in hotels may be substantially under-reported.  In addition, lack of skin reaction in many people could explain why many customers who report infestations wait until bed bugs reach high numbers in a home or an apartment.
•  

  

  NPMA graphic illustrating words that people use when
  asked what comes to mind when they hear the name
  "bed bug". The larger and bolder the word, the more
  common the response (graphic courtesy Jim Fredericks).

  Jim Fredericks of the National Pest Management Association reported on new online bed bug resources.  Allthingsbedbugs.org is a new consumer oriented site published by NPMA.  Its best management practices tab, however, would be a good place to compare your company's practices to see how they hold up to industry standards.
• Rick Cooper, graduate student at Rutgers University, attempted to conduct field evaluations of bed bug sniffing dogs.  He noted that previous canine detection research reported in 2008 showed that dogs were capable of relatively high (95-98%) detection rates (correctly pointing out all bed bugs) and relatively low false positive rates (approximately 3% of the time dogs pointed to bed bugs that weren't there).  Cooper pointed out that the 2008 study was conducted under controlled conditions with planted bed bugs.  His study was conducted in real apartments, where bed bug infestation sites were well-known from previous, thorough checks by trained inspectors.  In one of his trials, he worked with 11 companies that claimed 95-98% detection rates (generalizing based on the published 2008 results).  In Cooper's study, actual detection rates in 48 apartment units averaged only 50% (ranging from 10-83%) for these companies, and the average number of false positives was about 20% (ranging from 0-43%). Even narrrowing the trial to his best, most experienced, teams, he was unable to replicate the high success rates of the controlled studies. Despite his respect for canine detection, he concluded that canine accuracy rates in the field are likely much less than what most canine handlers advertise, and that false alerts are higher in rooms with past history of bed bugs.  
       False positives are undoubtedly costing the public lots of money.  In a widely publicized bed bug infestation at the University of Nebraska, dogs used to inspect campus dorm rooms alerted in 197 of the 3256 rooms.  Evidence of bed bug infestations, however, were found in only 10 of the 197 rooms. Because of the publicity, and high public profile of the effort, all 197 rooms were treated, at a cost to the University of $400,000.  According to Cooper, the philosophy about canine detection is changing. In the past it was "trust the dog"; today, it's "check the alert" (with a visual inspection).

Strategically placed Plexiglas cutouts show trainees at the
Orkin house, normally out-of-site construction features
important to pest control, such as this bathtub plumbing. 

In addition to hours of Powerpoint slide shows, participants in the NCUE conference were treated to a field trip to the Orkin University and Training Center. The facility is very impressive with mock kitchens and grocery stores, numerous outdoor termite treatment training stations, and the Orkin House, a full sized home with numerous examples of pests, pest damage and structural cut-aways to show how homes are constructed and how insecticide treatments might interact with a building.  One of the highlights of the tour, for at least a few of us entomologists, was searching for the infamous kudzu bug on the kudzu vines so common in the Atlanta area.