Urban Pest Management Conference

We just got back from the Urban Pest Management Conference (Feb 14-15), which is held every year here in Lincoln and offers recertification opportunities in several pesticide applicator categories. Our office always offers the pesticide safety talk for those who are recertifying.

Bed bugs were understandably a big topic this year (and the UNL saga continues, too!) as well as talks on other common pests such as cockroaches, termites, and grain pests. Bobby Corrigan was also on hand to talk about rodent management!

We had several IPM coalition members attend this year, including representatives from OPS and LPS as well as our new Winnebago/Omaha tribe Pesticide Circuit Rider, Christina Lee. We are working with Christina to schedule more IPM visits, including an educational one, with the Omaha and Winnebago schools. More on this as it develops!

October IPM Coalition

On October 26th we held our last IPM Coalition meeting of 2011. We had a good mix of representatives from the pest control industry, schools, UNL Extension, EPA, child care, and tribes.



Stephen Vantassel with UNL Extension presented on the most common types of bats found in and around houses in Nebraska (Big Brown and Little Brown, which are colony bats), bat life cycle and behavior, and how to safety capture and/or control bats. For more information about bats, see:

• Bat Nebguide: http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/live/g1667/build/g1667.pdf
  
• Prevention and Control of Wildlife Damage--Bats: http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/mam_d5.pdf
  
• Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management: http://www.icwdm.org/wildlife/bat/bat.asp

Barb talked about a new bed bug detector called “Verifi.” It's small and unobtrusive and can be placed in vulnerable areas in hotels, schools, day cares, etc.

Bed bugs is certainly a hot topic! We also briefly discussed reasons for bed bug resistance and movement and heavily infested areas of the U.S. Barb said she believes the insect has genetically changed worldwide, resulting in its resurgence.

We also talked about our work with Gina on the Child Care IPM assessments, and the in-services we have given for child care directors and providers.

In 2012, we will again have 4 coalition meetings (including the Urban Pest Management Conference). We would like future meetings to primarily consist of educational components, perhaps with a different “theme” or topics for each meeting.

We also want to get involved in more “sensitive environment,” IPM, such as group homes, jails and prisons, zoos, nursing homes, and hospitals. We would like to broaden the scope of this coalition and expand our membership to include more individuals who want to promote IPM concepts.

Stay tuned for the latest updates on the IPM coalition in 2012!