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!

Bed Bugs Are Big News!

Although we have had reports of bed bugs here in Lincoln and the rest of Nebraska for years, they have recently been found in UNL dorm rooms. Students returning after Christmas break were pretty alarmed by the news. Being I work at UNL, I can't help but also feel uncomfortable that the pests have been found so close to home.

Adult bed bugs are small, brownish flat insects about the size of an apple seed. They prefer human blood but will also feed on other animals, such as household pets. However, despite their obvious "ick" factor, bed bugs are not known to spread any diseases.

Bed bugs are becoming more prevalent in all sorts of places...shoe stores (the Nike flagship store in New York had issues!), movie theaters, and of course hotels. Multi-unit structures, such as dorms and apartments are especially hard hit since these insects can travel from unit to unit.

So what do we do about this resurging menace? Vigilance is definitely the number one way to protect yourself. When traveling to hotels, always check the room for bed bugs and their feces, especially behind headboards and on the seams of the mattress (and yes, I have personal experience...I once found a bed bug in a hotel room; not only was I moved to another room, but got the night free!).


Keep luggage away from the bed and off the floor--heavily infested rooms may have bugs hiding in numerous places. Storing luggage on a table, dresser, or in the bathtub can be helpful. Avoid luggage racks as there are folds where bed bugs could hide and then hitchhike onto your suitcase.

When you get home, examine your luggage before entering the house and if possible, keep luggage outside in the garage or on the patio for a few days, especially if it is summer. Wash and dry clothes immediately, or at the very least put them in a hot dryer, as the heat will kill bed bugs.

If you suspect an infestation or should find evidence of bed bugs after doing an inspection at home, you can employ some "do-it-yourself" tactics such as vacuuming or using a portable steam cleaner around the bed seams. In addition, you can also install a homemade bed bug trap and put a bed bug encasement on your box springs to make it more difficult for bed bugs to reach you when you are sleeping.If your bed bug problem is severe, you may wish to bring in a bed bug sniffing dog to confirm the presence of this pest in hard to see areas, and then call in a pest control company to manage the problem. Pest control companies may use professional heat or steam treatments, or a variety of insecticides, such as crack and crevice treatments.

For more information on preventing bed bugs or managing them if you should have an infestation, visit the following links:

Bed Bug Prevention
Dealing with Bed Bugs
Managing Bed Bugs
Understanding and Controlling Bed Bugs

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2012! We have a lot of exciting IPM projects coming down the pike this year. Here is a preview:

• IPM Coalition: We are entering our 4th year! This year, we hope to add more new members to the coalition and expand our educational presentations.We will be holding the half-day meeting in July again with multiple presenters, this was a great success in 2011!


• IPM Symposium: In March Clyde and I will be attending the 7th International IPM Symposium in Memphis, TN. Joining us will be colleagues from around the world who conduct IPM programs in their countries/states. We will be giving presentations on topics such as IPM in Nebraska Schools, use of social media, and developing video dramatizations.


• Video Game App: We hope to create and launch a video game app about mutant insect monsters that can be defeated using IPM strategies!


• IPM Process Video: We have completed the video "How to Conduct IPM in Schools" and hope to distribute this to interested schools this year.


• IPM Manual: We will be continuing the revision of the IPM Manual, with an emphasis on updating it to include not only schools, but other sensitive environments as well.
  


• IPM Surveys: After giving surveys to schools, coalition members, and child care facilities, we hope to report on their responses about the IPM program and how it's helped them use IPM.

Stay tuned for a great new year!

2011: The Year in Review

2011 has been another great IPM year for us here in Nebraska! Some highlights include:

1. Four coalition meetings. These included attendance at the Nebraska Urban Pest Management Conference in February; our first half-day educational meeting, which offered presentations about pests, pesticides and health, IPM in Schools, and a visit from Spots the bed bug sniffing dog; and UNL Extension wildlife expert Stephen Vantassel's talk on bats.



2. Completion of our IPM in Schools demonstration visits at OPS and LPS.


3. IPM visits to 5 child care centers. For some of these, we provided general IPM information, while others requested help for specific problems, such as bats and cockroaches.



4. Two IPM In-services for child care staff and directors.


5. Two visits to 4 Nebraska tribal schools to provide IPM information and assessments.



6. IPM survey distribution to coalition members, school administration, and child care centers asking about how our IPm program has affected their knowledge and use of IPM. I will report about the results of these surveys in 2012.


7. Filming and production of the "How to Conduct IPM in Schools" video, which explores the process of an IPM demonstration.



8. IPM Youth Programs at the Natural Resource District Nature Nights.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in these projects!

It's also been a year and a half since I started this blog. It's been a great way to document and share what's new in IPM, both in our state and through our work with colleagues around the country. I look forward to reporting on many new activities in 2012! Happy Holidays!

Fall Nuisance Invaders

It's that time of year again...not only are people wanting to stay out of the cold, but many insects and their relatives are often driven into homes for the same reason. Common fall invaders include boxelder bugs, crickets, Multicolored Asian Ladybird Beetles, millipedes and centipedes, and wolf spiders. Using some good IPM practices, you can minimize the trouble these nuisance pests cause. Providing good seals around your home (perimeter, doors, windows), putting out sticky traps, and vacuuming up insect invaders can be helpful.

For more tips about the types of insects and spiders that can be bothersome in the fall and how to manage them, visit the following resources:

Common Fall Pests
Flies in the Home (Cluster flies being common in the fall and winter)
Managing Centipedes and Millipedes
Multicolored Asian Ladybird Beetles
Nuisance Pests
Wolf Spiders in Nebraska

Mouse Mystery revisited

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there was a suspected mouse in my friend's car. After cleaning out the ripped up tissues from the glove box, throwing away the kleenex box that had been on the floor, and relocating everything else, we set up two snap traps in the glove box. We didn't want to actually bait them because we knew it would make a mess in the car. Besides, although bait certainly helps, it isn't absolutely required for catching mice.

However, after about a week with no luck (with the hopeful feeling that the mouse had left but the unsettled feeling that it had not, or was dead somewhere in the car), she found in the trunk area near the spare tire another selection of tissues that had been unkindly ripped to shreds by our mouse friend. Enough was enough! One night, my friend parked the car in the garage and baited the trap with peanut butter. That did it...we caught our little four footed furry fiend! But my friend was having nothing to do with disposing of it, and had her dad do it for her! He then reset the trap...just in case.

I told her that everything was probably fine now that the mouse had been caught, but agreed it was a good idea to continue our IPM monitoring with a newly set trap. And low and behold, I received a text this morning (a little over a week after the first capture) saying she caught another mouse! I was shocked...sure I can believe there is more than one mouse in a structure, but in a car? What are the chances? Maybe mice are just fond of Honda Fits. I do have to say this has been the most unusual (although very successful!) IPM experience I've ever had!

UPDATE: I just heard from my friend that the other mouse was caught in her garage; she had put the second trap there while the other remained in the glove box. This makes more sense! One in the car was enough, so at least she prevented a second occurrence!

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!