{"id":35643,"date":"2023-09-01T17:01:07","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T07:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/?p=35643"},"modified":"2024-02-06T15:23:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T04:23:51","slug":"assessment-based-pest-management-and-busting-cockroach-bait-myths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/professionalpestmanager.com\/nz\/pest-control-cockroaches\/cockroach-research\/assessment-based-pest-management-and-busting-cockroach-bait-myths\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessment-Based Pest Management and Busting Cockroach Bait Myths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Respected industry figure Professor Dini Miller<\/a><\/strong> shares her ground-breaking work on cockroach baiting from the USA.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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The inaugural Termite Professional Conference held in July hosted a special pre-conference event \u2013 An Evening with Professor Dini Miller. Prof. Miller was in Australia for the Top End Aussie Termite Tour and attending the conference as a delegate, so we were honoured she agreed to present and share her knowledge on German cockroach management and discuss the concept of Assessment-based Pest Management (APM). Here we summarise the key messages from her presentation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dr Phil Ridley<\/strong>, Director, Professional Pest Manager<\/em> and Professor Dini Miller<\/strong>, Professor of Urban Pest Management, Virginia Tech University, USA<\/em><\/p>\n

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Integrated Pest Management (IPM)<\/h2>\n

IPM is widely talked about within the pest control industry, but rarely applied correctly. Indeed, Prof. Miller believes the use of IPM terminology does not really fit the pest control industry and that Assessment-based Pest Management (APM) provides a more relevant methodology that delivers practical results.<\/p>\n

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So, what\u2019s wrong with IPM?<\/h2>\n

Integrated pest management as a concept was developed by the agricultural industry as a way of reducing insecticide applications, to better manage the risks around insecticide resistance (through avoiding excessive and unnecessary insecticide use). A key element of any IPM strategy is the need to monitor the pest levels and only apply insecticide once pest numbers reach an economically significant level. i.e. when the cost of spraying is less than the economic loss from not spraying. This means that in many cases, it is acceptable to have a low level of pests in a crop if the economic damage is insignificant. Of course, in an urban pest control situation, generally there is no \u2018economically acceptable\u2019 pest level, typically customers want zero pests!<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Prof. Miller has observed that in the pest control industry, IPM terminology has morphed into a belief system that IPM is some sort of low toxicity or non-toxic pest control procedure. This appears to be a view held by many pest managers and their customers alike. Apart from being wrong and confusing, it doesn\u2019t really help in developing practical treatment programs that deliver results.<\/p>\n

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Assessment-based Pest Management (APM)<\/h2>\n

Assessment-based Pest Management isn\u2019t rocket science. It is actually the application of best practice. Before any treatment takes place, pest managers should carry out an inspection to identify the nature of the problem; specifically, identify the pest species present, the location of the pests, the level of pest pressure and the potential causes of the problem. Knowing this information allows an optimal pest management program to be designed and the appropriate products can be applied, to the necessary areas, at the correct levels.<\/p>\n

However, with the cost and time pressures that commonly come into play, this important pre-treatment exercise is often rushed or even omitted altogether.<\/p>\n

In applying Assessment-based Pest Management processes, the key word to emphasise is assessment. Ideally, this assessment involves collecting hard data \u2013 actual pest numbers \u2013 so accurate information about the infestation levels can be established. But to execute APM properly, it is important to continue this assessment over time. Only by continuing to assess the pest levels can pest managers gauge the effectiveness of their treatment, modify the program if necessary and demonstrate success to their customers.<\/p>\n

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Managing extreme German cockroach infestations<\/h2>\n

Prof. Miller carries out a lot of field trials on German cockroaches (and bed bugs) in low socio-economic, government-owned housing. These are apartment units with extreme German cockroach infestations and significant hygiene issues. The standard government pest control service allows only for a quick spray of product (generally a pyrethroid). Not only does this not work, but because of decades of spraying the same products every month, these repeat applications have resulted in high levels of insecticide resistance in the German cockroach populations.<\/p>\n

Prof. Miller developed this APM methodology when she had the opportunity to carry out a research trial evaluating new bait formulations in government housing projects to determine what level of control could be achieved by using cockroach gel baits alone. This 30-day study provided an ideal opportunity to evaluate APM in practice.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

The first step in the study was to do a pre-trial assessment. Sticky traps were placed in three locations within each unit \u2013 above the sink, below the sink and behind the toilet. The traps were collected 24 hours later to determine which had the highest levels of infestation.<\/p>\n

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These sticky traps are full after just one night in an apartment with heavy infestation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Highly infested units were selected for the trial and on day 1 each unit received 30 g of cockroach gel. When the apartments were assessed again on day 14 (using sticky traps), bait was then applied in quantities that varied depending on the level of infestation. Apartments with no trap catch received no bait, 7.5 g was applied in units with low level infestations, 15 g was applied to medium infestations, and 30\u201360 g was applied to those units that were the most heavily infested.<\/p>\n

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Typical sanitation at the housing sites<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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By day 30, the cockroach populations had decreased by 90-98% \u2013 and that was without asking the residents to clean up the rubbish, food or dirty dishes in their apartments! (Figure 1)<\/p>\n

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Figure 1: Effectiveness of using cockroach gel alone to control infested apartments (gel placements at day 0 and day 14)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bait tacos!<\/h2>\n

One of the side developments that arose from this trial was the development of the \u2018bait taco\u2019 application technique. Applying dots of gel in a heavily infested apartment would be very time consuming, given the quantity of bait that would be required. It would also be difficult to measure how many of these dots of gel had been consumed. The solution was the \u2018bait taco\u2019, a 0.5 g line of gel applied on a small square of greaseproof paper that had been folded into a taco. Not only did using these bait tacos allow for quick, easy placement, it was also easy to assess how much bait had been eaten.<\/p>\n

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