International Women’s Day this year was a terrific opportunity to honour the brilliant women working in the pest control industry and motivating the industry to move forward.
There were four presentations covering a range of different topics. First up was Sharon Hughes of from BASF discussing the difference between permanent baiting and long-term baiting. This is something I have no experience with so it was interesting to hear Sharon discuss the complexities between the diverse ways of baiting and the legislation that surrounds the different baits.
Another interesting talk from the Forum was ‘Time flies when you’re counting flies’ from Sophie Thorogood of Edialux. She discussed the diverse species of flies found in pest control and gave tips on how you can identify them correctly. This was full of useful information on fly ID and good to know for everyone, not just pest controllers.
Dr Dini Miller delivered an excellent presentation about the problems with cockroaches in the USA and how the misapplication of integrated pest management has caused the pest to multiply to unimaginable numbers. Her field studies took place in social housing in Virginia and it highlighted that there is a need for a different approach to manage the cockroaches. This assessment-based pest management is a more agile strategy where Dr Miller rotated baits used and adjust the amount of bait applied depending on the severity of the infestation. This reaped excellent results and means that they are more likely to eradicate an infestation. This was a fascinating talk and shows just how much of a need that there is for.
Jette Knudsen, Senior Researcher and chemical ecologist at our partner Nattaro Labs discussed the fascinating subject of chemical ecology in bed bugs and how we can use the findings to manage this pest. Her talk ‘Bed bug chemical ecology: a tool in the battle against bed bugs’ was a deep dive into the bed bug. She looked at what the pest uses to find a host and why bed bugs are a concern and need to be managed when an infestation is discovered.
Jette highlighted that the aggregation pheromones emitted by bed bugs are one of the most attractive chemical cues and by using this finding creating a lure that emits this pheromone will be an effective way to attract and catch any bed bugs that are in an area.
When artificial aggregation lures were used in a test against a control lure, the aggregation lures attracted significantly more bed bugs than the control lures; proving that the theory worked.
She also looked at the studies conducted by Richard Naylor of The Bed Bug Foundation. The Bed Bud Foundation is a world-leading organisation that specialises in the study and production of bed bugs for dog training and testing.
The bed bug foundation is currently conducting a study on our product InsectoSec tape and will be sharing their findings soon, we are excited to see what they discover!
This digital forum was an excellent information exchange and thoroughly worth a re-watch, find the lectures here: https://www.youtube.com/bpcavideo
I promise that you will discover something that you never knew about pests!
