It is estimated that in the U.S., about 40 percent of all food produced is wasted. It makes both environmental and economic sense to find alternative uses for our food wastes to reduce this high percentage. For commercial food facilities, this can include repurposing of certain types of food. Food that is repurposed may not meet criteria for human consumption or sale. It may go to animal feed or composting. Less-than-perfect food items, like blemished fruit or vegetables, may be repurposed for humans by offering these products at a reduced price, donating or incorporating into juices or other processed foods.

How a facility handles food repurposing can bear on pest pressures. If not done properly, it can increase the facility’s risk of flies, birds, stored product pests, rodents and other pests. In addition, and on a broader scale, it can impact pest problems in the community.

As pest management professionals, it is important that we inspect for potential pest risks associated with our client’s waste handling programs and help educate them regarding the bearing these may have on pests. Below are some of the key areas of concern as food and food containers destined for repurposing make their way through the disposal process.

1. Totes, carts and other waste-holding containers. As food wastes are generated during processing, packaging or in storage, they are often placed in carts or other containers for transport to a dumpster or storage trailer. Clients should be advised to use containers that are cleanable and fit the facility’s cleaning capabilities. If containers are designated as one-time use only, there must be a program in place that ensures these containers are not reused. It is not uncommon for large corrugated cardboard totes to be used for recycling. These are not cleanable and even with a plastic liner, can risk food accumulations underneath the liner and on pallets used to hold the tote.
2. Balers. Balers are used at some food facilities to bundle cardboard and paper bags wastes generated at the site. If the food facility is bundling paper bags used previously to hold flour or other milled grain products, there can be food dust generated in and around the baler unit. These units can be difficult to clean due to design and can be sources of stored product pests if not frequently cleaned.
3. Trailers and dumpsters. Sometimes trailers are used for holding products like repurposed food going to a farm or third-party recycling for animal feed. They also may be used for holding items destined for recycling like cardboard or pallets. Dumpsters are more commonly used for some forms of recycling like compost but also may be used for animal feed. Regardless of the purpose, they all require a formal program that includes cleaning. Sometimes, processors will hold trailers until full. If the contents are food, the ability of pests to complete their life cycles must be a consideration in how frequently that trailer gets moved, emptied and cleaned. For some species of pest flies, the life cycle could be completed in less than one week. Trash rooms and concrete holding pads must be kept free of cracks and cleaned. Doors where trailers and dumpsters are located must be pest proofed and kept closed when not in use. This goes for both the dock door and ideally trailer doors. Trailer door closures can be a little more challenging since some swing open and may not be closed without moving the trailer away from the dock. For this reason, roll-up trailer doors are preferred for holding recycling materials and repurposed food. Refuse areas will attract pests and it is critical that these areas are kept cleaned and pest proof.

After the products have left the facility, it is important to know where those trailers and dumpster are shipped and what programs are in place for cleaning them after they are emptied. If the trailers or totes go directly to a hog farm they are at a higher risk of returning with pests. Recycling centers are not exempt from pests and can be pest hot spots. Waste containers should be inspected for signs of pests and general cleanliness upon return to the facility for reloading.

Pat Hottel is technical director at McCloud Services.

Copesan is an alliance of pest management companies with locations throughout North America. To learn more, visit www.copesan.com.

Woodstream

The new Victor Pro line of cage traps is the latest in animal control from Woodstream. Designed for wildlife professionals, Victor Pro cage traps offer heavy-duty features including 8-gauge wire body supports, uniform welds, high-tensile galvanized steel, 1- by ½-inch mesh and heavy-duty door hinge plates, the firm says. All traps feature a wire door and interior trigger rod. Woodstream says baiting is easy with an innovative, patent-pending bait compartment on the VP1103 raccoon size trap. This bait compartment will keep bait and lures protected from the elements and animals but also can be easily removed, allowing access to hang or place additional bait in the trap. There are three trap sizes available: 32- by 10- by 12-inch, 24- by 7- by 7-inch, and 18- by 5- by 5-inch. Traps are made in the USA.

British Rat Trap Company

The British Rat Trap Company (TBRTC) launched RodeXit industrialized pest control strips. RodeXit can be used to keep rodents and other pests out of commercial businesses such as hospitals, health-care centers, apartment complexes and food-processing plants. According to the manufacturer, RodeXit‘s features include:

• Easy to install — can be installed in under two minutes.
• Easy to transport and store.
• Repels sustained attacks by rats.
• Stays strong under accidental run-ins by forklifts and heavy machinery.
• Repels bugs, drafts and dirt.
• Reduces rodenticide and pesticide use.
• Can be used as a door sweep between the vertical astragal gap of double doors and gaps in or between stationary building parts, fences and/or walls.
• Comes in a roll so PMPs can fit different-sized doors, fences and walls.
• Real-world tested by the independent and accredited Danish Technological Institute.

HostGuard Flea System

The HostGuard Flea System is a new organic flea control solution developed by a pest management professional: Jeff Honeycutt, owner of Apex Pest Control, Asheville, N.C. The system consists of a set of Tyvek pants; one pair of socks, booties and gloves; and Guardalone, a natural flea attractant and adhesive. After suiting up, PMPs visit suspected “hot spots” where they become the target hosts for adult fleas. Once the adult fleas are captured in Guardalone they can be disposed of; PMPs then perform a treatment with an IGR to kill flea eggs and larvae. Honeycutt says the benefits of the HostGuard System are three-fold: (1) to provide protection to service professionals; (2) to monitor flea infestation levels; and (3) to manage flea populations by catching them in the Guardalone product.

Nixalite of America

Nixalite of America announced its new Biogents mosquito traps, which are the result of more than 16 years of academic research into the behavior of mosquitoes, the company says. As a result, Nixalite reports, a highly effective type of trap was developed that targets tiger mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus) and yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti). The other type of trap that is offered by Biogents targets tiger mosquitoes that are looking for a place to lay their eggs. Biogents has developed traps that only target bloodsucking insects and show the highest catch rates of mosquitoes without using pesticides, the company says.

While there is plenty of literature on bed bug biology, management and ecology in traditional settings, such as residential homes (Wu et al. 2014), multi-family dwellings (Cooper et al. 2016) and hotels (Penn et al. 2017), the understanding of how bed bugs establish and infest non-traditional settings is lacking. By “traditional,” we mean locations where there is an ample food source during the times that bed bugs are active; in other words, these are locations where people sleep overnight. Settings where there are no overnight accommodations are not conducive for bed bug infestations. Yet we do see these in the field.

The Rutgers Entomology lab had a unique opportunity to conduct a case study in a non-traditional setting, a cubicle-based office space. We received a call from an office complex where the office had a two-year history of multiple confirmed sightings of bed bugs. All employees vacate the premises at 6 p.m. and do not return until at least 6 a.m. So we took this opportunity to monitor the space in order to understand what was occurring. Some of the findings were a bit surprising!

“NON-TRADITIONAL” SETTINGS.Those in the pest control industry know all too well that bed bug sightings are not uncommon in settings that are often not thought of as being associated with this important urban pest. We have found bed bugs in movie theaters, offices, retail centers, emergency rooms and many other places that people don’t stay overnight. It is generally thought that these are often isolated introductions. While that may be true in general terms, do we really know?

Bed bugs require a blood meal between each molt as they mature. They feed every couple of days during nighttime hours, typically between 1-5 a.m. (Doggett et al. 2012). With this understanding, we typically do not think of bed bugs as being able to easily establish a breeding infestation in environments that do not have readily available food sources during overnight hours.

So when we received the call about a two-year history of repeated sightings in the same area, we became quite interested. What was going on? Were there repeat introductions over two years? Was there a problem at an employee’s home that has not been solved? Was there an established population in the office? These questions all led us to conduct a case study at the location.

THE STUDY. In mid-December 2017, we installed 270 bed bug interceptors (10-cm diameter ClimbUp HD) in 58 cubicles and pod-seating areas that the employees used. In each cubicle, one of the interceptors had a lure (SenSci Activ lure) installed in the inner well. The area was approximately 9,400 square feet. We then returned six times over a three-month period to inspect all the interceptors and recorded all captures by date and precise location. Spatial analysis was conducted on the captures to determine the distribution and movement patterns of bed bugs throughout the study.

Based upon findings, we conducted two treatments in the evenings using only amorphous silica dust (CimeXa) in small areas including the cubicles that had bed bug captures. The treatments were conducted approximately one month and two months after installing the interceptors. Immediately following each application of the dust, we left a dry ice trap in each location to lure roaming bed bugs to the treatment area from the nearby vicinity.

BREEDING ACTIVITY. Upon our first inspection of interceptors, we noted that the activity was concentrated heavily around a small set of cubicles. A total of 11 bed bugs were captured, with 7 of those found in two adjacent cubicles. The remaining four captures occurred in dispersed locations elsewhere. We placed dry ice traps overnight in the cubicles where we had captures to see if there were more bed bugs. Upon returning in the morning, we did indeed find two more in the cubicles that had the concentration of bed bugs. We therefore conducted a visual inspection of all materials in the cubicles and found an active breeding harborage (see Fig. 1 at left) in a chair in one of the cubicles, which was properly disposed of upon the finding.

TARGETED TREATMENTS.During the second inspection, we again captured bed bugs. The pattern of captures was similar. Out of a total of 18 bed bugs captured, the majority (10) were found in the same two cubicles as where they were concentrated during the first inspection. The remaining eight were found singularly, spread out in other cubicles or pod seating areas. We treated the cubicles and pod seating areas that had bed bug captures using only amorphous silica dust and installed a dry ice traps overnight. We applied 73.5 grams in an area about 310 square feet, including cubicle wall voids and other spaces in the floor space. This time, we did not capture any bed bugs in the dry ice traps.

A total of three bed bugs were captured during the following two inspections. We again treated in the areas where the three additional bed bugs were captured following the fourth inspection using the same process. We applied only 39 grams in an area about 270 square feet. No bed bugs were captured during the final two inspections (see Figure 2).

SUMMARY.The first important finding from this case study is that bed bugs are capable of establishing breeding infestations in environments that do not have people sleeping overnight. While the chances are that sightings in such non-traditional settings are introductions, we cannot discount the chance that there is an active infestation.

The spatial analysis showed that the majority of bed bugs stayed aggregated or clumped in an area within close proximity to where the breeding site was found (see Figure 3). Yet, the total size of this infestation was small with only 32 bed bugs captured over a three-month period. Therefore, monitoring is essential to eliminating bed bug infestations in non-traditional settings such as office spaces. Monitoring is necessary in identifying any possible breeding harborages. Once identified, removing the harborages and conducting targeted treatments using a limited amount of insecticides can achieve elimination of bed bug infestations.

Prior to December 2017, the office space had 37 confirmed sightings of bed bugs over a period of two years (2016-17). A year following our case study, no further sightings have been reported in the office spaces, further confirming that elimination was indeed achieved. Shannon Sked and Changlu Wang are with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Department of Entomology. Michael Levy and Kathryn Hacker are with the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.

REFERENCES

Cooper, R., C. Wang and N. Singh. 2016. Evaluation of a model community-wide bed bug management program in affordable housing. Pest Manag. Sci. 72: 45–56. Dogget, S.L., D.E. Dweyer, P.F. Penas and R.C. Russell. 2012. Bed bugs: Clinical relevance and control options. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 25: 164-192.

Penn, J.M., H.J. Penn, M.F. Potter MF and W. Yu. 2017. Bed bugs and hotels: Traveler insights and implications for the industry. American Entomologist 63: 79-88.

Wu, Y., D.M. Tracey, A.M. Barbarin, C.M. Barbu and M.Z. Levy. 2014. A door-to-door survey of bed bug (Cimex lectularius) infestations in row homes in Philadelphia, Pa. Am. J. Trop Med Hyg 91: 206-210.

Nisus Corporation recently announced several new hires: Jim Sparks joined the firm as area territory manager in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

Marty Keane also joined the Nisus team as territory manager. Her territory includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Nisus Corporation also welcomed Mark Manning as the company’s new business development manager. Manning holds a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from UCLA and worked with U.S. Borax for almost 30 years.

Suzan Eudy, office manager of Peeler Environmental, has been awarded the inaugural Administrative Professional of the Year Award by the North Carolina Chapter of the Professional Women in Pest Management (NCPWIPM), a committee of the North Carolina Pest Management Association (NCPMA). Eudy has worked at Peeler Environmental in Salisbury for five years.

Vince Romao recently joined Liphatech as western district sales manager. He will serve the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming representing the Liphatech rodenticide and Aegis bait station product lines.