USDA ARS Photo Unit, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org
South Korea has asked Texas A&M University for help in stopping an alien pest new to their country, but all too familiar to most Texans, officials said.
“The red imported fire ant has invaded Asia over the last few years, but the South Korean invasion is brand new,” said David Ragsdale, professor and head of the Department of Entomology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Ragsdale said entomologists at Texas A&M are authorities in the management and control of this pest, giving South Korea’s inquiry and ongoing collaborative work with Australia as examples.
Robert Puckett, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologist in urban and structural insects, has been to Australia, where he advised government officials on insecticides and baits to use, when to use them and what level of control to expect, Ragsdale said.
Ragsdale said Australia passed a “Biosecurity Act” in 2014, which affects all residents and businesses in Queensland in their quarantine zone. The legislation is part of a 10-year effort by Queensland to beat back the advancing fire ant invasion. If they are successful, they’ll assess the progress and cost to see if total eradication is feasible, he said.
“The Australians are a bit behind the curve mobilizing some 13 years after the first detection in 2001,” Ragsdale said. “And now red imported fire ants are common across thousands of square miles of Queensland, where they’ve placed a moratorium on moving soil, mulch, potted plants and anything else that might inadvertently move fire ants.”
Unlike Australia, South Korea has mobilized within a matter of weeks, Ragsdale said, and has already reached out for help from Texas A&M’s entomology department.
Hojun Song, an associate professor in the department, was recently contacted by researchers at the Korean Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA), an agency equivalent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA APHIS PPQ).
“Apparently, red imported fire ants have been reported from Busan, a port city in the southern part of Korea,” Song said. “However, there are not many fire ant experts in Korea, so they reached out to me for help in identifying one or more experts at Texas A&M.
Ragsdale said it’s no surprise the growing global ant invasion is directly tied to world commerce.
“The culprit is container shipping,” he said, referring to large rectangular metal overseas shipping containers. “These containers are not so air tight or ant proof, and when these sit in a port waiting for a ship or at a warehouse, colonies of ants can set up shop inside the containers and in a few weeks arrive in Asia or literally anywhere with a port. Currently, only about 2 percent of these containers are actually inspected, so it’s a problem that’s not going away overnight.” Source: Texas A&M University
Documentation has always been an important part of a food-processing facility’s operations, but now the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) mandates documentation be even more organized, detailed and accessible.
A food-processing facility’s documentation must produce the following trail of information for auditors and inspectors:
Show that a pest management program is in place to intervene and eliminate pest threats.
Describe the pest issue and what the response was to the issue.
Document the effectiveness of the response.
Document that the risk to the facility has been mitigated.
The documentation provided by a pest management professional and the QA manager for the facility will be closely scrutinized by regulators and auditors. If there is a pest incident or failure, the documentation needs to show that the facility and its pest management partner did everything in their power to prevent it, and that the failure has been acted upon and the desired results (i.e., pest elimination) achieved.
While pest management professionals are accountable for their work, food-processing clients are ultimately responsible for the pest management program within their facilities. A big part of that responsibility is documentation.
DOCUMENTATION TOOLS. Two of the most important elements in the documentation process are the logbook and the service order. They paint the picture of what is happening at your facility when it comes to pest management.
The Logbook. A facility’s logbook includes all the essential pieces of information that a QA or facility manager and their pest management vendor needs. It contains all applicable business and applicator licenses, certificates of insurance, and proof of training in GMPs, food plant procedures and FSMA.
The logbook also may include a materials list of what pest control products are approved for use in the facility. The product’s trade name, manufacturer and EPA registration number, as well as product label and safety data sheet (SDS) also would be in the logbook. It is important to keep the materials list current. It is best to have both the technician and client contact sign off on the list each time a product is added or removed.
The Service Order. The service order used to be a basic summary of what was done during that visit to the facility. The new FSMA mandates have changed all that.
No longer will simply scanning bar codes on bait stations or noting basic sanitation issues cut the mustard. The devil is in the details and today’s service order must be heavy on the details.
Pest management technicians now include greater detail, sharing the who, what, where, when and why of their service. They detail who they spoke with, what pest-conducive conditions were present and what corrective actions were taken.
A good service order will always detail what product was used, how it was used (i.e., crack and crevice, spot treatment, bait station application, etc.), and where in the facility (i.e., a crack and crevice treatment in the shaker room corner) it was applied.
The comments section of today’s service order allows facility managers to visualize the services provided and keep track of the progress of their overall pest management program.
CONTENT RULES THE DAY. It is not enough to just capture data today. It is about capturing the right data. Data that will help predict pest trends and allow pest professionals and QA managers to develop a proactive response is what really matters.
When pest control companies pull together documentation for a facility, technicians need to concentrate on the following items. These three critical areas can accurately portray — often in real-time — the current condition of the facility’s pest management program:
Pest Thresholds
Pest Vulnerable Zone Inspections
Corrective Actions
Pest Thresholds. A strategic pest threshold paired with a corresponding corrective action plan is the foundation of a proactive pest management program. Collecting and monitoring data on pest thresholds identifies established action thresholds and provides a specific recommended response to a situation. If a threshold has been exceeded, the action plan provides a step-by-step game plan on how to react to the pest activity.
Pest Vulnerable Zone (PVZ) Inspections. Pest vulnerable zones are areas in a facility that require additional inspection because of the likelihood of increased pest pressure. Pest pressures tend to be heightened in areas that have historically seen pests, such as those determined by trending reports, or areas that are at a higher risk for infestations because of their business function, such as receiving and production areas. PVZs are barcoded in the area and scanned for verification while performing the inspection and, of course, all findings are documented.
Corrective Action.
If a pest-conducive condition (i.e., damaged door sweep or opening in the roof) or pest activity, like rodent droppings or fly larvae in a drain, is observed, corrective action must be taken by either the pest management vendor and/or the facility.
Documenting the corrective action that was taken accomplishes several tasks:
It creates a “paper trail” for tracking who was responsible for carrying out the corrective action.
It details what actions were taken and when (see “Service Order” discussion).
It outlines the results of the corrective action — something auditors pay close attention to when completing their audits.
THE BIG PICTURE. Continuously documenting specific and prescriptive comments allows QA managers and pest professionals to conduct a deeper dive into the real reasons behind a pest threat.
Detailed documentation also helps create a level of transparency and accountability. Using the latest in hand-held and digital technology (i.e., Google maps of where all the bait stations are located around your facility or characteristics of neighboring properties that could be creating conducive conditions) allows pest professionals to share information instantaneously with not only the local facility management, but also corporate QA contacts located across the country.
In the post-FSMA era, something that is not written down simply didn’t happen in the eyes of an auditor, inspector or the court. Establishing and following proactive documentation protocols will not only keep your facility compliant and improve efficiency in operations, it will protect your brand and your bottom line.
Shane McCoy has a master’s degree in entomology with 23 years of experience. He is currently the chair of the Copesan Technical Committee and the director of quality and technical training for Wil-Kil Pest Control, Sun Prairie, Wis. He also has 12 years of pest management experience with the U.S. Air Force.
Copesan is an alliance of pest management companies with locations throughout North America. To learn more, visit www.copesan.com.
“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” – Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde, Irish novelist, poet and playwright, inadvertently sums up at lot of concerned emails/IMs/texts I am receiving these days regarding fall occasional pests (and I am sure many of you reading this column are getting them too). They generally proceed like this:
Customer: I came outside this morning and my deck/patio/car/driveway are covered in bugs!
Me: What kind of bugs are they? Can you send me a picture?
Customer: Sure! Please help me…they are EVERYWHERE!!!
Me: That’s actually frass.
Customer: What’s frass? That sounds terrible!
Me: Frass is bug poop. This comes from an orange-striped oakworm caterpillar.
Customer: GROSS!!! What can you do to treat for it???
The most effective way to combat fall occasional pest problems is through an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. IPM strategies emphasize nonchemical techniques, focusing on accurate pest identification, a thorough inspection and routine monitoring program and control approaches based on structural maintenance, landscape modification and sanitation prior to considering chemical solutions.
Before implementing your company’s fall pest IPM program, it’s important to understand the pest control implications of your geography and any customer-location specific environmental conditions that may impact its efficacy.
Questions to ask yourself when putting together a fall pest IPM program for a specific account include: Which pests are a threat? Is the landscaping and vegetation conducive to pests? And, which maintenance and sanitation routines can help reduce or even eliminate risks?
Here are a few tips to get your fall IPM plan started:
The subject of the conversation at the beginning of this column: orange-striped oakworm caterpiller frass.
Photo courtesy Dr. Steven Frank, North Carolina State University
Id frequent threat pests. What are the pests your technicians are most likely to encounter in the next couple of months?
Rodents. The most common fall pests in many regions, rodents love to make their home in the exterior landscape, often burrowing through and living underneath vegetation and mulch. Exterior populations peak in late summer which is about the same time their primary food sources (fallen seeds and/or fruit from plants) dry up. This sends them searching for other areas in search of harborage or food, and oftentimes that means into our customers’ homes! During this search, rodents may damage plantings, doors/window screens and wires/utility lines; and once inside can pose a serious health hazard.
Plant-feeding pests. Knowledge of common plant-feeding pests like aphids and insects associated with them such as ants or beetles (e.g., multicolored Asian ladybugs that seasonally invade structures) and bugs (true bugs; e.g. boxelder, kudzu and stink bugs) is essential for PMPs. Understanding the potential pest’s biology and behavior and seasonal timing of its lifecycle can help you pinpoint where, when and how these insects will impact your customers.
It’s also important to be aware of some of the not-so-obvious plant-feeding/occasional pests. For example, caterpillars that defoliate trees, like the orange-striped oakworm caterpillar described in the customer conversation, often reach peak populations in the late summer/early fall. Other than leaving behind large piles of frass on the objects below, they may also shock customers when the larvae themselves emerge all at once looking for cracks and crevices in which to pupate. Homeowners typically do not react well to large crawling things all over their houses and/or garage doors; millipedes are another great example of this!
Stinging pests. Stinging pests like hornets, bees, wasps and yellow jackets also reach peak populations in the late summer/early fall. In yellow jackets (and other social stinging insects), for example, this means that there are too many mouths at the table, which often leads them to expand their foraging range (and increasing the likelihood of coming into contact with humans). Also, in early fall, the queen often leaves the hive in search of a more “cozy” overwintering spot — possibly taking with her thousands of her nest mates with her.
Evaluate landscape & vegetation. While performing your seasonal inspection, don’t just focus on looking for the pest themselves, but also on the landscaping and vegetation that may be attracting or harboring them. Homeowners may not want to hear landscaping suggestions from their PMP, but often there are simple suggestions we can make to help keep pest populations to a minimum, such as:
Minimize plant species that attract pests. Work with your local ornamental entomology or horticulture extension agents to identify and recommend decorative plants that do not produce nuts, seeds and fruits (these agents and their resources are rarely used by PMPs). If you are making a recommendation to remove something, it’s always best to have a replacement option for the homeowner.
Document overgrown, unhealthy or dying plants on your inspection report. Healthy plants are less likely to attract pests.
Use cedar/rubber mulch or rock/gravel instead of organic mulch to help deter pests.
Make sure water drains properly away from the structure.
Maintenance, exclusion & sanitation. The bedrock of any preventive fall IPM program is maintenance, exclusion and sanitation. Insect and rodent pests enter a building through even the smallest of holes or cracks (from the size of a nickel to 1/16 of an inch). To keep these pests out, here are a few things that you can do:
Seal gaps around doors or any pipes, fixtures and other potential entry points with water-resistant sealant and/or metal mesh.
Caulk around utility connections and outlets.
Install door sweeps and weather stripping to make sure pests don’t walk in doors and keep doors closed as much as possible.
Perform regular roof inspections, or recommend them if this is not a service you provide.
Minimize water accumulation from leaky taps, air conditioning units, or damaged drainage systems. Installing, repairing or protecting storm gutters is additional business line for many PMPs.
Repair or replace torn or missing vent screens.
Line garbage receptacles and keep the lids tightly sealed. Empty trash regularly, as the odors can attract pests looking for food.
As with any IPM program, regardless of season, take every possible opportunity to educate, engage and cooperate with your customer to proactively keep fall invaders outside where they belong!
The author is a board certified entomologist and manager — technical services at Rollins in Atlanta.
Meeting – and DEFEATING – the Challenges of Bed Bug Control, Sponsored by AMVAC
Shane McCoy
Dr. Tim Husen, B.C.E.
