The Heart Of The Matter

Over the past several months we have been preoccupied with business. The weather patterns this year have provided a bountiful number of insects. We also found that the weather has put us behind schedule — it’s been too wet for termite treatments in many areas of the South, and cool weather prolonged spring for some. Still, reports indicate a great year.

But other important events going on in the background have not caught our attention. As we gear up for another national convention, I suggest that we prepare ourselves for some new technologies. We must face up to the learning curve that is ahead. In this vein, I offer some guidance.

THE PESTS. Ants have vaulted to the top of the PCO charts as the No. 1 pest.

Roaches and fleas are, as one researcher said recently, “a dead issue” (no pun intended), as we have achieved a technical and managerial ability to gain control over these pests. On-animal treatments have surely dented our flea season. And cockroach baits have taken the industry by storm. Do we need more of them? Will resistance become a problem eventually? We use these products readily and have excellent results. Recently I read an article about pheromone baiting for roaches. It is obvious that pheromones in the cockroach and stored product area will be vastly more important in the future. Dave Mueller of Insects Limited has spent most, if not all, of his adult life telling you that. It would appear that with a little help from our friends, his predictions will become reality.

Now we turn our attention to ants. They have always been an important pest, but why are they so difficult now? I read a quote from E.O. Wilson recently, and with the current state of some of our international political situations, it is appropriate. He is attributed to saying that if ants were human, there would be a nuclear war in a week!

Ants are extremely aggressive insects, some more so than others. It is obvious that some ant species can even drive away or perhaps change the habits of other species living nearby. As we learn more about these tendencies, our baiting technology will need to change drastically to allow us to control these aggressive pests. Will we have the chemical to do this?

THE “REAL” PESTS? To answer the above you have to be aware that the political figures, the regulators of the world and the industry do not always see eye to eye. As you have worked diligently this year to do your job, there have been many articles written about maneuvers and politics to reduce your selection of pesticides.

Some say these efforts could even endanger your ability to control pests. But if you feel this way, you are not in step with the technology and innovation of this industry.

Yes, we will probably lose some pesticide uses, as will the homeowner, as a result of the implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act. In this process, I believe we should fight the good fight, but do not believe it will make a great deal of difference in the long run. Agriculture is still the main theater and we are just a sideshow. But we are also being influenced by other forces that will impact us more than the FQPA.

Certainly IPM in schools, not a new topic, but an influential one, will continue to crop up legislatively. New regulations in Maryland this year, for example, will require IPM in schools by 1999. It was a good effort by the PCO and regulatory community to read some sense into the regulations, but we still ended up with a notification regulation.

IPM has many names. One that we have heard more of recently is HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. This spillover from the health department and the concern for food quality created a set of guidelines and possibly regulations that has a lot of people spinning. The HACCP that was created for the food manufacturing area now will be influencing the retail area. Our part in this is one line: A pest control program must be in place. That’s fine until you see that the management of food production facilities and later the retail area will be concerned about your use of pesticides. You may be forced by the customer to select or use only certain pesticides. But look on the bright side: Finally, someone may be required to read a sanitation report!

Consider the ramifications of these events and you’ll quickly realize the outside influences on this industry will accomplish things that the FQPA will not have to address.

What concerns me is where our heart is. We have always been concerned about loosing a pesticide or use pattern. Certainly there have been a lot of trumped-up charges to get rid of some in the past, but even with the call for “good science” we will likely lose more.

THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES. Every year we see more interesting tools. Some of these are created for only a few of the companies to use. If a great majority of the PCOs bought and used the new materials, tools, and techniques, there would be a natural attrition of some other products — we call them “old standbys” — and it would be uneconomical for the manufacturer to maintain them in inventory. We see some of that already, but it would be more pronounced.

What concerns me is that occasionally technology outstrips regulatory issues. It catches people unaware and we are stuck with regulations that read black and white, when there should be a little gray. Many regulations are on the books that do not take into consideration current industry thinking or even management capabilities. Likewise we are finding more information about our common pests that may require regulations to be rewritten, or at least amended.

In the future, ant baiting will take drastic steps forward, termite baiting will become even more commonplace, and applications for the protection of a structure from termites will include more sophisticated techniques, physical barriers and more regulatory understanding of what we are trying to accomplish.

There is a need for increased communication between all factions in the pest control industry. Because in our heart we are all trying to do the same thing: serve the customer, provide a healthy environment and control pests (no matter who they may be).

George Rambo is president of George Rambo Consulting Services, Herndon, Va.