Bed Bug Summit a Positive Step for Dealing with Problematic Pest

WASHINGTON – As any pest management professional will attest, the various entities involved either directly or indirectly with bed bug work make an already difficult job all the more complicated.

These groups – which include pest management professionals, homeowners, landlords/property managers, regulatory officials and many others – were brought together the past two days for EPA’s first-ever Bed Bug Summit, an effort to develop policies and procedures for future dealings with this pest. The meeting was hosted by EPA in conjunction with the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) and the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO).

“You have all these groups – ranging from pest management professionals to furniture rental people – and they all are groping for answers, but there was this absence of leadership and coordination,” said Bob Rosenberg, senior vice president, NPMA. “This was an opportunity to get them all in one room and start finding answers.”

Rosenberg said that there even was a representative from the airline industry in attendance. Why? Because pilots and flight attendants spend a significant amount of time in hotels throughout the U.S. and internationally, where bed bugs are a growing problem.

Attendee Ted St. Amand, president of Atlantic Pest Solutions, Arundel, Maine, said he was impressed that EPA reached out to NPMA and the other stakeholders. “Did we walk out of this meeting with all the answers? No, but it got the dialogue going. Bed bugs are a very complex issue, not just because of the complexities of bed bugs, but because of the nature of the client base we are dealing with. I think for some of the feds it was bit of an eye-opener because one of the recommendations [from the workgroups] was that we need to get some of the federal people out on the sites to see what we are up against.” 

Perhaps the most significant developments from this meeting occurred during the second part of the conference on Tuesday, which was devoted to small group workshops. Attendees were divided into 10 groups of 25-30 people (with 4-5 pest management professionals per group). Each group had a diverse mix of attendees and one facilitator per group. Among the topics discussed were: research; the role of government (all levels); consumer education and communication; PCO education and training; and the role of property owners/managers. The groups then re-assembled on Wednesday to review their findings and share insights with one another.

From these group discussions, a Powerpoint presentation was created with about 100 recommendations. While this document will eventually be refined several recurring themes emerged and were further discussed, including:

• A greater need for CDC involvement, including CDC declaring that bed bugs are a public health pest. Rosenberg said that these type of CDC declarations tend to trigger action from local health agencies.
• A broad range of attendees indicated that the tools available to them for bed bugs are not working, and that EPA should offer incentives to encourage new technology development. There also were recommendations to EPA to take another look at older chemistries that worked well, but are no longer available.
• The need for either an accredidation or credentialing program or licensing category for those who treat for bed bugs. This issues was raised by several of the pest management professionals in attendance. For example, some of the groups recommended such a program become a part of NPMA's QualityPro program.

Donnie Blake, president of OPC, Louisville, Ky., was encouraged by the dialogue in these workshops. “The cooperation between EPA, NPMA and the other stakeholders and the dialogue we had was fabulous,” he said. “I am intrigued to see what direction we will go. I think one of the big things to come out of these workgroups was that EPA and NPMA are really the best sources for getting information about bed bugs out to the public.”

EPA Spokesperson Dale Kemery told PCT that EPA will collect comments from the meeting — as well as those submitted online — then make its recommendations. These recommendations will then be turned over to EPA’s Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee, which is a federally advisory committee. This committee reviews EPA’s recommendations and determines whether or not these changes should be accepted, changed or modified. These recommendations are then sent back to EPA and a final decision is made.

Rosenberg said the Bed Bug Summit was a positive first step, but that more work needs to be done. “I think that (attendees) all left the meeting feeling very empowered. It created a lot of momentum and we don’t want to lose that.”

St. Amand had some thoughts on this subject. “I know EPA is going to pull all this information together. I'd like to see EPA create an inter-agency group that also includes CDC, HUD and any other relative agencies, and for them to engage in these type of regional summits to see if we can find some common trends,” he said.

There already has been a tangible benefit to the pest control industry – media exposure (see a sampling of media coverage, above right). “The industry probably gained more public awareness in the last 36 hours than in the last five years combined,” Rosenberg said.

In preparation for the workgroups, attendees heard from many representatives of the various stakeholders, including:

• Lois Rossi, director of the registration division in the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, set the tone for the meeting by noting that bed bugs seem to be increasing. Rossi said bed bugs are especially problematic in densely populated areas, but that they can be a problem for anyone. Rossi spoke on an opening session panel that included: ASPCRO President Bonnie Rabe; Rosenberg; and Saul Hernandez, an aide to Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), who introduced the “Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite Act of 2008.”  Hernandez said that Butterfield plans to reintroduce legislation next week to expand grant programs to help public housing authorities deal with infestations.
• Bed bug experts well known in the pest control industry including Cooper Pest Solutions Technical Director Rick Cooper; University of Kentucky's Dr. Michael Potter; NPMA Technical Director Greg Baumann; Virginia Tech University's Dini Miller; and Harold Harlan, Armed Forces Pest Management Board. Each of these technical experts reviewed some of the challenges dealing with bed bugs based on bed bugs' biological and behavioral characteristics. A common theme among this group was the need to better educate the public about bed bugs so that bed bug outbreaks can be addressed in the early stages, before they grow into widespread problems. These technical experts also agreed that there is a need for more and better bed bug tools.
• Representatives from public health agencies in cities such as Baltimore, Cincinnati and New York reviewed some of the challenges of dealing with bed bugs in densely populated areas and in places such as public housing, where bed bugs are prone to spread from one unit to the next.
  

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UPDATE: EPA has now posted a summary of information from the National Bed Bug Summit.  To view the summary of information, click here.

This summary includes the following
• The Final Agenda 
• A Public Docket 
• Recording of the Webinar from April 14 (link to be available Tuesday, April 21)
• Summary of Workgroup Results
• Summary of Recommendations Developed at the Summit

Recommendations from the Summit will be presented to EPA's Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee meeting on April 22, 2009.  NPMA's Bob Rosenberg represents the pest management industry on the committee.

For PMPS: The Bed Bug Toolbox
In response to the growing bed bug crisis and in effort to keep NPMA members informed, NPMA presents the pest management industry with a central online location for bed bug research, resource materials for PMPs, regulatory and legislation, and resources available to the consumer and general public, including recent media coverage.  To access The Bed Bug Toolbox, visit www.npmapestworld.org/bedbug or click here.