Rats in people’s trash cans, beetles chewing the leaves off Buffalo’s elm trees, grubs in the golf courses — these problems became the Board’s concerns. For their can-do attitude in helping to solve these and similar problems, the board, most of them volunteers, has been awarded the “Excellence in IPM Award” by the New York State Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Program. IPM develops, demonstrates, and promotes least-risk methods of preventing and dealing with pests at home, at work, or on the farm.
“A rat’s job is not to be seen,” Hahn-Baker explains. “They don’t want to live more than a hundred feet or so from where their food is.” Prevent their access to food and shelter, he says, and they will move on. Hahn-Baker chairs the board. “You know you’ve succeeded when your neighbors complain that they have rats,” Hahn-Baker jokes. But an entire neighborhood can manage rats he says, by using sensible IPM preventive measures—including heavy duty, tightly lidded rubber garbage cans that rats can’t chew through.
The City of Buffalo distributed about 150,000 of these cans—called totes—to businesses and households beginning in 1997. “They really work, forcing rats to seek alternate food sources—to the chagrin of Buffalo’s first ring suburbs,” says Phil Nasca, deputy director of Building Operations for the City of Buffalo and a former member of the Pest Management Board.
Using totes properly is key, Nasca says. They should never be overloaded and their heavy lid must be closed completely. Nasca notes that cleaning up birdseed and dog doo is also critical to rat control—“it’s high protein, and rats can live off it.”
The Town of Tonawanda has received estimates ranging from $1.2 to $2.3 million to provide residents with totes.
Nasca leads IPM efforts in the buildings under his care. “The nice part about having learned IPM is that I can identify and correct structural deficiencies that allow vermin entry to our facilities,” he says. “This means I can correct a situation in a least-toxic manner before it turns into something bigger.”