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CHICAGO — Pest management professionals and quality assurance professionals learned some of the finer points of providing pest management in food warehouses and distribution centers at the PCT/QA Pest Management in Food Warehouses and Distribution Centers seminars, held last week in Chicago and Baltimore. Featuring Dr. Bobby Corrigan of RMC Pest Management Consulting and Ole Dosland of QCC Services, the seminars covered everything from how to conduct a thorough facility inspection to how to prepare for a successful audit. In addition, Corrigan and Dosland reviewed successful strategies for controlling commonly encountered pests such as rodents, flies, birds and stored product pests. The format of the advanced seminars allowed for Dosland and Corrigan to explore these subjects in greater depth. For example, Dosland defined IPM as “a preventative pest management system that combines several methods to keep pests below levels that may cause a loss of profit.” He then broke down IPM into the following components: inspection/identification; exclusion, housekeeping; physical; employee actions; monitoring; and treatments. Dosland provided tips establishing preventative conditions to eliminate pests on grounds, buildings and in/on products. For example, pallets can often be damaged or can damage rodent bait stations when forklift operators unload pallets too close to a wall – not allowing the recommended 18- to 24-inch clearance. Dosland said this can be avoided by painting a “drop line” 48 inches out from the wall to give a forklift operator a stopping point. Corrigan also provided his keys to pest management for food storage facilities and went into details on pests such as rodents, stored product pests and flying insects. For example, Corrigan said a common problem he’s observed is placing too much pest management attention on the open side of a warehouse. “Don’t overlook the importance of the wind, which will blow odors back into the warehouse. Target your pest control services in areas that are downwind.” Another topic Corrigan touched on was the industry’s use of scanning and bar coding. While Corrigan commended those companies that are using this new technology, he said he’s observed that companies are not analyzing that data, and thus not taking full advantage of this technology. In addition to the presentations from Dosland and Corrigan, the Pest Management in Food Warehouses and Distribution Centers Seminar provided networking opportunities and a chance to learn about products and services from the event’s sponsors: Liphatech, MGK, Steritech, Syngenta, Trece Inc., and Whitmire Micro-Gen.