NJPMA Optimistic About 2009

Looking for a Recession-proof job? Then think about the pest control industry because, as Leonard Douglen, executive director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association, says, “Mother Nature never relents.”

Douglen calls 2008 “the year of the bed bug” because the return of this obnoxious invader made news all year as homes, apartments, dormitories and everywhere else people lay down to sleep. It became an increasing nightmare of bloodsucking bugs that challenged the industry to find and eliminate them.

“In New Jersey,” Douglen noted, “several members of the State Assembly introduced legislation to make landlords entirely responsible for keeping apartment complexes free of bed bug infestations.” There were severe outbreaks in Hudson and other counties.

“Lyme disease,” noted Douglen “has become the most common tick-borne illness in the United States with more than 181,000 confirmed cases reported since 1990. New Jersey’s large population of white-tailed deer is among the most common carriers of the ticks, as are squirrels and other wildlife.

“We can thank New Jersey’s pioneering mosquito control program for keeping the spread of West Nile virus in check,” said Douglen. He expressed concern that foreclosed properties throughout the State with pools, birdbaths, and gutters filled with rain water, might become breeding grounds for a significant increase in the mosquito population.

The capacity of Nature to bring forth billions of insect pests and millions of rodent pests “defies the imagination”, says Douglen, citing the many different of just one species, ants. “Termites are commonly understood to be a major cause of property damage, but carpenter ants often do as much damage to homes and other structures throughout the State.”

Experts estimate there may be as many as 10,000 species of ants throughout the world. “Ants routinely invade homes in search of food. Identifying the species and where their nests are located requires a great deal of training and the right tools to exterminate them.”

“We all know that honey bees are essential to agriculture for pollination, but there are other species such as Carpenter bees that can damage property and, of course, a wide variety of stinging insects in the wasp family. No homeowner wants to discover a Yellow Jacket or Paper-nest Wasp colony has taken up residence.” Hundreds of thousands will emerge in the spring.

Pest control professionals know that cold weather is the signal for a variety of rodent species to seek warmth in homes and other structures. “They have survived for thousands of years,” said Douglen, “and their capacity to breed is astonishing. Human habitat provides an endless supply of food and water, particularly if pets are part of the family.”

Douglen expressed the hope that “a very environmentally committed administration under the new president will recognize that the proper use of pesticides is necessary to the control of insect and rodent pest populations.” New Jersey’s own Lisa Jackson, former commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection since 2006, is slated to join the new administration as the new Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She formerly worked in the EPA from 1987 to 2002.

Douglen noted that the association “has worked closely with the NJDEP from its inception to develop guidelines and standards necessary to control insect and rodent pest populations.”

The pest management profession, said Douglen, has led the way in the development of Integrated Pest Management techniques that emphasize the least use of pesticides and a variety of techniques to deter insect and rodent pest infestations. “The wholesale banning of the use of pesticides, however, is detrimental to the necessity of controlling pests that threat health and are responsible for millions in property damage.”

“Our association has, for years, held educational sessions on IPM and related topics and, each August, we sponsor a full day of seminars by the nation’s experts that is attended by more than six hundred of the State’s pest control company owners and technicians.”

 Founded in 1941, the Association maintains a website at www.njpestcontrol.com.