Thank you for attending Pest Invasion 2014. We hope you found the meeting informative and beneficial to you and your business.

Key Highlights from the Seminar:

Over 340 pest management, environmental health and food safety professionals gathered on April 15^th in Oakbrook Terrace for McCloud’s Pest Invasion. This year’s meeting featured a variety of top speakers on both current food safety and pest management topics. Invited speakers included Dr. Michael Doyle of UGA’s Food Safety Center, Dr. David Acheson former chief medical officer of FDA and USDA, Dr. Robert Corrigan of NYC Health Department, Dr. Phil Koehler of University of Florida, Dr. Rizana Mahroof of University of South Carolina and Dr. Ted Granovsky of Granovsky and Associates.

The central theme of the conference was the safety of our food supply, regulatory changes in the food processing industry and the pest connections to food safety. Topics ranged from the Food and Drug Administration’s, Food Safety Modernization Act to changes in pheromone monitoring and control options for stored product pests. Key take-away points from the conference include:

There is a shift in food production from the U.S. to foreign countries with many of our agricultural commodities being produced now in China, Brazil and Mexico. This has implications for food safety if the same safe standards of production are not followed. The trend is towards increased production in these countries.
At the same time that we are seeing a shift in the geography of where foods are being produced, we are changing our eating and preparation habits. There is a trend for consumption of foods raw which increases the chance of food borne illness. Foods not previously associated with food borne illness outbreaks are more commonly associated with illness such spinach and other leafy greens. There is a trend towards the consumption of unpasteurized foods like milk and the use of microwaves for cooking foods. Undercooking and uneven cooking of foods in microwave ovens has been an issue from a food safety standpoint.
Economically motivated food adulteration has been a concern in the recent years. This is the deliberate contamination of food to increase profits. The melamine adulteration of pet food in 2007 would be an example of such practices.
There is potential for the UVa bulbs used in insect light traps to extend their use past one year. Research at the University of Florida is comparing aged bulbs versus new bulbs in efficacy for killing flies both in the lab and the field. Initial tests being performed by graduate student, John Cooksey are showing that the efficacy of bulb life may be longer than originally thought. The differences in the ability to attract insects to an aged versus new bulb may not be as significant as originally thought. In addition to the bulb study, it was found that although previous research indicated a greater attraction to white glueboards in insect light traps over black glue boards, their research indicated no significant difference. Dr. Koehler also presented information on new fly bait products which are either new to the market or will be available soon. Many of these products are showing good efficacy against both the house fly and phorid flies. Examples of these products include FMC’s End Zone and Syngenta’s Zyrox. Zyrox will be the first fly bait on the market in the EPA reduced risk category.
Non-toxic colored monitoring rodent baits can be useful in determining ranges and travel paths of rodents. The normal home range of a house mouse is generally considered to average 15-30 feet. In one study, Dr. Robert Corrigan found mice moving 14 stories inside a building. Fluorescent dyes in non-toxic monitoring baits or “tracking baits” were fed upon by mice. The colored droppings appeared multiple stories away from the placement of the bait. Fluorescent dyes are particularly useful because they can easily be seen in darkened areas with the use of a black light inspection tool.
Dr. Corrigan also emphasized the importance of using analysis initially and on a continuing basis when performing rodent management. A template for equipment placement may be used as a general guideline but it is important to combine that with an initial analysis and ongoing analysis to modify that template as needed.