REDUCING INSECTICIDE USE AND LABOR THROUGH PRECISION BED BUG IPM

Bed bugs continue to be an important public health pest in the U.S. and are very difficult to control. Low-income communities suffer disproportionally higher bed bug infestation rates. Once infestations are reported, pesticide sprays are typically used extensively to control bed bugs, regardless of bed bug distribution and population levels. After treatment, the results are not monitored and retreatment is dependent on resident complaints, which are highly unreliable. Professional pest control companies usually require residents to prepare their residence, following an extensive preparation list. The preparations are time-consuming, labor intensive and often over burdensome, especially for elderly individuals or individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, the exhaustive nature of these preparations facilitates bed bug dispersal and complicates treatment due to relocation of the infested personal items. These practices cause chronic infestations, large amount of insecticide usage, and high risk of pesticide exposure to humans, as well as exacerbating the development of insecticide resistance in field populations of bed bugs. This, in turn, results in more pesticide applications and even higher risks of pesticide exposure. There is a critical need to design and implement cost-effective and safer bed bug management programs. Our objectives for this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a threshold-based bed bug management program thatuses integrated pest management (IPM) technique; This IPM program differs from those current practices in that: 1) it will not require residents to do comprehensive treatment preparation; 2) it provides post treatment inspection and monitoring to determine bed bug numbers, guide treatment, and determine when infestations have been eliminated; and 3) it uses a threshold-based system to limit the use of pesticides.