University of Texas at Arlington
OP-9: Integrated Pest Management

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT The Integrated Pest Management Solution Following the procedures of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program, we focus our approach to treatment on eliminating pests, their harborage areas and their entry points to your facility to provide maximum effectiveness with minimal treatment. IPM is a low or non-chemical alternative of controlling pests through the cooperative teamwork through improving sanitation awareness, proper building exclusion, and low or non-chemical methods of treatment to eliminate a pest infestation to protect the health and safety of employees and the environment. Components of the IPM program include: • Inspection of your facility and its exterior surroundings • Identification of the types of pests present • Identification and investigation of conditions that contribute to infestations • Analysis of current pest activity • Recommendations for limiting and preventing future infestations • Implementation of mechanical methods for controlling pests • Application of highly targeted treatments • Continuous evaluation and fine-tuning of service to meet future needs • Education of your staff about actions that contribute to pest activity Non-chemical Pest Control Methods. Non-chemical pest control methods are used where are feasible and efficacious. These include: • Sanitation (removing food & water sources) • Exclusion • Harborage Removal • Harborage Denial • Trapping & Monitoring • Vacuuming • Lighting 1. Sanitation: Sanitation involves cleaning up and/or removing potential food and water sources for pests. The fewer food sources that are present the fewer pests that can survive. Even something as simple as picking up a lemon that has rolled under a table can prevent a significant fruit fly infestation. A regular schedule of cleaning floors, equipment, floor drains, trash receptacles and dumpsters is the best approach to minimize food sources for pests. Water leaks should be repaired promptly, and wet mops should be hung up to dry properly. 2. Exclusion: Sealing up cracks and holes where pests can enter is the most effective non-chemical method to prevent pests from invading a building. It is impossible, for example, to keep a building free of mouse activity if the doors do not have proper weather-strips. It is important to keep outer doors closed or install tight-fitting screen or storm doors. 3. Harborage Removal: The less shelter that is available, the fewer number of pests that will be able to survive. Removing piles of debris, cutting tall weeds and eliminating cardboard boxes in storage rooms are examples of harborage removal. 4. Harborage Denial: If a harborage cannot be removed, e.g., cracks in interior walls where cockroaches could live, then steps should be taken to deny the pest use of that harborage. The most common procedure used to deny harborages is caulking cracks that may be present - both inside and outside. 5. Environmental Alteration: Changing the environmental conditions of a room or area so that pests cannot survive there can be an effective long-term strategy. For example, a wet crawlspace under a building can serve as a source of infestation for many different types of pests. Installing ventilators and vapor barriers to dry out the crawlspace prevents most pests from living under the building. 6. Interception: When building occupants or workers examine goods and items for pests as they are brought into the building, they often can prevent numerous introductions of pests, especially German cockroaches. This is especially important for food items, in particular bagged or boxed produce. 7. Trapping & Monitoring: Rodents can be effectively controlled in many situations using traps alone. Flying insects can be controlled with properly placed insect light traps in conjunction with good sanitation and exclusion practices. For insect control, traps work best for monitoring activity of insects and other arthropod pests. 8. Vacuuming: Physical removal of pests by vacuuming is rapidly gaining wide acceptance. This technique is especially effective for cockroach and spider control. 9. Heat & Freezing: Heat is currently being effectively used by Terminix in Florida and California to control termites and wood-boring beetles in structures in a process called CleanHeat. Terminix is also using heat in some situations to "flush" cockroaches out of their harborages. By combining vacuuming with flushing insects with hot air, pest control can effectively be accomplished in some situations without occupants having to vacate the area. Items (e.g., food) that are thought to be infested may be frozen at zero degrees Fahrenheit for at least 6 days - if the items can safely be frozen. 10. Lighting: Exterior lights often attract large numbers of nighttime flying insects to buildings where they can enter the building. These insects also serve as food for spiders, which promotes spider infestations. Exterior lighting should always be changed to sodium vapor lamps where feasible to attract as few insects as possible to a building. Contributing Conditions. At the heart of an effort to minimize pesticide usage and still maintain a relatively pest-free environment is the correction or elimination of conditions that may be contributing to a pest infestation. All pests need food, water, and shelter to survive. The less of these available to pests, the fewer number of pests that can survive in a given area. In most cases, it is impossible to remove all of the food, water and shelter sources available to pests. A certain number of pests from the pest population will typically be able to survive. Cleaning up food debris, fixing leaks and removing potential harborages accomplishes lowering the population size so that it will be easier to control the infestation while using a minimum of insecticide applications. Facility Cooperation - Achieving goals of an IPM concept are difficult unless the facility provides its full cooperation in correcting the contributing conditions pointed out by the pest management professional. The longer these contributing conditions are allowed to persist, the greater the need to use pesticides to produce the goal of a pest-free environment. Non-residual Pesticide Applications. Many people believe that IPM means that pesticides will not be used; however, IPM does not preclude the use of pesticides. In some cases, pesticides will need to be implemented, while in other cases, pesticides may not be needed at all. Every situation is different and the Terminix service professional is the person who must analyze the situation and choose the appropriate control measure including when and where to use pesticides. If a pesticide application is required, "low impact" products or non-residual pesticides with acceptable efficacy should be chosen for IPM programs. Low impact insecticides include baits, naturally occurring materials such as boric acid and silica aerogel dusts, and pyrethroids. These materials generally have very low mammalian toxicity and still remain very effective at controlling insects and other arthropod pests. Cultural Recommendation A written sanitation report following each service outlining recommendations for addressing contributing conditions that may be present. To reduce the need for pesticide use, these recommendations should be corrected within a reasonable time frame. The following list details general recommendations to offer the staff of a facility. • Keep stored food products refrigerated or in tightly sealed containers. • Dispose of packing materials, such as grocery bags, cardboard boxes, pallets and shipping boxes that may harbor pests. • Change food suppliers to avoid future infestations. • Identify and isolate foods infrequently used that have been a source of pest infestations. • Upgrade food storage, waste handling and cleaning programs to reduce foods available to pests. • Store goods on shelves away from walls to allow for cleaning behind them. • Clean exterior and interior of ovens and hoods before grease buildups occur. • Avoid leaving food and soiled dishes exposed overnight. • Keep indoor garbage in lined and covered containers. Empty daily. • Inspect for and clean up spills in trash rooms and around dumpsters. • Monitor trash containers frequently and keep clean with fresh trash liners. • Keep dumpster lids closed and drain plugs in place. • Empty and clean recycling bins frequently. • Empty mop buckets and remove sour rags from janitorial closets. • Clean and screen floor drains. • Regularly vacuum carpets, curtains, and upholstery. • Remove lint accumulations from the edges of carpets, crevices, between floorboards, air ducts and registers. • Remove unnecessary charts and crevices in exterior walls. • Mount sinks and other fixtures away from walls to facilitate cleaning. • Install tight exterior doors and loading dock doors fitted with anti-pest tension strips or sweeps and keep doors shut when not in use. • Caulk crevices around doors, windows, vents, and other openings. • Install insect proof screens on windows, vents, and other openings. • Repair plumbing and roof leaks and reduce condensation problems. • Drain puddles, including drip zones under air conditioners. • Clean gutter and drains. • Eliminate bird roosting sites and old nests in which pests can breed. • Trim or remove foundation plantings, vines, and overhanging trees to reduce pest harborages and entry routes and to reduce moisture levels around the foundation. • Keep grass short to remove cover for pests. • Substitute trickle irrigation for overhead watering of trees and shrubs. • Reduce the number of foundation plants, especially flowering perennials that attract pests. • Avoid bringing insect-infested flowers indoors. • Substitute crushed shells, stone, or gravel for bark or other organic mulches. • Leave a bare strip of gravel or concrete around foundations to discourage invasion by outdoor pests. • Use sodium vapor lamps outside to attract fewer flying insects. • Move exterior lighting away from the building. • Keep all exterior electrocuting-type light traps at least 50 feet from the building. • Crumbs from lunches and snacks eaten outside of normal dining areas create feeding opportunities for pests in other sites. • Insecticides used by occupants or maintenance personnel may scatter pests into new areas. • Recently painted walls may cause pests to move to new areas because of temporary irritation from fumes. Monitoring. Un-baited "sticky" monitoring traps may be placed in key situations for pest activity to capture pests as they crawl along walls, in cabinets and similar areas. The purpose of monitoring is to determine which pests, if any, are present, to determine the extent of activity, to pinpoint where pest harborages might be located, and to determine where pests may be entering. In general, monitoring traps should be placed under sinks and in some storage areas. Other areas where monitoring traps should be placed include motor compartments of coolers and kitchen equipment and in cabinets or on shelves where items cannot be easily removed on a frequent basis. Monitoring traps may be secured to both vertical as well as horizontal surfaces. The primary focus of monitoring should be for cockroaches. A secondary use of these traps may be for monitoring occasional invaders, including silverfish, earwigs, crickets and spiders. Although these arthropods may not be specifically targeted pests for the IPM program, their capture may provide useful information. If employees report seeing some unidentified crawling arthropod, e.g., spiders, monitoring traps should be placed in those areas to capture specimens for identification. Depending on the situation, long-term monitoring may then be initiated and maintained. Additional monitoring traps may be placed in other areas as an aid in follow-up evaluation of treatments, especially for cockroaches. For follow-up evaluations, monitoring traps may be baited with a food attractant, such as a bit of banana or a spot of peanut butter. Another type of monitoring for ants is known as "pre-baiting." When ants such as crazy ants, ghost ants, and Pharaoh ants are not present in sufficient numbers to readily observe ant trails back to the colony's location, peanut butter, jelly, Karo syrup etc., (without toxicant) may be placed along likely ant trails. After 15-60 minutes, a significant ant trail is often readily visible that can be followed to the source of the infestation - the colony's location. Monitoring traps should be replaced when they become dusty, damaged, or capture a number of pests. The numbers of pest captured and where they are captured may be recorded. This information may be of future benefit to the overall IPM program. Pheromone Traps. Traps, which use a sex attractant pheromone, may be used to monitor some species of food infesting beetles or moths. Areas where these traps should be used are large food storage rooms or warehouses. Insect Light Traps. Insect light traps (ILTs) utilize ultraviolet UV light waves to attract flies and other flying insects to traps where they should be captured. Electrocuting traps use an electric grid to "zap" insects while other ILTs do not "zap" the insects, but rather use a glue trap behind or under the UV lights to passively capture insects. Whether ILTs will be beneficial and where they might be placed should be determined for each building during the initial IPM survey or in response to a specific flying insect situation. Rodent Control Devices. Several types of traps and rodenticide bait stations are the two types of devices used to control rodent infestations. To eliminate a rodent infestation, every rat or mouse must find and interact with a device and then commit to that device. To achieve this goal, a variety of control devices need to be used in every rodent control situation. Using only one type of trap or relying on rodenticide baits alone usually results in failure to eliminate a rodent infestation.