Roaches the Appartment Pest
| Roaches | The Apartment pest | | Timothy Osborne | 12/3/2012 |
Roaches and other pest seem to be immune to most pesticides nowadays. In the past few years I have notice that regardless how much you bomb, spray or put out traps they always come back, sometimes with a vengeance. In most communities, mainly apartment complexes, management hire exterminators for preventative measures. But in most cases it’s already too late for that. In recent years there have been studies performed to see why this is and what can be done to fix this ongoing problem. Entomologists by the name of Jules Silverman and Donald N. Bieman conducted an experiment with German cockroaches that were gathered from apartments and a control group of cockroaches that were reared in a lab. Their findings were quite surprising as the insects grown in the lab had no preconceived notion that the poison/bait was dangerous the ones collected from the apartments would touch the bait with their antennas and quickly back off. The evidence gathered showed that the roaches that had been exposed to the different types of poison before were more weary and seemed to not be attracted to the glucose or sugar that had been contaminated by poison.
Very few animals avoid glucose (Silverman 1993). This leads me to believe that over time insects and other pest are adapting to the use of pesticides that are normal used in apartments. The developments of other types of pesticides are being created and should be used instead of the glucose based ones. There have been advances in the use of pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses that are probably the most important methods of pest control. One of these is Bacillus thuringiensis, which is a commercial pesticide. One of the pluses for using pathogenic pesticides is that they are usually not harmful to humans and safe for beneficial insects. These methods are called IPM (integrated pest management).
Several other ways to treat this problem is
Roaches and other pest seem to be immune to most pesticides nowadays. In the past few years I have notice that regardless how much you bomb, spray or put out traps they always come back, sometimes with a vengeance. In most communities, mainly apartment complexes, management hire exterminators for preventative measures. But in most cases it’s already too late for that. In recent years there have been studies performed to see why this is and what can be done to fix this ongoing problem. Entomologists by the name of Jules Silverman and Donald N. Bieman conducted an experiment with German cockroaches that were gathered from apartments and a control group of cockroaches that were reared in a lab. Their findings were quite surprising as the insects grown in the lab had no preconceived notion that the poison/bait was dangerous the ones collected from the apartments would touch the bait with their antennas and quickly back off. The evidence gathered showed that the roaches that had been exposed to the different types of poison before were more weary and seemed to not be attracted to the glucose or sugar that had been contaminated by poison.
Very few animals avoid glucose (Silverman 1993). This leads me to believe that over time insects and other pest are adapting to the use of pesticides that are normal used in apartments. The developments of other types of pesticides are being created and should be used instead of the glucose based ones. There have been advances in the use of pathogens such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses that are probably the most important methods of pest control. One of these is Bacillus thuringiensis, which is a commercial pesticide. One of the pluses for using pathogenic pesticides is that they are usually not harmful to humans and safe for beneficial insects. These methods are called IPM (integrated pest management).
Several other ways to treat this problem is
References: Pennisi, E. (1993, January 9). How a cockroach lost its sweet tooth. (research on resistance to poison) (Brief Article). Science News, Vol 143 Issue 2, p27. Siddiqi, Z. (2007, November 1). Outwit and outsmart pests: following basic, integrated pest management protocols now can dramatically reduce the incidence of pest infestation later. (feature article). Nursing Homes, 56(11), 46, 48. Lecard, M. (1996, March 1). Old Acquaintance. Sierra, Vol. 81, p26. Ralof, J. (1986, June 14). Roaches: The Battle Continues; Evicting the Most Common Roaches May Get Easier. Science News, Vol. 129, Issue 24, p378-379