Uncategorized Archives - Urban Pest Management

10JulJuly 10, 2020

About School of IPM@UPM

School of IPM @ UPM is one and only institute of its own kind established in 2018 to offer qualitative learning bytop-class qualified professionals under one roof for genuine and unbiased pest managementsolutions through IPM. As it is a source of pride to lead Pakistan’s most luminous institution whichshines as an example of excellence in the sphere of higher learning about IPM.

We foresee our institute as a leading light in pest management industry in Pakistan by setting

courses and training in collaboration with research institutes administering eco-friendly practices

into force to fulfill the need of increasing mouths. We believe that a professionally dressed

community is mandatory to let people educate how things are titled as pests, how necessary to

save them and keeping them away from our confines side by side by embracing modern though

simple cultural and mechanical ways.School of IPM @ UPM is dignified to play a vital role to drive the country into a knowledge through trainings,seminars, workshops, for the betterment of society.

We are emerging leaders who have always helped in shaping tomorrow. We look forward towelcoming you to the School of IPM @ UPM!

MISSION

Our mission is to provide professionals to the society capable of thinking in a

creative and critical way to manage pest and make them equipped with knowledge

and expertise to develop their leadership potential and make a positive contribution

to public life. School of IPM @ UPM aspires to achieve excellence and national leadership through

unparalleled training and education on pest management while serving critical

needs of the society.

VISION

To be a nationally acclaimed research-based training institute that serves the society

through excellence in professional pest management education & advice for

strengthening our identity at National and International level as pest specialist.

INSTITUTION

The School of IPM @ UPM is Pakistan’s first institute that is entirely grounded on sharing awareness about modern pest management tactics. Our main focus of delivering instructions is based on neglected fields with a vision to bring improvement for pest management.

School of IPM @ UPM is all set to sustain the essentials of society in terms of food & shelter which is boosting up with every passing day, but many pests keep bugging around to hinder the quality of life one or another way. Pests can be categorized as organisms that interfere with human dealings directly or indirectly leading towards severe losses even in death sometimes. Direct damage could be seen as Malaria, Dengue Fever, Leprosy, Plague, Typhoid, Elephantitis, Filariasis, Asthma, Allergies, food damage, etc. According to a rough estimate, 280 million people could be feed on that food which is damaged only by rodents annually. Only flies can capable of transmitting 65 diseases to humans. While, structure breakdown, nuisance, attracting other pests through contaminated food, and droppings could be the possibilities of indirect damage.

At all times, Chemicals have been enjoying chief priority to control pests, but this priority level must come down because pests become wiser to overcome these chemicals also their massive residual effects could not be swallowed any more. That is why PIPM has to emerge with its all strength in collaboration with Research Institutes, High- profile Entomologist, Zoologist, and Ecologist to teach how one can create equilibrium between humans and pest’s life to enjoy the blessings of Allah.

The School of IPM @ UPM follows the principle of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). It is the integration of all possible and compatible pest control measures. IPM basically follows the saying:

Prevention is better than Cure

Prevention includes cultural and sanitation practices.

Cure includes the treatment with more degradable and less persistent pesticides only when there would be a high infestation level and all other measures are not enough to maintain the threshold level.

School of IPM @ UPM ensures to support professionals to continue their intellectual development related to the field of IPM principles in any way.

School of IPM @ UPM Chapters:

We are working as an institute slanted towards excellence in IPM through Research, Awareness Seminars, Trainings, Workshops, and Certification.

Trainings:

Trainings deliver information by highly qualified Entomologists and Zoologists about basic entomology and zoology, pest identification, its biology, and Pest specific IPM rules to manage them. Because every pest needs different effective control measures according to its biology and life stage. Trainings could be of one or two days.

Awareness seminars:

Seminars are being organized nationwide to aware of what actually pests are? Research-based awareness about injudicious and misuse of pesticides is the main agenda of seminars which is eating our environment slowly. And how pests are managed by less hazardous ways technically? Last but not least is to highlight the research and extension gap between academia, industries, and folks.

Research & Development:

Research & Development department of School of IPM @ UPM is dedicated to explore and develop best pest-specific control measures according to our environment considering pest biology and behavior in different circumstances.

Workshops:

Workshops are being arranged countrywide by the School of IPM @ UPM to demonstrate IPM workings practically like how, when, and how many Preventive measures could be implemented to block the activities of pest management inside our premises? How and when pesticide application should do? What safety measures should adopt to do pesticide spray? Workshops could be of 15 days comprising lessons, practicals and exams evaluation.

IPM School-Live Streaming:

To extend our school to those partners where we cannot reach physically due to uncertain times, we have the opportunity to facilitate them with web-based trainings and technical knowledge to be updated technically.

Certification:

Certificates are being provided as a license that witnesses a qualified pest control operator technician after passing through a complete exam system.

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16MayMay 16, 2020

Fears Grow Over New Asian Giant Hornet Outbreak!

Let’s peak Inside!

There is no doubt that they are larger of all known hornet species around world as name indicates originated from Asia.

So no offence to call them “The Mighty Giant Hornet”

A queen’s body length can exceed 5 cm, with a wingspan that can exceed 7.6 cm with a unique characteristic orange head and black-banded orange body.

Fact with Fact is that…

Like any other social wasp, they will defend their nest and aggressive if the colony is disrupted then, they won’t see who was in or out in plan. Moreover, they are multiple stingers and to humans these multiple stings can cause fatalities.

To mention here is that they are not predators of human but to honeybees. They are also voracious predators capable of massacring entire honey bee hives in a matter of hours— decapitating thousands of the hive’s adult bees and absconding with the helpless larvae to feed the hornets’ own brood.

Globally, from these hornets 60 to 80 people die from allergic reactions to honey bee stings in the U.S. only about 40 people die per year, in Asia, mostly in Japan, from reactions to the giant hornet sting.

Like other creatures honey bees know their natural enemy and have a plot to defend him-they wait for a hornet to enter their nest, then mob it by surrounding it completely with their bodies.

Each honeybee vibrates its wings, and the combined warming of honey bee bodies raises the temperature in the center of the cluster to 122 degrees F (50 degrees C), killing the hornet. Carbon dioxide levels in the nest also increase during this process, which contributes to the hornet’s death.

Comprehensively, It would be great to compile that they are stingers and predators of honeybee hives by nature that nobody can alter. So it is better to call a professional if you have witnessed any hornet around your hive rather of putting your own science and got defeated by hornets at the end and being claimed of a murder!

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29OctOctober 29, 2019

Brown Planthoppers Turns Lahore City into Dark!

Humidity in air, precipitation, almost hot days, moderate nights and frequent rainfall call many pests to invade urban areas. Swarmer’s, mosquitoes, flies, moths, centipedes and hoppers are some most alarming pests now a days in Lahore, Pakistan. Brown planthoppers are being on top irritating pests and have set the records to raid every type of living style from home to streetlamps, parks, restaurants, malls, shops and other public buildings turning them into complete dark as they are not behind human beings like all other pests instead they face urban areas forcefully in the lust of artificial light. They usually do not bite but their presence create nuisance, irritation and pose a big threat to food safety and hygiene in food preparation, processing and storage areas and turning them into complete darkness.

Brown planthoppers are brown in color, wings are transparent with very conspicuous veins. Young nymphs are white in color but on later instars they turn into brown color. They remain active throughout the year.

They are basically agricultural pest of rice resulting almost 60% yield losses through sucking the cell sap annually and also responsible for transmitting viruses to rice crop.

Smartness of their survival:

Brown plant hoppers usually exhibits dimorphism i.e. long winged and short winged adults termed as macropterous and brachypterous respectively. Macropterous adult formation (that type which we face in urban environment around lights) is a way to stop, migrate or reduce their population as they are not able to reproduce and survive as long and as much as brachypterous. That’s why we find many of them dead around light floor in the morning.

Mystery behind exposure of hoppers in urban environment:

We see our lightbulbs covered with brown plant hoppers are basically migrants from rice fields. This migration could be of two reasons:

Over population of hoppers in rice field.
When rice is on its harvesting stage, they feel low precipitation content and food and water scarcity there and start to migrate towards relatively higher conditions as now a day in urban areas of Lahore.

Management:

First and foremost, it is responsibility of agriculture sector to manage their population under tolerable number through use of efficient resistant rice cultivars, timely monitor their population and pesticide resistant and apply controls accordingly. So that, they could less interfere human being lives.
Exterior light management could be effective in urban environment to minimize their activity. Use of sodium halogen bulbs and yellow light instead of white is very effective as they do not respond towards yellow light.
Use of sticky tapes around light also provide control.
Proper weed and plant management around buildings is also be useful because they might be providing them habitat as enriched with moisture.
Installation of air curtains, laser gates and strip curtains on all loading, entrance doors and in partitions of compartment would also hinder their entrance into our premises.
Installation and keeping active of EFK and ILT’s on recommended places would attract and trap them and giving some control.
Pesticide application won’t be effective and recommended as space treatment could not be implemented due to pesticide hazards towards urban environment as it would be agriculture and they will surely come back again whenever you turned on light yet prevention can control them somehow.

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07NovNovember 7, 2018

Pest Management Practices

In 1950’s Entomologists discovered that insects and pest were developing resistance to pesticides because of their excessive use and abuse. On the other hand Environmentalists were concerned about the destruction and risk of pesticides relating to the atmosphere. In 1960’s Rachel Carson‘s book named as Silent Spring warned people with the problems associated with pesticides.

Then a holistic solution to the problem of managing injurious insects and other pest was evolved named as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an effective environmentally sensitive approach to manage pest that is based on a combination of more than one appropriate practice. IPM programs use current and wide-ranging information on the life cycles of the pest, history of the pests and their interaction with the environment. This information is used to manage pest and damage caused by it with the least possible hazard to people, their assets, and the environment.

IPM is not a single pest control method but, rather a series or combination of different strategies to reduce and to manage pest at its minimum. For standard pest management practices following steps are being included:

Monitoring, Identification and setting a Threshold: Noticing a single pest does not always mean that control is needed. Firstly monitoring is done to take an idea of pest population if population is enough to cause economic loss (Threshold) then pest is identified to apply an appropriate pest control strategy.

Prevention: It includes Exclusion, Habitat Alteration and Sanitation. Sealing of cracks and crevices, penetration gaps or any other gap that allows a pest to access the building is the part of exclusion. Recommendations in regard to habitat modification or cultural behavior might include proper storage of food along with refuse and recyclable best practices, the importance of addressing moisture issues, spillage and cleaning up of environment are sanitation practices. These practices play the best role in IPM.

Control: Control regarding to pest are of two types.

Physical Control that is incorporation of nonchemical devices to monitor and assist in controlling pest populations. These items include snap traps, multiple catch traps, various insect monitors, animal cadge, rodent adhesion pads and insect light traps.

Chemical Control is least recommended in IPM strategies. Pesticides are used only when all other tactics fail to control pest population. Pesticide that is to be used should be biodegradable and environmental friendly.

Training: It is also an important part of pest management practices. Train staff and clients as well to make them aware of pest, its hazards, identification and about use of pesticides. Person who is to apply pesticides must have PPE’s, must read label and must be aware of its handling, storage and its disposal. Training of client is important to make them engage with your practices of pest control and it will make this job easy to do. Documentation of each and every activity is necessary in the field and it must be communicated with Client.

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07NovNovember 7, 2018

IPM in Food Industry

Pests are intrinsically drawn towards food following 20% food production losses during post-harvest practices, broadcast deadly diseases, nuisance, contamination of food and structural damage, all these factors making the food industry more vulnerable leading towards proper pest management to meet increasing food demand day by day, international food quality and quantity standards, keeping a positive bottom line and rock-solid reputation for products.

A combo of preventive and treatment practices should run side by side under the umbrella of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to prevent pest infestation losses because food areas are enriched with pest loving accommodations, have ample of sweet and nutritious food stock, so, single treatment will not give enough control due to plenty of breeding and food sources.

IPM program enhances the long-term stability of the assets and protection against pests.
Provide a long-term solution to the pest problem
Decreased use of chemical application
Reduces risks to the health of staff members.
Result in financial savings.

IPM involves the following steps:

Inspection
Monitoring
Preventive Action
Treatment
Documentation

Inspection:

Inspection is done to identify the:

Type and number of actual and potential pests
Locate the possible entryways and gaps of building
Detailed inspection of interior and exterior building and all incoming supplies provides the sources of infestation.

Monitoring:

Monitoring is done by using traps to identify the intensity and distribution of pests in and around the building.

Preventive Actions:

Exclusion, Sanitation and Habitat Alteration a includes in preventive action.

Exclusion:

Performing structural maintenance to close potential entry points revealed during an inspection.
Caulking and sealing of gaps, screening the vents and exhausts, apply nylon door strips, apply Metal sheet injunctions of walls, floors, and ceilings.
Installing air curtains, air doors and strip curtains to the dock doors.

Sanitation:

Sanitation and housekeeping will reduce the potential food and water sources, ultimately reducing the breeding rate that eventually lowers the pest population.

Habitat Alteration:

This approach leads towards the modification or eliminating the possible habitat or shelter of a pest.

Treatment:

In food areas chemical treatment should least be preferred, so use:

Physical and Mechanical means like Heat & Cold-Water Treatment, Vacuuming, Insect Light Traps, Live Traps, Sticky Traps, Lure Traps, Glue Boards, Roach Pheromone Traps etc. They are safe, environment-friendly bio-degradable and less hazardous.
If the infestation is so high and running out of hands, then move towards location-suitable, pest-Gap fit treatment like Non-volatile Gel Baiting, Bait applied in Temper resistant Bait Stations, IRS, Fogging and Misting. Chemicals used in these tactics must be environment-friendly, biodegradable and less hazardous chemical treatment. Application, Storing and Mixing methods should follow International standards.

Documentation:

Installing of different devices, No. of each device installed, Trapping trend of pests, Replacement or adding of devices, Application, Frequency, Quantity, Time and form of application of Chemical against the specific pest, visits from pest management professionals should be documented as a record. It will help to pass Food Safety Audit also give a comprehensive data of pest visit trend and their control measures at a specific place.

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