Pest Management Professional, December 2012

friendly Manufacturers are always searching for new green technology Biotechnology or genetically modified products Scientists are making substantial progress on genomic research that includes DNA and RNA technology There are RNA products being tested against various insect pests with promising data These products are target specific and offer clean and green technology What are the top three obstacles facing the pest management industry Formal education To understand the holistic pest control concepts its important to know the basic biology ecology and behavior of target pests Such knowledge is gained through formal education and interaction In general the pest control industry has too much turnover and it may be because of lack of training and not making the technician a part of the company culture with professionals in the same field The changing technology requires much more knowledge and it is only going to come through education Inadequate training Newly hired technicians are asked to provide service too soon and sometimes with improper supervision In general the pest control industry has too much turnover and it may be because of lack of training and not making the technician a part of company culture Many company owners or managers offer minimum time for training and education because they feel technicians must be making money for the company all the time Many companies are more profitable when they invest in training and retaining employees for the long term Too much emphasis on profit driven services At times the technicians are overloaded with work so they make the maximum amount of money possible This minimizes quality and customer service Often customers are unhappy and cancel the service Companies with thorough service and customer relationships keep the accounts for longer and get repeat customers resulting in a healthy bottom line What are the industrys top three opportunities Structural pest control public health pest control and stored product pests All of these can be grouped together under one umbrella There always are new invasive species arriving through imports and exports When is the next Nebraska Urban Pest Management UPM Conference The 2013 UPM Conference is scheduled for Feb 12 and 13 in Lincoln The conference provides a unique opportunity for pest management professionals PMPs to listen to nationally and internationally known speakers about current topics that are important to the success of the pest control industry We have laboratory sessions with hands on identification of pests and their damage which are unique These sessions are offered only by Nebraska in the U S The conference is principally attended by PMPs from Nebraska but PMPs from South Dakota Colorado Iowa Kansas Missouri and California also attend This years speakers include Dr Roger Gold Dr Michael Rust Dr Michael Scharf Dr James Campbell Dr Mustapha Debboun Ms Gail Getty Dr Stephen Kells Dr Bill Donahue Dr Justin Schmidt and Dr Gary Braness PMP Jerry Mix was editor publisher of PMP until his retirement in 2004 Contact Mix a member of the PMP Hall of Fame Class of 2005 at jnmix@ aol com AT A GLANCE Dr Shripat T Kamble Professor Urban Entomology Universtiy of Nebraska Years in pest management 38 Industry mentors Dr Roger Gold Dr Gary Bennett Dr Michael Rust Dr Charles Wright and Dr John Osmun Top three industry achievements Horizontal and vertical movement of termiticides in various soils Fate of termiticides in various soils under field conditions Insecticide resistance in cockroaches www mypmp net Pest Management Professional December 2012 79