Pest Management Professional, November 2010

Rodents The New Art of War General Stanley McChrystals writings on counterinsurgency doctrine provide much food for thought By George Rotramel Contributor P est management and military strategies have been intertwined for a long time Exterminate comes from the Roman word for push beyond our borders Spray and pray insect control and bait and wait rodent control follow the principles of conventional warfare in part because many of their application techniques were developed during and shortly after World Wars I and II The principles of integrated pest management IPM on the other hand were first conceived in a non military setting and are more aligned with the principles of counterinsurgency COIN warfare Pest Management Professionals PMPs who think their job is to kill rats or any other urban pest are still trying to fight a conventional war where the goal is victory the point at which the adversary ceases to fight But as PMP Hall of Famer Bob Dold Sr has said Rats dont read the Wall Street Journal They dont surrender either In a conventional warfare the goal is for the enemy to surrender COIN doctrine makes no demands The enemy can stay and become a target quit or leave The goal of COIN and by analogy urban IPM is not victory but success the point at which the adversary is no longer a threat General Stanley McChrystals writings on COIN strategy and tactics illustrate several principles that can be invaluable to PMPs who deal with rats and other area wide pest problems in urban environments Ive pulled a few examples from McChrystals ISAF Guidance Document for this article Download his seven page paper for yourself at NATO int isaf docu official_ texts counterinsurgency_ guidance pdf 1 Protecting people is the mission PMPs know their primary mission is protecting their clients but they often lose focus when a health inspector tells their client Get this place cleaned up within 24 hours or we are going to shut you down The client panics starts sweeping washing throwing things out moving things around and sealing up drains and other openings This often occurs before the service technician arrives I had one case in which the maintenance staff stuffed steel wool in a hole in an interior wall and surrounded the hole with five rat traps set in an arc The inspector took a picture of the steel wool which she thought was rat fur interpreted the traps as conclusive evidence of a serious problem and used these two facts as part of the argument to shut the plant down all before the service technician arrived A company that practices COIN IPM knows cleaning up and rat proofing in the wrong sequence can trap rats inside a structure and keep traps from working for several days In the meantime the inspector might shut the business down A company with a mission to protect clients will explain what needs to be done when and why and keep the client in business In commercial accounts the mission of COIN IPM is protecting clients by protecting their businesses 2 We will not succeed simply by killing insurgents PMPs know killing rats particularly roof rats will not solve customers problems over the long term Customers their neighbors scavengers local governments and PMPs must cooperate to achieve the desired result COIN IPM doctrine puts the emphasis on developing and maintaining these cooperative relationships 3 The insurgencys supply of fighters and leadership is effectively endless PMPs know commercial accounts where bait and wait programs have harvested the same number of rats per week or month for years The client thinks this is fine until staff or a delivery person props open the back door and lets a rat inside A company practicing COIN IPM knows activity at 62 PEST management professional NOVEMBER 2010 www mypmp net