IPM Training Tackles Bed Bugs, Cockroaches, and Hoarding

Since 2007 the Northeastern IPM Center has coordinated IPM Training in Public Housing Authorities, a multiregional project that aims to strengthen communities and use integrated pest management to address housing conditions that threaten human health. The project is funded by USDA through an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (Healthy Homes Initiative).

The project’s website, StopPests.org, houses a wealth of training tools, including a train-the-trainer (T4) curriculum for regional experts; a training for Public Housing Authority (PHA) staff, resident leaders, and contractors; and an educational package for residents. Highlights of the site are an online video for tenants (also available as DVD) and newly launched blog on urban pest topics such as bed bugs, rodents, and cockroaches, and possible connections with asthma rates and hoarding behaviors.

Project coordinator Allison Taisey is collaborating with others in this training network to present a 4-hour session titled “Engaging People from Diverse Fields in Urban IPM Programs” at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting in San Diego this December.

As a result of this IPM training project, thirteen PHAs have been trained in IPM and are committed to implementation for one year. In the coming year our Center will continue to assist these PHAs, expand the resources available at StopPests.org, support the work of peer educators at pilot sites, and evaluate the results of this project. We will also support the expansion of IPM in Multifamily Housing by concluding this project with a case study and final report describing lessons learned, delivering materials needed to run additional trainings, and contributing ideas for future IPM work in HUD-funded housing.

The Northeastern IPM Center encourages integrated pest management for reducing risks to human health and the environment.