Urban Pest Management: the Need for a Correct Mixture of Knowledge and Practice - Urban Insect Pests: Sustainable Management Strategies - page 197

on basic bed bug biology (Romero et al. ,
2007; Benoit, 2009; Wang et al. , 2009, 2013).
This trend of seeking more knowledge will
continue until a safe, effective, and econom-
ically viable tool for bed bug management is
invented. If past behaviour is an indication
of what to expect in the future, the
importance of knowledge and practice will
again decline, if a cure for bed bug problems
is invented, and the cycle will repeat.
The German cockroach, B. germanica ,
shares a similar history and is the perfect
example to illustrate the cyclical nature of
low reliance on knowledge and practice
when effective control tools are available
versus high reliance on knowledge and
practice when effective controls are not
available. Historically, German cockroaches,
much like bed bugs, were controlled with a
wide range of home remedies that had low
effi cacy and often included ingredients that
were highly toxic to humans (Mallis, 1969).
The lack of basic knowledge on cockroach
biology precluded the use of knowledge-
based decisions in cockroach management
and practice was limited to homeowners
applying self-conceived and over-the-
counter insecticides. Control diffi culties
with cockroaches and a variety of other
urban and medical pests placed a greater
emphasis on research and development and
by the 1940s the insecticidal properties of
chlorinated hydrocarbon were discovered.
Chlordane, one such chlorinated hydro-
carbon, rapidly became the insecticide of
choice for cockroach control. Within a few
years, however, resistance to chlordane
became widespread and its usage had to be
abandoned (Grayson, 1966). The subsequent
use of organophosphate insecticides also
had to be abandoned due to resistance,
repellency and safety issues. The belief that
insecticides could be used as a 'cure-all'
and a substitute for practice and hard work
quickly evaporated.
The focus soon shifted to the pursuit of
better knowledge and practice for cockroach
management. The discovery of hydra-
methylnon in the early 1980s resulted in the
development of modern baits for cockroach
control (Milio et al ., 1986; Koehler et al .,
1996). Subsequently, improvements in bait

formulations and the discovery of numerous
other active ingredients expanded the
reliance on baits (Appel, 1990; Rust et al .,
1995). Baits offered the ease of application,
long residual activity and excellent effi cacy.
These attributes once again made it
relatively easy to control cockroaches and
shifted the reliance from knowledge and
practice-based control to purely chemical
control. Most recently, new developments
such as insecticide resistance (Gondhalekar
and Scharf, 2012) and bait aversion (Wang
et al. , 2004) are again limiting effective
cockroach control and tipping the balance
in favour of more prudent control ap-
proaches that incorporate chemical tools
into a more sustainable management pro-
gramme.
These lessons in history demonstrate the
cyclical nature of the pest management
industry, the related chemical manufacturing
industry, and the changing importance of
knowledge and practice in urban pest
management. They show that history tends
to repeat itself and that urban-pest-related
problems are often human dependent.
Lessons learned from the past should direct
the pest management industry towards
implementing meaningful and sustainable
practices based on the concept of integrated
pest management (IPM). The primary goal
of these efforts should be to limit the
reliance on purely chemical control and
increase the reliance on knowledge and
practice-based control.

Pest Management in Agricultural
Versus Urban Systems

To meet humanity's need for food and
housing, natural land is primarily converted
to two types of use: farmland and urban
land. The USA has a total land area of
approximately 2.3 billion acres. In 2007,
farmland accounted for 18% of total land
area and urban land accounted for 3%
(Nickerson et al ., 2011). The year 2007 is
also highly signifi cant because the world's
urban population exceeded its rural
population for the fi rst time (Nickerson et
al ., 2011). Both farmland and urban land are