Frank Andorka, editorial director of Pest Management Professional, had this tidbit on his blog today:
At the State Association Leaders session this morning, Scott Steckel, president of this fine company and president of this organization did a great job of explaining how important it is for state associations to get into the bed bug fight so states don’t pass legislation that inhibits your ability to do your job. He diagnosed part of the problem as a battle between most state Departments of Health and Agriculture (in an attempt to keep high levels in a time of budget crunches).
Yeah, inside baseball…
Still, we’re paying attention—with something like envy because our own lawmakers in New York, for the most part, aren’t even interested in bed bugs, much less engaged in a “bed bug fight” with any interests! See, that would be a good problem to have.
I’m sure once they think about it carefully, they’ll realize that there is only one right side for the pest control industry in this fight. In these times of rampant bed bugs and just a bad situation that is becoming worse by the day for so many bed bug sufferers? Only one side!
These pages may be of related interest:
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Interesting piece of information. In California I have not heard of any situations where the government is trying to monopolize work with bed bugs or take it away from the private sector. Clearly, the public needs all the help it can get. At least at our local level, my experience is that the agriculture department has its’ hands full and welcomes the efforts of the private sector, so long as the proper regulations are followed. It is unfortunate if this type of cooperation is not happening in some other states. Perhaps the best thing we can do is form alliances within those sectors, as well as being guardians at the legislative gates.
I’m not sure that that is what is happening in Ohio, but I’ll tell you that from our perspective what is important is getting the number of infestations down. We know in any given situation there are many reasons for treatment failure but one of those possible reasons is inadequate handling of infestations. So, the way to avoid regulation is to make sure that the industry is doing its job in training its own and developing sound bed bug management protocols. Get rid of the bed bugs, and be the custodians of the public health that you want to be thought of, and no one is going to mess with you; people are going to be saying nice things and showing support and understanding the challenges of the intractable cases we all know about.
We advocate specialized bed bug pest control training. In New York City, the need for it is immediate and dire.