By Erica Goodrich
The next meeting of the The National Pest Management Association’s Blue Ribbon Bed Bug Task Force will be held Saturday, March, 12th at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. in conjunction with Legislative Day. Richard Stevenson Jr., co-president and Chief Technical Officer of Modern Pest Services will be attending the meeting along with fellow members to continue the discussion on stopping the spread of these nasty, nocturnal insects.
This task force will meet again to continue to develop its industry-wide response to the recent bed bug outbreaks. The workgroups that were established to specifically focus on key areas of bed bug eradication and education have been hard at work. Each group plans on addressing the full task force during the 3-hour event. The next steps for each of the workgroups are as follows:
- The positions of the Public Policy workgroup have been approved by the Government Affairs Committee of NPMA and will be offered to the full task force in March
- The Research and Efficacy workgroup is working on the development of protocols to establish the efficacy of conventional and exempt pesticides and for devices and other technology available for detecting and treating bed bugs.
- In partnership with the University of Kentucky, the NPMA intends to conduct another industry survey, but before that can take place they need to ask the Public Outreach and Education workgroup for input on the content of the survey and the other data needs.
Recently, the NPMA released their Best Management Practices for Bed Bugs which were well received by pest professionals, bed bug researchers, consumer groups, government agencies and others involved in the fight against these pests.
“Bed bugs have become a pandemic and previously there wasn’t organization from any other entity to stop the spread. The National Pest Management Association is taking the lead here,” Stevenson says. “By developing and sharing our best management practices and continuing to put our best efforts forward, our task force is dedicated to stopping this pandemic.”
Read a recent press release about Rich’s involvement in the Blue Ribbon Task Force.
Read a blog article about the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s fall meeting.