Campus stored product pests: Mystery solved

By: Wayne Walker

As pest control services manager for the University of Florida Department of Housing and Residence Education, I can tell you that maintaining pest-free apartments can be an international problem. I’ve always had a greater number of issues in the Graduate and Family Housing apartments, which consist of 980 units and house primarily international students. Drugstore beetles, cigarette beetles, sawtoothed grain beetles and other stored product pests had become pesky residents of the building over the years. While I’d received only a limited number of complaints, I wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I discovered that the cause of the stored product pest issue was being shipped in from all over the world: Many residents purchased ethnic food that traveled through warehouses before arriving in Gainesville. I used this opportunity to hone my team’s pest identification skills and utilize the campus entomology department.

Working with both groups, I realized that the Maxforce FC Roach Bait Stations, kept in the kitchen cabinets for preventative cockroach maintenance, were also attracting and killing the stored product pests.

For years, I would find the beetles and weevils dead on the shelf under or inside the roach bait stations. I would look for additional problems, check the dried goods in the apartment, and not find any evidence of live insects. Each occasion of an infestation only required me to get rid of the bag of origin — and the remainder of the problem would be solved by the bait stations.

So, when receiving complaints today, I just make sure the bait stations are in place and the bag of origin is disposed of.

After informing my Bayer representative of these findings, the company’s research team tested the product on stored product pests, and found conclusive evidence that I had made a new discovery. The team went on to test Maxforce FC Magnum Roach Killer Bait Gel for control of pantry pests as well. With U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval, the labels on both products have been amended.