Monitoring traps provide updates of last service

Tim Husen

A thorough integrated pest management (IPM) program for German cockroaches must include treatment and inspection. However, another equally important, but often-neglected component is assessment. Glue boards and other monitoring traps can provide a snapshot of the latest activity since your last service. Keeping accurate inspection records of the catch number, time and date is essential. Otherwise, you’ll be unable to accurately interpret population trends over time.

You can learn more from these records than just the population number. Look at the populations you’re trapping and dig deeper with the following questions:

• Is this an introduced or resident population?
• What growth stages are you seeing?
• Were nymphs and adults caught?

Use your time since the last monitoring to align with potential introduction sources. Communicate these next-level insights to your customers and engage them beyond just a number reported in service records. It may make solving a tough cockroach problem easier.