PMP Gallery: 88th annual Purdue Pest Management Conference

PHOTO: PURDUE UNIVERSITY

1. CONFERENCE TRADITION This is the 2024 edition of the group photo of conference attendees, this time on the west steps of Stewart Hall on Purdue University’s campus in West Lafayette, Ind. See past conference group photos, dating back to 1937, online at Bit.ly/3HcNdoz.

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

2. STRONG START The Resource Shop’s Jeff McGovern kicked off the conference Monday morning, Jan. 8, with a talk about providing pest control in small spaces. “If you have to lie on the ground to access the crawlspace or other tight area, rake the grass first,” advises McGovern, a perennial favorite among Purdue’s conference speakers. “Believe me, it beats getting roofing nails in your leg.”

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

3. WITTY WRAPUP As has become tradition at the conference, a year-in-review video by Rose Pest Solutions’ manager of education and training, Mark VanderWerp, BCE, provides both info and comic relief.

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

4. PURDUE KEYNOTE The theme of this year’s conference was “One Health,” a concept that includes public health pest management. Dr. Faith Oi delivered a keynote on the topic. She is a member of Pest Management Professional’s (PMP’s) Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) and director of Pest Management University at the University of Florida.

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

5. COCKROACH EXPERTISE PMP’s “Start-Up Stories” columnist, Pete Schopen of RV There Yet Consulting, moderated a panel of cockroach experts. Seated from left are Dr. Ameya Gondhalekar, Purdue University; Mark Sheperdigian, BCE, Rose Pest Solutions and PMP EAB member; Morgan Wilson, Virginia Tech; and PMP’s “Callback Cures” columnist and EAB member, Dr. Michael Bentley, BCE, National Pest Management Association.

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

6. HONORING DR. BENNETT The Indiana Pest Management Association (IPMA) donated funds to create an urban pest management graduate student award in the name of Dr. Gary Bennett, BCE, a PMP Hall of Famer (Class of 2006) who led Purdue’s Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management for more than three decades until his retirement in 2019. The Purdue Entomology Department, in cooperation with the Urban Center and IPMA, presented the award at the conference awards banquet held in Ross-Ade Stadium. Doctoral entomology student Grace Kolb, whose research focuses on delusory parasitosis, was the inaugural recipient of the award.

PHOTO: PETE SCHOPEN

7. HONORING DR. CORRIGAN The IPMA held its annual winter meeting during the conference. PMP Hall of Famer Dr. Bobby Corrigan (Class of 2008) received the 2024 IPMA Hall of Fame Award. Dr. Bennett, left, presented him with the award.

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

8. MEET THE PRESS PMP Associate Publisher Mike Joyce mans the magazine’s booth during trade show hours in the Purdue Memorial Union Main Ballroom.

PHOTO: PMP STAFF

9. NEW GRANT FOR PMPS The IPMA was not done with its acts of generosity. With the assistance of PMP EAB member and IPMA Education Chair Doug Foster, Burt’s Pest Control, the association was able to establish the Gene White Field Excellence Grant for industry fraternity Pi Chi Omega. Alongside the Daniel A. Baldwin Industry Grant (also a PMP EAB member), the grant program is designed to help fund PMPs seeking to advance their career path, training or education. From left are IPMA VP Rob Jackson; Pi Chi Omega President (and PMP EAB member) Desiree Straubinger; Foster; and IPMA President Carrie Campbell, who is also industry chair of the conference. Learn more at PiChiOmega.org/industry-grant-program.