Doug offers wonderful ideas. I agree about the importance to knowing the true scope of the problem. I believe if it were known, there would also be much more support from public officials and the public at large for taking measures to reduce the problem. As is, public officials can say “it’s not a common problem.” The question then is “how common do we want it to get?”

Doesn’t NMPA conduct surveys of PMP’s in New York? I would think that the pest control industry would be the best source for hard data.

Perhaps we could ask a university based researcher to survey New York PMP’s to provide an accurate statistical picture of the rates of infestation throughout the region.

Lobbying for legislation to fund research efforts or identifying private sources of funding could help establish the true scope of the problem.

We need to work with the pest control industry to develop a universal reporting database that can accurately track the problem & collect information for research.