They saw mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, lice and bed bugs at the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Household Vampires."

They learned that "medical entomologist is the study of arthropods (such as insects and ticks) that spread pathogens that cause human disease. It is also important to study insects and arthropods that spread diseases to other animals! This field o study is called veterinary entomology. Some diseases affect both humans and animals. This is called a zoonotic disease." (from Bohart Museum poster)

They asked questions. They observed "the vampires" through microscopes. And they left with first-hand information.

The presenters included:

• Robert "Bob" Kimsey, forensic entomologist, Department of Entomology and Nematology, who answered questions about medical entomology.

• Luz Maria Robles, public information officer, Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District, who discussed and displayed mosquitoes and how to keep yourself safe. See https://www.fightthebite.net/

• Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, doctoral student and mosquito researcher in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, who fielded questions about mosquitoes. Attardo displayed enlarged images of mosquitoes, including a blood-fed Aedes aegypti, and a female and male Culex tarsalis. 
  
  
• Moriah Garrison, senior entomologist and research coordinator with Carroll-Loye Biological Research (CLBR), (owned by doctoral scientists Scott Carroll and Jenella Loye, affiliated with the Department of Entomology and Nematology), displayed live ticks and mosquitoes. 
  
  
• Nazzy Pakpour, UC Davis alumna, Novozymes scientist and author, displayed her newly published children's book, Please Don't Bite Me 

For the occasion, UC Davis alumnus Kevin Murakoshi, gifted the Bohart Museum a trio of origami sculptures: a tick, an engorged tick and a bedbug. At an earlier open house, he presented the museum with origami sculptures of praying mantises. "They're beautiful," said UC Davis distinguished professor Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum. "We're going to display them in our hallway."

The museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens, plus a live insect petting zoo (including Madasgascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks), and a gift shop. It is located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane. UC Davis.

The next open house, themed "Monarchs," is set for Saturday, Nov. 4 from 1 to 4 p.m.  All open houses are free and family friendly and include a family arts-and-crafts activity.  For more information, contact the Bohart Museum at bmuseum@ucdavis.edu or telephone (530-752-0493.

(Part 2 of the open house will be published Friday, Sept. 29)

You won't want to miss the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Household Vampires," targeting mosquitoes, ticks, bed bugs, lice and fleas.

The open house set from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 23 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis. It's free and family friendly and parking is also free. It's an opportunity for attendees to learn more about the "nuisance insects," and ask questions.

The line-up, as of today:

• Lynn and Bob Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty. Lynn, a hymenopterist, is a UC Davis distinguished professor who teaches general entomology and the biodiversity of California insects and serves as the director of the Bohart Museum, and Bob is a forensic entomologist, specializing in public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick feeding behavior and biochemistry.
  
  
• Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, a first-year doctoral student in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. She will share her expertise on mosquitoes and show specimens.

• Moriah Garrison, senior entomologist and research coordinator with Carroll-Loye Biological Research (CLBR). She is scheduled to show live ticks and mosquitoes and field questions. 
  
  
• Educators from the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District. They will discuss mosquitoes and  their program
  
  
• Nazzy Pakpour, UC Davis alumna, Novozymes scientist and author of Please Don't Bite Me 
  
  
• Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's ;Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection. He will display butterfly specimens collected globally. Also on the "Lep crew" are Bohart volunteers Greg Kareofelas and Brittany Kohler.  

Professor Attardo, who maintains a lab website on Vector Biology and Reproductive Biology at http://attardo-lab.com, and chairs the Designated Emphasis in the Biology of Vector-Borne Diseases (DEBVBD), will display some of his mosquito images, including a blood-fed Aedes aegypti, and a female and male Culex tarsalis. Alex Wild,  a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and curator of entomology, University of Texas, Austin, will display an image of mosquito larvae that currently hangs in Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Wild's insect images can be viewed on his website,  https://www.alexanderwild.com.

Petting Zoo. A popular attraction is the live petting zoo; visitors are encouraged to hold or get acquainted with live Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects

Family Arts and Crafts Activity. The event will be held outside and will highlight two collecting techniques, said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator. 

1. Clear Packing Tape Art. "Clear packing tape is a good way to collect small, hard-to-see insects," Yang said. "Glitter will mimic small insects like fleas or bed bugs. Putting the tape on white paper makes it easy to look at them under a microscope and for this craft it will make a pretty card."
2. Making insect collecting or "kill" jars. Participants are asked to bring a recycled jar. "This should be a clean and dried glass jar with a wide, metal top--think jam, pickle, peanut butter jars. Four to 16-ounce jars work well. We will have some on hand as well, but recycling is good! We will fill the bottom with plaster of paris and let it dry and teach people how to use it properly, using something like nail polisher remover containing ethyl acetate as the killing agent. A UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology video explains the procedure:   https://youtu.be/s8yCzFGzbn8?si=71sNmA5l8NyP1zj0

All that glitters is not gold...think insects!

When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts an open house on "Household Vampires" from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 23, activities will take place both inside and outside.

Inside? The presenters will talk about mosquitoes, bed bugs, fleas and ticks in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis campus. They will show live insects and specimens and field questions.

Outside? The latest news is the family arts and crafts activity. 

Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator, announced the the arts and crafts activity "will highlight two collecting techniques."

1. Clear Packing Tape Art. "Clear packing tape is a good way to collect small, hard-to-see insects," Yang said. "Glitter will mimic small insects like fleas or bed bugs. Putting the tape on white paper makes it easy to look at them under a microscope and for this craft it will make a pretty card."
2. Making insect collecting or "kill" jars. Participants are asked to bring a recycled jar. "This should be a clean and dried glass jar with a wide, metal top--think jam, pickle, peanut butter jars. Four to 16-ounce jars work well. We will have some on hand as well, but recycling is good! We will fill the bottom with plaster of paris and let it dry and teach people how to use it properly, using something like nail polisher remover containing ethyl acetate as the killing agent. A UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology video explains the procedure: https://youtu.be/s8yCzFGzbn8?si=71sNmA5l8NyP1zj0

Inside, the presenters will include:

• Lynn and Bob Kimsey of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology faculty. Lynn, a hymenopterist, is a UC Davis distinguished professor who teaches general entomology and the biodiversity of California insects and serves as the director of the Bohart Museum, and Bob is a forensic entomologist, specializing in public health entomology; arthropods of medical importance; zoonotic disease; biology and ecology of tick-borne pathogens; tick feeding behavior and biochemistry. 
• Carla-Cristina "CC" Melo Edwards, a first-year doctoral student in the laboratory of medical entomologist-geneticist Geoffrey Attardo, associate professor of entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. She will share her expertise on mosquitoes and show specimens.
• Moriah Garrison, senior entomologist and research coordinator with Carroll-Loye Biological Research (CLBR). She is scheduled to show live ticks and mosquitoes and field questions. 
• Educators from the Sacramento-Yo;o Mosquito and Vector Control District. They will discuss mosquitoes and their program 
• Nazzy Pakpour (Novozymes scientist and author of Please Don't Bite Me)
• Jeff Smith, curator of the Bohart Museum's Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection. He will display butterfly specimens collected globally. Also on the "Lep crew" are Bohart volunteers Greg Kareofelas and Brittany Kohler.

Professor Attardo, who maintains a lab website on Vector Biology and Reproductive Biology at http://attardo-lab.com, and chairs the Designated Emphasis in the Biology of Vector-Borne Diseases, will display some of his mosquito images, including a blood-fed Aedes aegypti, and a female and male Culex tarsalis. Alex Wild,  a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and curator of entomology, University of Texas, Austin, will display an image of mosquito larvae that currently hangs in Briggs Hall, home of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Wild's insect images can be viewed on his website,  https://www.alexanderwild.com.

The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens; a live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches and stick insects); and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with books, posters, T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and jewelry.  

Resource:

Bohart Museum to Spotlight Household Vampires (UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, Sept. 14, 2023)

Living with pests, or “unwanted guests” as some put it, can take a physical, mental and economic toll. For people living in multi-family unit housing, like an apartment complex where everyone lives under one roof, a single infestation of insects or rodents can expose all residents.

Using integrated pest management, or IPM, residents and property managers can detect infestations early and control severe ones and protect people. IPM programs can also save money. IPM saved a 75-unit complex in Contra Costa County $11,121 annually. Similarly, in Santa Clara County, a 59-unit complex saved $1,321 on pest control annually after implementing a proactive IPM program.

This summer, regional directors, property managers, residential service coordinators, maintenance managers and groundskeepers of Mercy Housing – a nonprofit organization that provides affordable, low-income housing – gathered in Long Beach to learn about in-home IPM. The session was led by Siavash Taravati, University of California Cooperative Extension area IPM advisor for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, and

Josh Shoemaker, an entomologist and private consultant.

Taravati and Shoemaker collaborated with StopPests in Housing, a national program out of Cornell University's Northeastern IPM Center, which seeks to improve pest control in affordable housing and teach management practices for cockroaches, bed bugs and rodents within and around the home.

During their presentation, Taravati introduced participants to the IPM principles and emphasized the importance of monitoring pests.

“IPM is all about making informed decisions which requires knowing the latest status of an infestation,” explained Taravati. “That's where monitoring comes into play. It can help us to identify the exact species we are dealing with as well as telling us if an infestation is growing or shrinking.”

“Monitoring is foundational,” agreed Shoemaker. “If a program does not include monitoring, it's not an IPM program.” 

According to Shoemaker, the benefit of partnering with UC IPM is their sharp focus on general IPM, which includes monitoring. “It's real IPM, that prioritizes the well-being of the public,” said Shoemaker, who's eager to continue working with Cooperative Extension and Taravati to ensure that children are growing up in safe environments.

Pest control treatments commonly take place following a serious infestation or several complaints, but IPM promotes constant monitoring to prevent heavy infestations from ever happening. It's a proactive approach rather than a reactive or emergency-response. For many attendees, the training revealed a need to engage with pest management operators more closely. 

Training prompts changes that improve safety for residents

Pest management operators commonly use pesticide sprays to control pests. Besides inconveniencing residents, forcing them to do extensive preparations and evacuate their unit until it's safe to return, sprays increase exposure risk to pesticides since the aerosols can linger and land on surfaces. 

Instead, Taravati and Shoemaker recommend using gel baits, which are much safer to apply and can target a specific area of a home, including crevices, instead of along all the walls.

“Now that I'm more informed, I'll be speaking to my contractor to discuss how we can switch their approach from a bug spray to a gel,” said Leonardo Pinuelas, a maintenance manager for Mercy Housing.

Pinuelas is not the only one wanting to modify their program, however. According to feedback from staff members at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles who experienced the same training earlier this year, they prompted their team to amend their pest extermination to include dusting, or applying insecticidal dusts, against roaches, and to review and update their existing IPM plan and practices where appropriate.

Cindy Wise, area director of operations for Mercy Housing, said that in her 35 years, this was one of the few trainings that engaged her staff so actively. “I couldn't help but text my regional vice president to say that our managers were actively participating and asking questions. That doesn't happen often, not even in our own meetings,” said Wise.

Many of the attendees, with their new understanding of how cockroaches move through a structure, shared that they are eager to return to work to meet with residents and support them.

“If you've got roaches in one unit, you've got them in the entire building,” Wise said.

Shoemaker recalls the words of Judy Black, senior technical entomologist for Orkin, and Dini Miller, entomologist at Virginia Tech, who urge the importance of inspections and documentation as IPM best practices.

Although reporting pests in the home can make one feel embarrassed, Wise said she is more interested in making residents feel empowered to not only report signs of infestation to the staff, but to their neighbors.

Training residents is certainly beneficial, but as experts such as Black and Miller have pointed out, housing managers must do their part, instead of scapegoating tenants for their cleaning habits.

StopPests provides free IPM training and technical assistance to Housing and Urban Development assisted properties. If you are interested in the training provided by Taravati and Shoemaker, in collaboration with StopPests, visit StopPests.org for more information.