Reducing Pest Infestations in Multifamily Housing

This webinar was held on May 6, 2021. Watch the recording to learn how integrated pest management (IPM) strategies can be used to manage two of the most troublesome and notorious pests of multifamily housing: cockroaches and mice.

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Note: unpublished data has been removed from this handout including part 2 of the mouse presentation.

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Rutgers University pest management specialists share what they have learned about managing pest infestations in New Jersey public housing. Changlu Wang speaks about cockroaches, what factors contribute to infestations, and his team’s experience with the best control tactics in affordable housing. Shannon Sked shares what they have learned about managing mice, specifically how to target effective control to where the mice live in buildings. These two presentations will help building managers, maintenance technicians, pest control professionals, and other housing professionals to more efficiently and effectively manage pest infestations and the conditions that cause them. The Rutgers research team, led by Changlu Wang, not only study the infestations in public housing, they do the actual pest control work. The IPM strategies they use help control or eliminate infestations with minimum impact on residents’ health and well-being. Anyone working in affordable housing will find their experience useful in understanding and advocating for best management practices for eliminating pests in multifamily housing. For more information, email stoppests@cornell.edu

House mouse (left) and German cockroach (right). Photos: Ed Freytag, City of New Orleans, Bugwood.org / Michael Merchant, Texas Cooperative Extension, Bugwood.org.

^{House mouse (left) and German cockroach (right). Photos: Ed Freytag, City of New Orleans, Bugwood.org / Michael Merchant, Texas Cooperative Extension, Bugwood.org.}

Dr. Changlu Wang

Dr. Changlu Wang, Extension Specialist at Rutgers University.

Shannon Sked, PhD candidate at Rutgers University.

Extension Specialist at Rutgers University

Dr. Wang received his B.S. from Beijing Forestry University (1985), M.S. from Chinese Academy of Forestry (1988), and Ph.D. from West Virginia University (1998). His research interests are developing new and improved techniques and materials for urban pest management, insecticide resistance, and insect behavior. He published 6 books/book chapters, 93 peer-reviewed papers, and 26 non-peer reviewed articles, and coauthored 4 patents. Dr. Wang received multiple awards including the “Excellence in Integrated Pest Management” award by Eastern Branch of Entomological Society of America in 2017, “Secretary’s Award for Healthy Homes Research Innovation” from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2017, New Jersey Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award in Healthy & Sustainable Communities category in 2020.

Shannon Sked

PhD candidate at Rutgers University

Shannon Sked is a PhD candidate in the Department of Entomology, Rutgers University, studying under Dr. Wang. He received his BS from Rutgers University (2000) and MS from Penn State University (2003). His research focus was in modeling phenologies of insect communities. He then was a Navy entomologist overseeing structural pests, specifically focusing on pests related to imports, exports, and within the logistics chain. He had the unique opportunity to practice applied entomology in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and the Caribbean, and on the eastern shore of the United States. He has more recently worked for Western Fumigation as the director of that division, overseeing pest management systems within international produce, commodity, and equipment transportation. In 2017, he returned part time to academia to pursue a PhD in entomology at Rutgers, focusing on spatial dynamics of economically important urban and structural pests such as bed bugs and commensal rodents.