[Book Review] Insect Management

Even when pest management services at a processing facility are outsourced, it is the legal responsibility of the facility’s management to ensure the program effectively prevents food adulteration. While the contractor can be held accountable for his or her services, the facility management will still hold statutory responsibility for a violation. For this reason, if for no other, it is important that facility managers have at least a basic understanding of pest identification and management, inspection and monitoring, chemical and non-chemical control options, and safety and environmental health in relation to pest management.

The second edition of Insect Management for Food Storage and Processing, edited by Jerry Heaps of General Mills Inc. in Minneapolis, Minn., provides the food plant manager with a practical guide to Integrated Pest Management (IPM), with the overarching purpose of providing food plants with an authoritative resource on avoidance, detection and elimination of insects – "the largest visible pest load." Such knowledge is important for the food plant manager not only because of legal responsibility but to enable him or her to make informed choices; provide a true partnership with the internal or external service provider for an efficient, effective, safe program; and because "industry can and should do a better job of control."

Intended as an educational guide for non-pest management professionals (as well as a resource for pest management providers), Insect Management discusses a wide range of management techniques and includes chapters ranging from IPM Strategies in Food Plants to Irradiation and provides an intensive overview of IPM techniques with good general information and graphs, tables and charts accompanying the more technical material. As Heaps notes in the preface, "We want the reader to pull both technical and practical information from every chapter and be able to immediately go onto the food plant floor or into a warehouse and apply the information." The four main sections cover Basics of Insect Pest Management; Environmental and Nonchemical Manipulation; Chemical Control; and Safety and Environmental Health, with introductory and summary chapters.

The guide stays with its intended purpose, covering pest management techniques and not going into depth on insect identification or behavior, however various chapters and sections do note the importance of this knowledge. One exception to this is the chapter on Stored-Product Insect Behavior by James S. Campbell of USDA-ARS which focuses on two topics of insect behavior important to all pest management professionals in the industry: the insect’s ability to exploit "patchy" environments (that is, separate areas of relatively similar resources) and its response to stimuli, such as that triggering perception of potential feeding and breeding sites. As is imparted by authors throughout the book, Campbell includes a gem of wisdom which should be kept in mind with all IPM programs: "All organisms are where they are because they have moved there – either actively or by some external factor acting on them (e.g., egg laying, human activity)."

The chapters are written by subject experts from universities, regulatory agencies, commercial establishments or food plants, and each is self-standing, enabling the reader to focus on chapters of most interest without having to have read preceding chapters for understanding. Editor Heaps, who provides the preface and introduction to this second edition, has a great deal of experience himself with more than 20 years of experience with food manufacturing, storage, sanitation, inspection and pest control – working the plant floor as well as conducting inspections.

This stand-alone format, does, however, have some negatives. Increased consistency between chapters would make the book a bit more user-friendly. For example some chapters include a brief conclusion – a nice addition for perusing managers who’d like to determine the relevance of a chapter before putting time into reading it. But many of the chapters do not include this summary feature.

Chapter length and detail also varies dramatically from a brief three-page chapter on packaging – though an earlier chapter noted that "A major weak link for insect invasion into the final product is the packaging materials" – to an extensive, detail-rich, 30-page chapter on "Modified Atmospheres for the Control of Stored-Product Insects and Mites" with an additional 10 pages of cited references. But each chapter does include this list of cited references, providing further resources for the reader who wishes to learn more.

The case study described in the Summary section by Thomas W. Phillips of Oklahoma State University provides probably the best reason for plant managers to take some time to educate themselves on insect management by at least skimming through applicable sections of this guide. The example describes a case in which a pest control operator treated oats with a non-approved pesticide in order to "cut his costs."

Although the food plant had no knowledge of the illegal application and the operator served jail time, the costs to the food company were extensive, with approximately 16 million bushels of raw grain and more than 55 million boxes of finished food product having to be destroyed, combined and related costs of more than $167 million, and incredible potential of damage to its brand reputation. The quick action on the part of the food company averted much of the brand damage, and since the incident, the company has increased its pest program standards and publicly promoted industry-wide education in IPM. But the incident and costs to the food company reflect the importance of management partnership in and complete knowledge of the IPM methods being used in the plant.

In the beginning of the chapter, Insecticides and Occupation Health in the Food Industry, Gary W. Olmstead of General Mills, Inc., in Minneapolis, Minn., states, "All insecticides are toxic, or they would not be used to kill insects. The real question is how might any particular insecticide affect people?" Later he follows up with the statement, "All insecticides are toxic; however, they need not be hazardous. The hazard is determined by how they are used." Though it is a grave responsibility, the liability for not only ensuring that insecticides are used correctly but also that the opposing situation – that insects are avoided, prevented and eliminated – ultimately rests on the shoulders, thereby the knowledge, of the food plant manager. QA

The author is a contributing editor to QA magazine.