Analysis of Insect Pest Problems at LSU Residential Life

Monday, March 14, 2016: 11:40 AM
Hannover Ballroom II (Sheraton Raleigh Hotel)
Namoona Acharya , Entomology, LSU, Baton Rouge, LA
Gregg Henderson , Department of Entomology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Three important urban insect pests, ants, bed bugs, and cockroaches are adversely affecting student living on campus at LSU. Insect pest reporting started systematically in 2000 at LSU Residential Life after introducing Maximo database. To analyze the insect pest problems, reports from students on these insects were selected from the database. From a 16 year data set, the growth trend of reports of these insects were found increasing. Using 20 dorms, 2 single student apartments, and 2 family apartments, reports were averaged and then divided by the number of students residing in that dorm/apartment X 100 to calculate the report percentage to student ratio. The highest report percentage to student ratio was found in Highland Hall for ants, West Nicholson for bed bugs and Edward Gay for cockroaches. This ratio was found to have a positive slope with the age of the building and a negative slope with the number of floors among all dorms and apartments. Our inspections of 18 bed bug reports showed that 15 of these were the result of bite misidentification possibly related to allergies, other insect bites/stings and a negative perception toward bed bugs.