Pest Control Operators Participate in Training Seminar

Approximately 30 professional pest control operators from across Western Jamaica were brought up-to-date with the latest developments in their field of work, at the Pesticide Control Authority’s (PCA) annual training seminar, held last Wednesday (July 14) at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority’s (RADA) Conference Room, at Catherine Hall, Montego Bay.

Inspector, Lee Roy Taylor, told JIS News in an interview that on a regular basis, there were changes in the pest control field.

He said that the PCA’s annual seminar was therefore intended to bring to the attention of Pest Control Operators the most current available information on technological changes in the field and of the latest studies on insect behavior.

In outlining some of the subject areas covered during the one-day seminar, Mr. Taylor mentioned topics such as termite biology and economic importance, termite management, termite control equipment, dilution of pesticides, other wood destroying insects, among others.

He said that a follow-up seminar would be held later this year during the month of October.

Main presenter at the seminar was Dr. Dwight Robinson, an Entomologist and lecturer in pest management in the department of Life Sciences at the University of the West Indies.

In an interview with JIS News, Dr. Robinson pointed out that his lecture at the seminar was based on the Biology of Termites, what they were and how they behaved.

“Because I really think that if you don’t understand the organism you are trying to manage, you will never be successful in managing it. So I am taking them back to basics, in terms of how the animal behaves, then I will move a little further and deal with some of the management strategies.

“And, we are not only talking about the chemical control, we are talking about management – ways of preventing termite attack, and dealing with it when you get there, and then of course taking a whole scientific approach to how they deal with those management strategies – the basics that I think every termite control operator should know,” he said.

Dr. Robinson explained that the pest control operators attending the seminar have been very open-minded, and very receptive to the information being passed on to them.

He added that from an entomological standpoint his approach to the seminar was from the view that “you have an organism and it will do everything it can to survive and you must appreciate and respect that.”

He pointed out further, that in trying to manage termites one should understand what the organism does, and try to beat it at its own game.