I come from a science background. I did numerous research projects as an undergrad, a master's student, and as a lab tech after that. I’m not bragging, I’m setting the stage to make a point. I can translate science-ese into plain English. When a scientific research project is written up to be published in a scientific journal, it is pretty technical and is reviewed by at least three people. It’s not something someone did in their backyard and claimed it was the next best mosquito repellent.
Recently, I was asked to review a paper that a reputable scientist sent to a trade journal to tout the results. Their headline was:
New study shows liquid insecticides have limited impact against subterranean termite colonies
WOW! I mean, we have been using fipronil barrier treatments for decades and we are finding out they don’t work? This is life-changing for the pest control industry. It means all of our termite perimeter treatments are useless and we have to stop doing that and come up with something else.
Want to know what I think of this? Of course you do, that’s why you are reading my blog. Sit down, get comfy, grab a glass of wine, and get ready to dig deep into science!
1. This study was done on ASIAN subterranean termites. It has only been found a couple times in Hawaii and there are a few places it is being found in FL (aka the invasive species capital of the country!)
2. This was a lab study. Lab studies are a great place to start, I'm not knocking them. They are very controlled and try to eliminate all variables. They don't incorporate "real world" factors and often don't hold up when they are field-tested with all the weirdness we see in our world.
3. I'm not super up to date on my termite treatments, but there are VERY specific label regulations that dictate treatments should be close to the home at a specific distance. This looked at putting treatments further out, as well as very close to the "home". (first experiment)
4. The second experiment used pipes for the termites to travel in so they were forced to go one way or another, vs. a field study where they would have had all dimensions to travel in soil.
And that's just the methods, we haven't even gotten to the results yet!
5. So for that first experiment, after they treated "near" the "house" and then further out, they found kinda what I would expect. For the first few days (they went to day 60) they found live, semi-live, and a few dead termites past the treatment at the "house". After time, you can see those numbers turn into all dead termites that crossed the treatment towards the "house". Makes sense: they cross the treatment, pick up the chemical, die shortly after.
6. When looking at how much of the "house" they ate, the treatment closest to the "house" ate the least while treatments further away were higher consumption. Makes sense because that treatment, closest to the "house", killed most of the termites before they could eat it (the house).
And then we get to their "conclusions"
7. Their claim of "perimeter treatments don't work" is that it establishes this little cemetery of dead termites just past the treatment (towards the "house" side) and the treatment doesn't get back to the colony to kill the queen. Well... duh. It's fipronil, it kills. It's not an IGR that is slow acting and allows the termites to bring it back to the colony.
8. Their conclusion of "colonies simply avoided the area within the treatment vicinity by exhibiting behavioral avoidance stemming from secondary repellency" is another well... duh. That's how fipronil works! Once enough of them die and create a little termite cemetery, the rest of them start to get a little smart and say "well.... maybe we shouldn't go this way anymore". Then they start to forage away from the "house". This means the treatment is working because they don't go and damage the "house" anymore.
9. (this one really kills me) They state "One could argue that per current label use, a preventative fipronil treatment can still exclude termite activity from a structure protecting the homeowner property for a period of time. So you are saying that barrier treatments DO work?!?! WTF
10. (mostly because I can't stop at a "9") To be fair, their claim that "it doesn't eliminate the termite colony" is correct. But that's nothing new.
I’m not saying the researchers are completely wrong. If you look at their conclusions and what that meant to THEM. They wanted a barrier treatment to somehow get back to the main colony to kill off the entire colony. However, the sensationalized headline of “THIS DOESN’T WORK!!!” is incredibly misleading.
If you want someone on your staff who can get you the science quickly and accurately so your people can do their jobs better, that’s what we do. Contact us. Or you can read the papers yourself, it won’t hurt my feelings.
Comments