Penn State Entomologist Does His Part In War On Pests

Stan Green laughingly denies the rumor that he personally wiped out an invasion of cockroaches in a kitchen 300 million years ago, but the longtime Penn State entomologist has made a career out of bugging a variety of varmints and creepy crawlers for more than three decades. When he’s not doing it himself, he’s helping to train an army of workers to handle the job.

Whether in the city or suburbs, Green is sort of the "Deacon of D-Con" when it comes to his work.

"The only source, really, of pest control training in the state is Penn State," said Green, who is personally responsible for that training. "I would say I get 40 calls a year from different people who want to start a business and get into pest control."

Green, who began working for Penn State in the Philadelphia region in 1966, actually writes many of the pest control certification tests for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and he has helped hundreds of start-up pest control companies earn and maintain state certification. In general, pest control employees must attend certification courses every three years in order to comply.

"Problems with pests tend to change periodically, and it’s important that pest control workers have a firm handle on what the latest techniques are to exterminate various species," said Green, who also teaches adult education courses at Penn State Abington and publishes a newsletter called Pest Control News. In addition, he holds training seminars on-site for companies.

He can most often be found in Penn State’s Philadelphia Cooperative Extension Office at 46th and Market streets, but Green also spends some of his work days at nine other southeastern Pennsylvania counties.

One of the big issues Green is now preparing pest control experts to deal with is a potentially serious mosquito problem, coming on the heels of the encephalitis outbreak that originated last summer at the Bronx Zoo. All told, there were more than 60 cases of humans who contracted the disease (which originates in birds), and seven deaths as a result. There were also a number of bird deaths in New Jersey and Connecticut, and Green thinks it’s a matter of time before it strikes in Pennsylvania.

"Our mosquito control in Pennsylvania has gone downhill the past 15 or 20 years because we haven’t had any serious health problems," said Green, who is working with the state and the Pennsylvania Pest Control Association to devise a plan to attack mosquitoes this summer. "The chances are real good that we are going to have a problem this year."

Green said the Philadelphia Health Department has been actively fighting mosquitoes for many years, and he believes it will be prepared to handle the new threat, identified as the West Nile Virus.

In addition to helping pest control companies train and gain certification, Green has also aided thousands of businesses and homeowners identify unwanted critters and figure out solutions.

For example, there was the time about 10 years ago when a major department store chain began noticing that thousands of their Easter baskets were a lot "hole-ier" than they had envisioned. A local representative for the department store called the Academy of Natural Sciences, which directed the inquiry to Green.

"The baskets came from Mexico–complete with wood-boring beetles," said Green. "They should have been fumigated in Mexico, but they weren’t. They (the department store) decided to scrap them. It was about a half a million dollars worth of merchandise. They could have had a lot of lawsuits had they distributed these things."

And Green recently helped a woman, who had been bitten in her Florida-vacation hotel room, identify the bug involved.

"She felt like she was being bitten at night, and she had a hundred hives on her body," said Green. "Her husband brought in a smashed up bug. When I saw the sample, I told them it was a bed bug. It relieved her to know what it is, that it didn’t carry disease, and the bites were unpleasant, but not all that harmful."

Most often, people will contact Green and bring their samples to his office, but occasionally he will visit a home or business to examine a problem. Whether it’s mice, roaches, ants or a plethora of other insects and rodents, Green has seen it all. That, he said, is what keeps the job interesting.

"I don’t know how they find out about me, but they call me from all over the country," said Green. "You never know what you’re going to be (confronted with) next."

Green provides free advice as part of Penn State’s commitment to service in the community, often referring property owners to pest control companies that can provide further assistance. His goal is to improve public health and safety through his profession, while helping consumers spend their hard-earned money wisely.

If you are a business owner or homeowner who would like assistance, call Dr. Green at the Penn State Philadelphia Cooperative Extension Office, at 215-471-2200.

This story by David Jwanier, manager of public information for the Philadelphia campuses, first appeared in the Penn State issue of the Philadelphia Tribune this spring.