Multivariate analyses examined changes in reported pest infestation, reported pesticide use, and pesticides measured in personal air samples as a function of time elapsed in 6-month intervals.
We employed both univariate and multivariate statistical approaches to examine the impact of the 2000 2001 U.S. EPA regulations (U.S. EPA 2000, 2001) on reported pest infestation, reported pesticide use, and pesticides measured in 48-hr personal air samples.
Our findings are very similar to the 30 60% increase in the odds of pest infestation reported to be associated with each additional adverse housing condition in New York (Whyatt et al. 2002).
In contrast to measures required to deal with a reported infestation in a neonatal ICU (2 ), no other measures such as use of insecticides, review of the air circulation system, or changes in architectural structures were necessary to stop the infestation reported here.
We investigated the association of housing disrepair indicators with cockroach and rodent infestations, evaluated the association of pest infestations and reported pesticide use, and examined the association of measured cockroach allergen levels and evidence of cockroach infestation to test the validity of our inspection methods.
The log of telephone calls made in 2003 to Toronto Public Health was reviewed to identify calls related to bed bug infestations, the types of locations affected, and the regions of the city where infestations were reported.
Our ability to observe infestations during home inspections may explain the higher prevalence of cockroach and rodent infestations we reported compared with the questionnaire-based survey conducted by the Center for Community Advocacy (CCA) (Table 2) (Applied Survey Research and the Center for Community Advocacy 2001).
KC: Infestations were reported early in the season in southern Libya near Ghat and in southern Algeria after unusual rains in October and November – they had been able to grow quickly.
Bed bug infestations were reported at 20 (31%) of 65 homeless shelters.
The 46 separate locations where infestations were reported are shown in Table 1.
