[Back Talk] ESA Respects Urban Entomologists

While it was wonderful to read your online article about the 2012 Nation-al Conference on Urban Entomology (“NCUE Reflects on the Past, Looks to the Future at 2012 Meeting,” May 24), I would like to ensure that PCT’s readers know the Entomological Society of America (ESA) does indeed respect the field of urban entomology, and we take it very seriously.

Of the four ESA sections, 25 percent of our 5,500 members belong to the one dealing with Medical, Urban and Veterinary Entomology, making it the next largest section, second only to one dealing with plant-insect ecosystems.

This November during Entomology 2012, ESA’s 60th Annual Meeting in Knoxville, Tenn., our urban entomology symposia will include presentations on bed bugs, cockroaches, ants, termites, flies and many other household and urban insects. After the meeting, we’ll be holding a full-day educational training class for pest control professionals who can use the knowledge they gain for certification credits and state licenses.

In addition, the ESA Certification Corporation (www.entocert.org) offers two certification programs, one of which, the Associate Certified Entomologist (ACE) program, is geared towards pest control professionals. Nearly 500 people are currently designated as Associate Certified Entomologists. The other program for Board Certified Entomologists (BCE) has more than 400 certified individuals, most of whom specialize in urban and industrial entomology.

ESA also offers two highly respected urban entomology awards each year, one for professionals and one for students, for service to the Certification Program. And, we strongly support the Entomological Foundation, which offers the Recognition Award in Urban Entomology, the Jeffery P. LaFage Graduate Student Research Award for work on termites and wood-boring insects, and the Shripat Kamble Urban Entomology Graduate Student Award for Innovative Research.

Dr. Austin Frishman may have been right to a certain extent when PCT quoted him as saying that “NCUE was born out of neglect” 26 years ago, but even he would agree that this is not the case today.

“There has been a shift to do more in urban entomology, there’s no question about it,” he told us during a recent phone conversation. “There is definitely better respect and better understanding of urban entomology at ESA today.”

As an ESA member for 52 years, he would know.
 

Grayson Brown
2012 President, Entomological Society of America

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