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Urban areas offer many amenities, from the convenient location of services and entertainment to greater employment opportunities, but the byproduct of thousands—and in some cases millions—of people living in one place can create problems.
In addition to people, cities are home to populations of plants and animals, and co-existence is not always simple or easy. Surprisingly, the remedies to reduce these urban dilemmas are found in expertise developed by the agricultural community.
At odds with insects
When insect pests threaten cities—whether public health, property or food supply—Purdue researchers and Extension specialists often find themselves on the front line of defense, providing environmentally sound measures for pest management, technical information and training programs.
In their natural environment, insects provide benefits and balance. But that environment must be shared with human inhabitants, making conflict inevitable. “Urban pests have been around as long as there have been cities,” says Gary Bennett, professor of entomology and director of Purdue's Center for Urban and Industrial Pest Management.
While these pests may no longer cause epidemics of the magnitude of the bubonic plague, which killed nearly half the population of Europe in the 1300s, the world still experiences outbreaks with cases numbering in the thousands and deaths in the hundreds. Add to that the damage to property and the food supply each year, and suddenly a species about the size of a penny carries a multi-million-dollar price tag.
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