Contracting for a Pest Management Professional Practicing IPM

Ineffective pest control costs. It costs residents their comfort and their health. It costs in lost productivity as staff respond to and follow-up on complaints. And the conditions that attract pests often reflect damage that undermines the value of the investment. No one wins except, perhaps, the pest.

Pest control needs to move beyond killing pests to excluding pests. Instead of an exterminator, the property management needs a pest management professional (PMP). An effective contract that encourages success rather than simple pay for the application of more pesticides is essential. Check out NCHH's case studies for examples of success and the latest research on IPM.

Thanks to funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs and Battelle, the National Center for Healthy Housing developed a toolkit to help property managers. Central to that toolkit is a Model Request for Proposals for IPM-Based Integrated Pest Management Services.

U.S. HUD Guidance on Integrated Pest Management – PIH2006-11 (issued February 3, 2006) and revised . This guidance is voluntary. NCHH uses the HUD Guidance as the framework to establish and evaluate an IPM program. The Guidance identifies ten elements of an effective IPM program. See www.healthyhomestraining.org/ipm/HUD_Guidance.htm.

U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Guidelines. IPM has been mandated on Federal property since 1996 by the Food Quality Protection Act. GSA has lead that effort. Click here for the 2005 version for leased property. It has developed contract specifications that are used by virtually every federal agency. NCHH applies those specifications in the narrow context of public housing. See www.gsa.gov/ipm.

Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority Request for Proposals for Integrated Pest Management (issued March 19, 2007). The CMHA has recently issued is second round of two-year IPM contracts for its public housing. NCHH uses this RFP as the backbone for its model contract since it has been successfully used. See www.healthyhomestraining.org/IPM/CMHA_IPM_RFP_4-27-07.pdf.

Contact Tom Neltner at NCHH if you have questions or ideas. Tom Neltner can help you work through the model RFP and contract. Contact him at 443-539-4160 or tneltner@nchh.org.

NCHH developed these materials pursuant to a contract with Battelle and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs. NCHH's advisors included:

Rena Thomas of Battelle;
Gordon Morrison of Bayer Environmental Services;
Pat Hynes of Boston University School of Public Health;
Jim McCarthy of Boston Housing Authority;
Henry Zilja and Walter Presley of Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority;
Bart Brandenburg of EcoWise Certified;
Stu Greenberg of Environmental Health Watch;
Tom Green of the IPM Institute of North America;
Marc Lame of Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs;
Bob Rosenberg of the National Pest Management Association;
Frank Meek of Orkin;
Changlu Wang and Fred Whitford of Purdue University;
Don Rivard of Rivard's IPM Resources;
Art Slater of Slater's Pest Control;
Leroy Ferguson and Peter Ashley of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development;
Kathy Seikel of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs;
Al Greene of U.S. General Services Administration; and
Dini Miller of Virginia Tech University.