A Global Gathering at ICUP in Sweden

Delegates from across the globe gathered at the 11th International Conference on Urban Pests (ICUP) held at AF-Borgen, in Lund, southern Sweden from June 29-July 2. The event was an exchange of data, debate and networking amongst the leading researchers in the field of urban pests.

More than 220 academics, manufacturers, regulators and service professionals representing all sectors of the urban pest management sector attended. Delegates came from 31 different counties from as far away as Australia, Brazil, USA, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan but, as to be expected, there were strong contingents from European countries, in particular Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, France and the host Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

A unique feature of ICUP conferences is the number of delegates who have attended several of the events, leading to a ‘ICUP family feel’. Remarkably there were three delegates present who have attended every one of the eleven conferences going way back to 1993 – namely Prof Bill Robinson (formerly Virginia Tech University), Prof Michael Rust (University of California, Riverside) and Dr Reiner Pospischil (PMP BioSolutions, Germany).

Opening the event the first two speakers set the scene for what was to be a recurring theme throughout the conference – sustainability and environmental awareness. This traversed across not only the research papers presented but also the general ambiance of sustainability of the venue and the conference environment.

First to speak was Irene Nilsson, Vice President of the Regional Council Scania, who introduced delegates to the concept of smart sustainable cities. She explained how 85% of the population in Sweden lived in cities. This has led to the rapid development and implementation of smart and efficient solutions, where the public sector and the business community collaborate, test and scale up.

Representing the Lund municipality, deputy mayor, Stig Svensson, detailed how Lund consisted of 100,000 inhabitants, 30% of which were students. Of the town as a whole, 41% have university degrees, the highest percentage in the country. The town has to be sustainable and has set itself the target of being climate neutral by 2030 and is leading the way in climate smart buildings. However, pests are still not far away as he explained how the town was suffering from an explosion of rats, where over Euros 100,000, which he felt may not be enough, was currently being spent on rat protection and that the park was currently closed due to the placement of rat poison.

Prof Bill Robinson, chair of the ICUP Executive Committee, warmly welcomed all delegates. “The original concept behind the establishment of the ICUP event was to create an environment where delegates can exchange and share ideas. As participants, you are crucial. Delegates need to exchange ideas and change what they think. To go away with ideas on what they can do next," he said.

“This is the eleventh ICUP conference, the first being in Cambridge in 1993. This has led to the placement of 1,339 papers in the ICUP database, soon to be added to with the papers from this event. All of these are freely available and searchable on the ICUP website – a world class source of urban pest research data,” he concluded.

Dr Jette Knudsen, chairman of the ICUP Organising Committee which had been working hard on organising the event in Lund since 2022, welcomed everyone to Lund. She said: “It has been an honour to organise this unique event for what is very much ‘the ICUP family’ as so many of you have been to several, and a few even all, of the ICUP conferences. I would like to thank all those on the Organising Committee representing four Nordic countries, plus of course our sponsors.”

In total there were over 50 oral presentations which were a mixture of plenary and concurrent sessions, accompanied by poster presentations. These covered both scientific research and practical experiences of the full range of urban pests including rodents, bed bugs, cockroaches, ants, mosquitoes and termites, using both chemical and non-chemical means. In addition, there were breakout workshop sessions when delegates were encouraged to discuss the presentations and feed in their own ideas.

A vital part of these events is to include plenty of time for discussion and socialising, plus of course, as one delegate described them, coffee machine networking breaks. Fulfilling the sustainability criteria, all meals were vegetarian, but not the conference banquet during which, as is now an ICUP tradition, there was the making and flying of paper airplanes!

Attending an ICUP event for the first time was Jennifer Leggett of Lindsey Pest Services from Jacksonville, Fla., accompanied by her husband Dr .Claude Thomas. Asked for her opinion, Jennifer said: “I’ve attended numerous exhibitions where you hear all about the various products, but at this event you meet the researchers behind all the development work and have time to really find out about how they work. I’ll definitely come again.”

Copies of the abstracts of all the papers and posters presented were available for delegates to download. These will all be added to the permanent and fully searchable ICUP website www.icup.org.uk.

The next ICUP Conference, when the ‘ICUP family’ will once again be able to get together, will be in 2028. Further details, including the location, will be announced when available.