Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Community and Urban Pest Management: public health, residential/housing

• Human Health: workers, residents, applicators

• Pollinators: habitat

Target Pests

• Target Pests: ticks

Practices

• Pest Management: disease vectors, habitat modification, pesticides

PROBLEM: Throughout the northeastern U.S., residential landscapes are well-known to support habitat for terrestrial arthropods including both beneficial and pest species.  Many homeowners in the region are simultaneously concerned with conserving pollinators and the ecosystem services they provide and protecting themselves and their families against disease vector ticks.  However, the recommended property management practices to confront these objectives often appear to come into direct conflict.  Landscaping practices to promote pollinators, such as leaving leaf litter and logs present for native bees to overwinter, minimizing frequency of mowing, and planting buffer strips and shrubs, often create ideal habitat for ticks and their wildlife hosts, while application of broad-spectrum insecticides, which are widely regarded as the most effective tick control practice on residential land, may have nontarget effects on beneficial insects.  How homeowners navigate the tradeoff between pollinator loss and tick-borne disease exposure risk is a poorly understood but consequential question for the development of effective, socially acceptable, and environmentally sustainable residential IPM best practices.  This one-year pilot study will address three research questions: 1) What is the current prevalence of practices for management of pollinators and ticks in the peridomestic environment in the Northeast region?  2) Where do homeowners get information about these topics?  3) What are the individual-level psychological, social, and economic drivers of pollinator and tick management decision-making?

APPROACH: This study will be led by a team with collective expertise in vector and pollinator ecology, integrated pest management, and behavioral science.  We will use a mixed methods social science approach comprising a qualitative research phase followed by a quantitative research phase.  Initially, we will conduct in-person focus groups with an anticipated 50 homeowners to compile a list of practices for managing pollinators and ticks in residential settings used in the region.  We also will ask participants questions about where they get information and how they make decisions regarding management of pollinators and ticks on their own properties (e.g., cost, personal experiences, values, and beliefs concerning effectiveness, environmental impact, health impact, and social acceptability of practices).  We will recruit participants from beekeeping associations, Master Gardeners, and a mailing list of tick passive surveillance clients in Maine.  Second, we will conduct an online survey disseminated to a socio-demographically representative sample of homeowners in the Northeast region recruited through a market research company.  This study will quantify the current prevalence of and future willingness to adopt pollinator and tick management practices identified through the focus groups and apply a behavioral model to analyze the psychosocial predictors of decision-making.

ANTICIPATED IMPACT: We anticipate that our findings from this seed grant will provide baseline data and motivate additional questions for future study of IPM decision-making at the intersection of ecosystem and human health.  The decision-making analysis will yield insights that may suggest targets for education and scientific outreach in the context of residential IPM.  We will leverage data generated by the project to apply for an AFRI grant (e.g., Pollinator Health or Pests and Beneficial Species program) that seeks, among other objectives, to evaluate the impacts of various management tactics on pollinator health and tick densities as disease vectors in residential environments.  We anticipate generating at least one peer-reviewed publication and presenting our findings at outreach events for homeowners and at regional scientific meetings.