20 Years History And Future Perspective Of The International Conference Of Urban Pests

Abstract:
The International Conference of Urban Pests (ICUP) is a link between academic and industry researchers, regulatory officials, government agency leaders, manufacturer representatives and students and presents the latest results in research and development in the field of urban pest control for the past 20 years. The earlier conferences took place in different places all over the world and gave an excellent survey on the special topics of urban pest management on the different continents. About 500 full (complete) manuscripts and abstracts of about 320 poster presentations were published since 1993 in the proceedings and are available on the ICUP homepage. The importance of urban pest management will increase strongly in future. Urban areas are growing steadily. The modern architecture of carbon dioxide neutral buildings provides shelter to many organisms. The facades of these houses contain now are now covered with insulating material which offers many species excellent nesting sites, a fact that has become a strong challenge for the pest management. Expanding worldwide trade and tourism will further increase the introduction of alien organisms. The urban pest management must face these challenges and would benefit from the research and development of universities and scientific institutes, to protect our urban environment against pests. Already in the past the ICUP has been an important source for troubleshooting in urban pest management and even more so this is true for the future.