Bug Busters : UC Riverside Urban Entomologists Wage Never-Ending War on Insects

Michael Rust spent another busy day figuring out what new weapons to use, planning the latest combative strategies in the never-ending war.

“It’s a worldwide battle against the same destructive forces in Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York City and Southern California. Look at these reports--same thing in Bulgaria, Poland, East Germany,” sighed Rust, shuffling through papers.

Rust, 42, is one of Southern California’s foremost urban entomologists; he has been waging all-out war for the past 15 years from his laboratory at UC Riverside.

The enemy--ants, fleas, termites and cockroaches.

When he joined UC Riverside and set up the lab in 1975, there were three urban entomology facilities in the nation. Today, there are about a dozen, he said.

“Our job is to study these four major pests and find new ways to better control them,” he explained.

Huge rooms containing thousands of insect specimens in jars and containers fill the lab.

In a current project for the Getty Museum, Rust is trying to find a way to stop beetles, termites and other insects from nibbling away at rare museum artifacts.

“There is concern using chemicals might harm museum treasures. We’re experimenting with chambers where insect-infested simulated artifacts are placed in oxygen-free, pure-nitrogen atmospheres. The bugs die in the chambers after 24 to 48 hours,” Rust said.

The lab also evaluates new commercial pest-control products, and Rust teaches an urban entomology course.

Riverside has been experiencing an outbreak of millions of Argentina ants, Rust said, in describing some of his recent work.

“We tried chemical sprays and special baits, but the ants kept coming back. Now we’re looking at an experimental bait formulated with boric acid,” he said.

The lab once received an urgent call from the Navy base in San Diego, where fire ants were threatening to kill endangered least tern chicks. Rust and his bug killers came to the rescue with a granulated bait used successfully in Texas to control fire ants.

Despite having won some battles against insects, Rust said he doubts his work will ever be done.

“We’re learning an awful lot. We’re making progress. But I don’t think we have to worry about ever researching ourselves out of a job,” he said.