The BugMobile informs the public about safer pest control methods during a recent appearance at the Nittany Mall in State College.

Half a dozen children with surprised eyes and broad grins stand around the classic Volkswagen Beetle. It doesn’t look like much of a car—it is painted like a ladybug, and a big toothy smile hangs from its bumper. “I’m BugMobile, the talking car!” it says to a little girl who kneels on its hood. Her father points inside the car. She giggles and looks through the windshield, trying to find the source of the voice. “Do you like bugs?” the car says. She doesn’t answer, but another child folds his arms and smiles.

Penn State’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) coordinator Ed Rajotte stands behind a nearby curtain, peeking out at the children and holding a microphone. His voice emerges from a speaker underneath the car.

The BugMobile, which attracts people of all ages, is part of a collaborative effort between Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to inform people about safe and economical ways to control pests.

“A pest is any living organism that negatively affects humans,” Rajotte says. “It could be a cockroach, a worm in your apple, or a weed in your garden. With IPM, we consider multiple tactics to manage the pest. The tactics might be biological, where one organism controls the population of another. In a farm field, we might select certain plant types that are resistant to certain pests, or rotate crops to deter them.

“Although these tactics may include pesticides, IPM is much more than that,” Rajotte says. “It is an economically and environmentally beneficial set of practices, and we are trying to educate the public about it.”

An Environmental Protection Agency effort to educate families about pesticide safety led to the BugMobile’s creation. “The EPA discovered that pesticides were being misused in many households, even causing a few deaths,” says IPM education coordinator Lyn Garling. “They decided more education was needed for families around the nation. I wrote a proposal and was granted enough money to develop the BugMobile.

“We created the BugMobile to attract attention,” she says. “We can’t get our message to people if they aren’t attracted to the display.”

Children need not have an affinity toward crawly creatures. If the talking car gets their attention, their parents are likely to stay in the area and check out the display, which includes pamphlets and pictures of common household pests. Experts are on hand to answer questions about safer pest control. Visitors also can observe live ants and beetles in jars and under microscopes, and “pet” ladybug beetles are distributed to children.

“People tend to remember what they see, smell, and touch, but not what they read,” Garling says. “The BugMobile is a way for us to reach multiple audiences in a wacky way they’ll remember.”

Garling and Rajotte are taking the Bugmobile to places and events around the state. For more information about the Bugmobile or IPM, visit the Pennsylvania IPM Web site at http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/bugmobile.html.

—Rebecca Zeiber