Conversations About Bed Bugs Up 79% In January

Engagement around the topic of bees up 300%

To keep a pulse on consumer pest concerns, the Professional Pest Management Alliance (PPMA), the consumer marketing arm of NPMA, uses Artificial Intelligence to accurately assess public opinion on a given topic by generating randomized, controlled samples of the population through online media and using text analytics.  

In its most recent PPMA Update, a monthly newsletter shared with investors, they reported January results. According to PPMA’s AI research, bees and bed bugs saw the highest increases in engagement out of any other core pest in January at 300% and 79%, respectively. Notably, there was a staggering increase in engagement on the topic of scorpions in Illinois at 11,870%, wasps in California at 6,000%, and squirrels in North Carolina at 3,174%. Engagement about rodent sightings in the home increased by 70% in both the kitchen and the backyard.

In the context of health and home concerns, the U.S. population saw a significant increase in engagement on mites (327%) and mice (108%) from the previous month.

To learn more about PPMA and its consumer research, contact Jim Fredericks jfredericks@pestworld.org.