Spreading the Word in California and Boston

Next week will be a busy one for WISDOM Good Works as our scientists and end users present at conferences on both coasts about the benefits of fertility-control technology to control overpopulations of rodents.

Dr. Steven Shuster, head of our Scientific Advisory Committee and I will be speaking at the 31st Vertebrate Pest Conference in Monterey, California. The conference, hosted by the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is a four-day opportunity to exchange information and advance environmentally safe vertebrate pest management methodology.

Dr. Shuster will be presenting on “The demographic and evolutionary consequences of fertility reduction in rats: How pesticides and sterilants act like sexual selection.”

My presentation will be on “Real-time monitoring of contraceptive pellet consumption to achieve rat/mouse rodent control.” This will include information about our GoodBites™ pellet and the data gathering app that was designed to enable our partners at pilot sites to accurately measure consumption of the organic pellet containing our fertility-control technology, an indicator of rat population.

Meanwhile, later in the week, one of our partners at the Brookside Community Garden in Boston will be talking with fellow horticulturists at the annual Gardeners’ Gathering at Northeaster University in Boston. The gathering is considered the unofficial start to the gardening season in Boston and is filled with informative workshops and exhibitors.

Leslie Cauldwell, one of the community volunteers at Brookside, will be on hand to share her experiences working with GoodBites™ and how it reduced rat population in the garden during a 12-month pilot program. (You can check out how the garden deployed GoodBites™ in the video here.) Our experience in Brookside will serve as a blueprint as we prepare to roll out access to GoodBites™ for other community gardens in the future.

We’re not just spreading the word at conferences, however. I had the pleasure of appearing on KJZZ, the NPR-member radio station based out of Rio Salado College in Phoenix to talk about how WISDOM Good Works started and the importance of restoring ecological balance without resorting to lethal means. You can listen to it here.

It’s very exciting to be participating in all these venue as we work to change the paradigm in pest control management and humane, poison-free fertility control.