Pesticide certification programs will be provided as needed. Current and future problems and needs will be identified for researchers by extension specialists. A large number of insects and their near relatives occur in and around structures and influence every person in North Carolina in some manner. In North Carolina there are 377 licensed pest control companies with 547 persons licensed to provide pest control services for household pests and 505 persons licensed to provide service for wood-destroying insects. Another 47 persons are licensed to use fumigants.
Commensal rodents are responsible for unquantified economic losses to homeowners.
Insect pests of stored agricultural commodities have great economic importance in all stages of the marketing process. Fire ants are rapidly expanding their distribution in North Carolina. These and other stinging insects such as wasps and urticacious caterpillars are of great concern to homeowners. The introduction of the Asian tiger mosquito and Formosan termite into North Carolina and the threat of importation of other exotic pests such as the Asian cockroach and Africanized honey bee are of great concern to urban entomologists. There are more than 1,000 ornamental plant species and varieties grown in North Carolina which are beset by about 1,700 major and minor insect and mite pests.