Pesticide Safety Group Excluded From Terminix-Sponsored BugfestAdvocates, museum offer different explanations as to why

If you plan to attend Bugfest at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences this Saturday, you won't be able to get information about the dangers of chemical pesticides or about less toxic pest control alternatives from a Raleigh nonprofit that advocates for safe pesticide use.

The Agricultural Resources Center & Pesticide Education Project asked to participate as an exhibitor in this year's event but was turned down.

The museum maintains that's because the group made its request too late. But ARC says it was given a very different explanation for its exclusion by Bugfest curator Bob Flook - that Terminix "is a very important sponsor for the museum, and they thought it wouldn't do to have us there at the event this year," reports ARC Program Coordinator Billie Karel. Terminix has been Bugfest's sole corporate sponsor for the past several years.

Karel says she initially left a phone message with Flook about exhibiting back in May. They talked the week of June 13, and Flook was "very enthusiastic" about having ARC participate, Karel says. He asked to see some of the group's materials, which she sent via e-mail the following week. ARC proposed holding a bug-coloring contest for children and distributing pesticide safety information.

Karel didn't hear back from Flook, so on July 13 she sent him a follow-up e-mail. He then called her to say ARC could not be an exhibitor. He "said nothing at all about there not being enough space," Karel says.

"He was really nice - very sweet and very enthusiastic," Karel says of Flook. "He sounded like he felt genuinely bad about having to tell us that we couldn't come."

Flook did not respond to requests for comment from Raleigh Eco News. But Jon Pishney, communications chief for the museum, maintains there was a misunderstanding between ARC and Flook, who told Pishney that ARC did not contact him about exhibiting until mid- to late July.

"Is BugFest 2005 sponsored by Terminix? Yes," Pishney says. "Did this have anything to do with the decision to turn down ARC? Absolutely not. We look forward to exploring future opportunities with [ARC] and don't want any misunderstanding to interfere with that potential."

Terminix does not have direct control over who exhibits at Bugfest and was not aware of ARC's request to participate, according to Pishney. "Terminix is not directing in any way what we present to people," he says. "They're a corporate sponsor because they believe in our event, and they believe in the museum's goals."

But sponsoring events like Bugfest is also part of Terminix's corporate growth strategy. A division of Downers Grove, Ill.-based Servicemaster, Terminix is currently the largest pest control company in the world, with a 20 percent market share in the United States. But it's aiming for a 30 to 35 percent share and is using sponsorships to help achieve that, Terminix CEO Steve Good recently told the online publication Pest Control Technology.

For example, Terminix was also the sole corporate sponsor of the 2001 IMAX film "A Rainforest Adventure - BUGS!" CEO Good admits he had to sell the idea of sponsoring a film with a pro-environmental message to his fellow executives.

"We had to ask ourselves why would Terminix, a company known for exterminating insects, sponsor a movie that celebrates insects and their relationship to our ecosystem," Good told Pest Control Technology. "But it makes perfect sense. Terminix loves insects. They support our 12,000 employees."

The company saw an increase in business in the markets in which the film was shown, leading to talk of a sequel, Brandweek magazine reported last November.

Terminix has good reason to burnish its public image by sponsoring environmental events like Bugfest and the "BUGS!" film: The company has been involved in numerous lawsuits involving states' attorneys general and private plaintiffs over environmental and consumer safety violations, some involving human sickness and even deaths. North Carolina pesticide regulators have issued fines against Terminix employees for improper pesticide applications, including at least one incident that contaminated a pond and caused a fish kill. Terminix has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Pishney doesn't know whether any of the approved exhibitors at Saturday's Bugfest will offer information on pesticide safety. However, anyone interested is welcome to come and distribute that sort of information at the event, he says.

"It's a public institution," Pishney says of the museum. "Bringing that information from ARC or whatever - I don't know where we'd put it, but you could certainly stand and hand it out."