What caught the eye in the exhibition at Pest-Protect

With just short of 110 exhibition stands to visit there was a lot to take in. In our review we report on what we picked-up but apologise if your latest invention was missed out. If you feel neglected, do contact us with details.
At pest control exhibitions you often get giant mice or rats prancing around the hall promoting this or that – and this year the charming children of Patrick Michels from EPM Handels once again took to the floor as mice. But new to pest control this year was a gorilla! Is this the latest pest? Fortunately not!

Always a company with a sense of humour, Futura had a gorilla – no not a real one! – tethered on their stand sitting on his motorbike and then let-off to rampage around the exhibition hall clutching bunches of bannasa – all in the name of promoting their latest edition to the range – the new Gorilla mouse and rat traps. Taking the tried and tested traditional design, Futura has re-engineered these using high quality unbreakable plastic and stronger steel, plus a bait socket designed for use with their NARA lures and NARA liquid. On the rat traps there is a fixing port, a yellow ‘banana’ to support an eMitter transmitter. The company claims these are the first traps worldwide to be CE certified.

Alcochem is another innovative company and spotted on their stand was a very neat and natty mobile UV-A light tester for use checking EFK tube output. The user simply pops the tester’s mini jack plug into their Smartphone which provides the power to run it. The tester measures the UV-A output intensity, shows the read-out on the phone screen and allows the user to record or transmit the result. At only a few Euros each these are considerably cheaper, lighter and easier to use than a traditional meter.

Bed bugs were the main theme of the seminar presentations and Heiko Kaiser of ALPECO (Alternative Pest Control) related his experiences of battling this bug, but he could also be found on the Thermo-bug stand promoting the Thermo-bug Compact. Rather than using chemicals, this is a heat approach to elimination. The machine is quiet, light weight, easy to transport and manoeuvre and in use generates heat to raise room temperature to 70 degrees C.

Spotted on the Pest Trader stand with a product to tackle somewhat larger pests, namely birds, was Cameron Riddell of Bird Barrier. Designed specifically for birds in trees, Tree-Shock can be easily mounted, or secured by ties, to the branches of tres ro deter our feathered friends. It comes as durable PVC tubing wrapped with stainless steel. When a bird’s foot touches the positive and negatively charged wires it gets a shock that trains them to stay away.

Already available in the UK, but Russell IPM took advantage of Pest-Protect to launch their iPest system. This collects real-time data on rodent activity and sends the information directly to a Smartphone through the iPest mobile app or email, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wireless technology utilises a double trigger mechanism to detect the presence of rats or mice in the bait station, which prevents false notifications and ensures any information recorded is accurate.

On the chemical front, Hungarian Babolna Bio was pleased to be able to present their latest edition to their Biopren range – Biopren 6 EC. Containing both growth regulator S-methoprene with pyrethrins, it comes as an EC ideal for treating bed bugs and fleas when both residual and flushing effect is required. The manufacturer’s say it is recommended mainly for control of bed bugs resistant to synthetic pyrethroids.

Dr Shakir Al-Zaidi and the new iPest system

Biopren 6 EC displayed by Susan Papp

Other things to note on the stands was that Northern Irish Lance Lab who have developed and manufacturer the telescopic XL 8D and XL 8 S lances, which prove ideal for high level wasp nest control, are spreading their wings internationally. Not only could Phil Bowman be seen demonstrating the lances on the Pelsis (Edialux) stand, but they were also to be found under the Birchmeier brand on their stand. It was also a case of happy birthday Birchmeier, as this Swiss sprayer manufacturer was celebrating its 140th birthday.