Syngenta will launch Secure Choice, its digital pest management platform in the UK in the coming months, and the company has highlighted opportunities where technology will aid professional pest controllers.
Referencing a particular site in London, where Secure Choice is being implemented, Richard Moseley, Syngenta PPM’s key account and business development manager, said: “In this particular installation, it’s going to go into a void area that’s quite difficult to access and that’s one of the strengths of a digital system.
“Digital pest control doesn’t have to cover 100% of the site, but it can be the 20% of the site that causes pest controllers problems from an access point of view.”
Mr Moseley said that this could include lift shafts, roof voids and floor voids.
“To get access to these areas, you probably need to do it out of hours and it’s probably very expensive,” he said.
“On sites that are incredibly complicated, a digital system can manage those areas that it’s difficult to get access to, or you can only access at certain times out of hours.
“You can put the system in once and then you only need to access it when you have a problem.”
Construction is another sector that could benefit from digital pest management.
Gary Nicholas, digital solutions lead at Syngenta PPM, said that if smart buildings are being constructed, smart pest control can be built into it right at the beginning.
“Mice have been built into buildings as they’ve been constructed, because nobody thought to start monitoring, or they don’t do it efficiently enough,” Mr Nicholas said.
“Pest controllers working with construction businesses could offer that as soon the spade has been put in in the ground. If monitoring goes offline, because somebody’s run a tractor over it, we know about it the moment it happens.”
Mr Nicholas continued: “What we can do is monitor for the rodent activity as contractors are building the building. We’re reducing that risk, down to a manageable level by the time the the building is commissioned.
“As the building grows, our delivery service can be as dynamic as the building that’s going up. Over three years, that might cost £20,000, but £20,000 on a £1 billion building is nothing.”
