Transforming the Pest Control Industry: The Giridhar Pai Associates Story – Part II
Introduction: The Prevalence of Stored Product Insects
Stored product insects (SPIs) pose a persistent threat to businesses that handle dry foods, such as cereals, pulses, nuts, dried fruits, flours, baked goods, chocolate, pasta, and noodles. These moths and beetles have evolved to thrive on foods that humans consume, making them a constant presence from farm to fork. Their ability to infiltrate the entire food supply chain presents significant challenges for food safety and quality.
The Complexities of SPI Management
Efficient management of SPIs requires a multifaceted approach, including raw material inspections, insect removal during processing, sterilisation and fumigation treatments, robust inventory management, and continuous monitoring. As no single intervention can guarantee low SPI populations, a holistic process is essential for managing them. Despite rigorous quality and food systems in place at manufacturers, SPI-related consumer complaints remain common worldwide, underscoring the ongoing difficulty of eradicating these pests from the food supply chain.
A Personal Journey: Discovering Pheromone Traps and Lures
My introduction to SPI management began during my tenure as Food Safety Manager at AVT McCormick Ingredients Ltd. (AVT McCormick) from 1995 to 2000. There, I established India’s first food-industry pheromone-trap monitoring programme for key pests such as cigarette beetles, flour beetles, and almond moths in spices. I take pride in knowing that this pioneering programme of large-scale pheromone trap deployment continues today, relying on pheromone lures supplied by Giridhar Pai Associates (GPA) to AVT McCormick.
Bringing Storgard Insect Monitoring to India
In 2002, I transitioned to the pest control industry, joining Pest Control India Private Limited (PCI). I facilitated a partnership with USA-based Trece Inc. (Trece), bringing their Storgard pheromone traps and lures to India. Through my creation of the Stored Product Insect Monitoring (SIM) service, PCI’s food industry clients benefited from weekly insect population updates, enabling proactive management. This service allowed customers to detect SPI infestations early and implement corrective actions promptly. PCI successfully distributed Storgard products for two decades, up to 2022.
Reviving Storgard’s Indian supply through GPA
In 2023, Giridhar Pai Associates LLP (GPA) partnered directly with Trece to market Storgard products across India and other Asian countries. In 2024, GPA expanded its offerings by collaborating with Fuji Flavours Co. Ltd. to introduce the New Serrico Trap to Indian fumigators and food companies. The following year, GPA launched the newer and improved Storgard Quick Change (QC) Dome, replacing the previous Dome Trap, ensuring the continued availability of cutting-edge monitoring solutions.
Fostering Education and Training in SPI Monitoring
GPA is committed to empowering the food and pest control industries through SPI management education. Comprehensive SPI pheromone monitoring resources are available on our website and YouTube channel, making it straightforward for professionals to learn about Indian SPIs and the use of pheromone traps. Additionally, in partnership with Food Safety Works, I have led online masterclasses on SPI monitoring for food and pest management professionals, with the inaugural session in September 2025 and another scheduled for January 2026.
Generating Revenue through SPI Monitoring Services
GPA’s efforts to restore Storgard supply have revitalised SPI monitoring programmes for Pest Control Operators (PCOs) and food industry customers. Reliable access to Trece’s Quick Change Dome Traps, Storgard II Traps, IMM+4 pheromone lures, and beetle pheromone lures enables PCOs to provide continuous, pesticide-free SPI monitoring services. These services help determine optimal fumigation timing, assess treatment effectiveness, and generate new revenue streams for PCOs.
Key Applications of SPI Pheromone Traps and Lures
- Storage: Warehouses are the primary sites for SIM programmes due to their high risk of SPI infestations. Accurate monitoring here is critical for food companies, with most using SIM services for their raw material, work-in-progress, and finished goods storage areas.
- In-Transit: While not always standard, SPI traps are increasingly used in trucks and export containers in India. Such a practice swiftly identifies infestations, with GPA distributors supplying Storgard CFB/RFB QC Dome Traps to exporters for inclusion in containers. Overseas importers often prefer Storgard’s proven efficacy over cheaper Indian products of doubtful performance.
- Quarantine Audits: The detection of Khapra beetles (KB) in Indian exports to the United States of America prompted the Government of India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine, and Storage (Dte. Of PPQ&S), to mandate KB monitoring for exporters. GPA’s KB/WB QC Dome Trap is uniquely positioned to meet this need, regularly sourced by fumigators and exporters.
Industry Impact: Safe, Sustainable, and Profitable SPI Management
India’s pest control industry has historically relied on chemical pesticides and fumigants for SPI management. However, growing concerns about pesticide residues in food have driven demand for alternative solutions. SPI pheromone traps provide accurate pest detection without pesticides, enabling food companies to take targeted, judicious action such as cleaning, product disposal, heat treatment, fumigation or reprocessing.
GPA emphasises that the key action in an SPI pheromone monitoring programme is the action in response to trap counts exceeding the set threshold. While a few SPIs can occur in a food factory warehouse, regular high counts and an increasing trend portend an infestation build and suggest the need for immediate intervention to prevent an uncontrollable infestation.
PCOs benefit by offering SIM services as a safe, eco-friendly revenue stream. Food industry clients gain from early infestation alerts, reduced treatment costs, and enhanced food safety. Thus, stored product insect monitoring is a win-win proposition for pest control operators and food companies, both of whom benefit from reduced costs and higher business margins.
GPA is proud to have enabled new income streams for PCOs while helping food companies reduce their reliance on costly interventions such as fumigation.
In conclusion, Giridhar Pai Associates’ pioneering efforts in SPI pheromone monitoring have transformed pest control industry practices in India, delivering measurable benefits to both operators and the food industry at large.
Our journey continues as we strive to innovate and support a sustainable, profitable future for all stakeholders in stored product insect management in India.