In the dynamic landscape of pest management, innovation, sustainability, and collaboration are no longer mere buzzwords; they are imperatives.
For industries as critical as food processing and storage, the demand for effective, non-toxic solutions is paramount.
It is with immense pride and a shared vision that we highlight a groundbreaking partnership between two Indian leaders: Gumtree Traps Pvt. Ltd. (Gumtree Traps), India’s premier manufacturer of glue-based pest traps, and Giridhar Pai Associates LLP (GPA), India’s leading distributor of global innovative pest management products.
This alliance, affectionately dubbed the “2G partnership” – not only for the shared initial ‘G’ in their company names but also for the names of their visionary leaders, Guru Agnihotri of Gumtree Traps and Giridhar Pai of GPA – is revolutionising stored product insect (SPI) pest control with truly green solutions.
The connection between Guru Agnihotri and Giridhar Pai runs deeper than mere professional acquaintance.
Both were colleagues at Pest Control (India) Private Limited (PCI) from 2000 to 2007, forging a foundational understanding of the industry’s intricacies and challenges.
In more recent years, as residents of Thane city, their paths continued to cross, leading to frequent discussions about the evolving landscape of pest management.
These conversations, rooted in years of shared experience and a mutual commitment to excellence, naturally blossomed into a powerful collaboration.
Over the past few years, Guru Agnihotri and Giridhar Pai have actively co-developed and launched a suite of ‘green’ solutions for stored-insect pest management, fundamentally centred around the highly effective and environmentally conscious method of SPI pheromone trapping.
This blog post unveils the true power of the 2G partnership, which has meticulously created unique products designed to empower pest control operators and food companies across India.
These solutions enable the effective management of challenging SPIs without resorting to chemical pesticides, offering a safer, more sustainable, and ultimately more responsible approach to food safety.
The SPP Diamond Trapp: A Targeted Solution for Stored Product Moths
The inaugural product born from the innovative Gumtree Traps – GPA partnership is the SPP Diamond Trapp – a groundbreaking solution to monitor stored product moths, such as the ubiquitous almond moth (Cadra cautella), a polyphagous pest notorious for infesting a wide array of dry food products.
The almond moth frequently poses a significant threat to leading food brands, often leading to consumer complaints due to the unwelcome presence of its larvae in purchased goods.
Despite the widespread availability and common use of pheromone lures for almond moths globally, a dedicated, purpose-built pheromone trap specifically engineered for monitoring this particular SPI was conspicuously absent in the Indian market.
Recognising this critical gap, Gururaj Agnihotri and Giridhar Pai embarked on a mission to co-create an optimal Almond Moth Pheromone Trap.
Their extensive research and development process led them to zero in on the diamond shape, a design commonly employed by numerous international manufacturers for effective stored product moth monitoring due to its proven efficacy in capturing these specific pests.
Once the design was finalised, the state-of-the-art Gumtree Traps factory in Pilerne meticulously produced prototype traps.
These initial traps, crafted from white board and securely fastened with staples, underwent rigorous evaluation.
They were distributed to trusted pest control operators and an independent testing laboratory for rigorous assessment of their efficacy under real-world conditions.
The trials unequivocally demonstrated the traps’ effectiveness, paving the way for the finalisation of the design and the print content for both the trap itself and its packaging.
In 2024, Gumtree Traps proudly introduced the SPP Diamond Trapp to the market, marking a significant milestone as India’s first dedicated SPI moth trap that customers could seamlessly use in conjunction with readily available almond moth pheromone lures.
A key differentiator of the SPP Diamond Trapp is its superior design, boasting the most glue area among comparable traps. The enhanced adhesive surface significantly increases its trapping capacity and overall effectiveness, making it exceptionally popular among Indian customers.
Today, hundreds of satisfied customers across the nation happily utilise the SPP Diamond Trapp to monitor almond moth populations at their premises effectively, ensuring proactive pest management.
Kairomone for Attracting Beetles: The Beetle Attractant Oil
Beyond moths, stored product beetles represent another significant challenge for the food industry.
Trece, Inc. (Trece) of the USA, a globally recognised leader in SPI beetle monitoring traps, has long utilised a kairomone, or food attractant oil, in its renowned Dome-shaped traps.
The Storgard Dome Trap, for instance, has historically been India’s leading beetle monitoring trap. Its initial version comprised a dome cover, a base, a pheromone lure, and a crucial kairomone oil.
While Trece transitioned its Dome Trap design in 2013 to the more advanced Quick Change (QC) Dome, which integrates both pheromone and kairomones (in solid and liquid forms) within a convenient lure tray, a persistent need arose.
Numerous Indian customers, still utilising the older Dome Trap design, sought a reliable source for kairomone oil.
Responding to this specific market demand, Gururaj Agnihotri and Giridhar Pai once again joined forces.
Their collaborative efforts focused on developing a high-quality kairomone food attractant oil, which they successfully introduced in 2024 as the Beetle Attractant Oil.
The strategic importance of the Beetle Attractant Oil cannot be overstated: unlike sex pheromones, which primarily attract only male beetles, this kairomone effectively attracts both male and female beetles.
The Beetle Attractant Oil’s dual-gender attraction provides a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of the overall beetle population, enabling more informed pest management decisions.
Furthermore, the product has undergone continuous enhancement, incorporating additional attractive components to maximise its efficacy.
As a result, the Beetle Attractant Oil stands today as India’s only dedicated kairomone oil specifically formulated for SPI beetles, a testament to the partnership’s commitment to specialised, high-performance solutions.
Essential Support: The Oil Absorbent Pads
The original Trece Dome Trap design incorporated a small, yet vital, paper disc within its base, functioning as an oil absorbent pad, crucial for containing the kairomone oil and preventing its premature evaporation, thereby extending the trap’s active life and effectiveness.
However, with the shift in Trece’s product lines and the resulting disruption in the supply of both Trece kairomone oil and these specific oil absorbent pads, Indian customers found themselves in a predicament, actively approaching GPA to source these essential components.
Demonstrating their agile and responsive approach to market needs, Gururaj Agnihotri and Giridhar Pai collaborated once more and meticulously designed and developed their own high-quality Oil Absorbent Pads.
These Oil Absorbent Pads are now conveniently available in packs of 250, specifically formulated for optimal use with the Beetle Attractant Oil in Dome Traps.
Local availability of Oil Absorbent Pads and Beetle Attractant Oil ensures that customers can continue to utilise their existing monitoring infrastructure with locally sourced, reliable, and effective components, preventing any disruption to their pest management programs.
The Power of Partnership: A Blueprint for Green Pest Management
The detailed description of the Gumtree Traps and GPA collaboration vividly illustrates the immense power of strategic partnerships within the pest control industry.
This alliance serves as a compelling blueprint for how two entities, driven by a shared vision, can effectively deliver ‘green’ pest management solutions that are inherently non-toxic, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.
Indian customers utilising SPI pheromone traps now benefit from a reliable, local source for a high-quality almond moth pheromone trap (the SPP Diamond Trapp), a potent kairomone food attractant oil (the Beetle Attractant Oil), and the essential supporting oil absorbent pads for use in Dome Traps. Local availability of such products ensures timely access, reduces reliance on imports, and supports the “Make in India” initiative.
GPA extends its sincere gratitude and acknowledges the invaluable support provided by Gumtree Traps in achieving industry leadership in the critical domain of stored product pheromone traps and lures.
This synergy extends beyond product development; Gumtree Traps efficiently manages the logistics for all orders of the SPP Diamond Trapp, Beetle Attractant Oil, and Oil Absorbent Pads.
Such streamlined operational collaboration allows GPA to strategically focus its efforts on sales, market expansion, and customer education.
A true spirit of partnership is maintained, with both entities diligently referring inquiries for their respective products to each other, fostering a collaborative ecosystem.
The collaboration continues to deepen, as GPA has actively commenced marketing the excellent broader Gumtree Traps product range, which notably includes highly effective glue traps against cockroaches, rodents, crop pests, and houseflies.
Furthermore, as GPA is a prominent seller of FLYght UV LED Insect Light Traps, it has taken on the crucial role of educating its customers on the comprehensive tools necessary for an integrated fly management program.
In this context, GPA proudly promotes the Gumtree Traps Fly Card, Fly Strip, Fly Bag, and Fly Jars.
A significant number of Indian customers remain unaware of the necessity to combine various approaches for truly effective fly management and often require hands-on guidance to implement a robust program to control flies.
Therefore, GPA diligently recommends a multi-pronged strategy, including the use of an appropriate outdoor fly bait pesticide, combined with Gumtree Traps Fly Bags or Fly Jars, and the implementation of structural measures such as double-door entry systems and air curtains, to significantly reduce fly pressure on a building.
Subsequently, by intelligently combining FLYght Traps with Gumtree Traps, Fly Cards and Fly Strips, customers can achieve optimal minimisation of flies within their indoor spaces.
The benefits of this partnership are reciprocal and substantial.
Gumtree Traps has successfully expanded into a vital new category of stored product insect pest products through its strategic collaboration with GPA, diversifying its offerings and reaching a broader market.
Concurrently, GPA has greatly benefited from its alliance with Gumtree Traps, gaining the ability to locally source high-quality SPI products, which ensures supply chain stability and responsiveness.
Gumtree Traps’ efficient handling of shipment logistics has been a game-changer, enabling GPA to dedicate more resources to its core sales and marketing activities.
It is noteworthy that without extensive external promotion, the Gumtree Traps SPP Diamond Trapp, Beetle Attractant Oil, and the Oil Absorbent Pads have already garnered significant demand from pest control operators and food industry users across India, underscoring their inherent quality and market relevance.
Looking ahead, Gumtree Traps and GPA are poised to cater not only to the domestic market but also to the stored product insect pheromone trap requirements of the broader Asian and global markets.
The high-quality products emerging from this powerful partnership are set to make a lasting impact, driving forward the adoption of sustainable and non-toxic pest management practices worldwide.
This 2G partnership stands as a shining example of Indian ingenuity and collaboration, delivering world-class solutions for a safer, healthier food future.