Giridhar Pai Associates

Importance of Stored-product Insect PestMonitoring and Control

Learn about stored product insect pests (SIPs), their impact on food products leading to losses and pheromone traps for monitoring them in India. The Importance of Monitoring and Control of Stored-product Insect Pests Stored-product insect pests (SIPs) can cause significant damage to food and grain supplies, leading to economic losses and posing health risks to consumers. Stored product insect pests can infest a wide range of processed dried food products, including grains, seeds, nuts, dried fruits, spices, chocolate, flour, pasta, pet food, cheese, dried meat, non-milk dairy powder, tea, dried herbs, and snacks. Dried food products susceptible to SIP infestation: Other processed foods: The Impact of SIPs SIPs cause a variety of problems, including: Monitoring SIPs Regular monitoring of stored products is essential for early detection of their infestation. Monitoring allows for timely intervention and control measures to prevent further damage and product contamination of processed food. Pheromone Traps: An Effective SIP Monitoring Tool Pheromone traps are a highly effective tool for monitoring SIPs. SIP pheromone traps utilise pheromones, natural chemicals released by insects to attract mates or members of the same species, to lure and capture insects. Pheromone traps provide several advantages for monitoring stored product insect pests: Pheromone Trap Placement and Monitoring Pheromone traps should be placed strategically throughout storage areas, including warehouses, silos, and food processing facilities. If there is a suspicion that SIPs are present in other areas, pheromone traps can be used in the processing areas. The number and placement of pheromone traps depend on the size and layout of the storage area, the type of products stored, and the known or suspected insect pest species. Regular monitoring of pheromone traps is crucial for effective SIP management. Pheromone traps should be checked and emptied frequently to assess target SIP activity levels. Pheromone trap count data can be used to track pest populations and determine the need for control measures like cleaning, heat treatment, fumigation, and removal of infested products. Tips for Preventing SIP Infestations Conclusion Monitoring stored product insect pests using pheromone traps is essential for preventing food losses, protecting consumer health, and maintaining the reputation of food businesses. By implementing effective pheromone monitoring programs, food businesses can minimise the impact of SIPs and ensure the safety and quality of their food products. Recognising the need for SIP pheromone traps in India, Giridhar Pai Associates LLP (GPAL) has begun their distribution in 2024.  GPAL is happy to announce the availability of the Storgard range of insect monitoring systems manufactured by Trece, Inc., of the United States of America. GPAL is also making the Fuji Flavors Ltd Ecomone range of pheromone traps available. The Serrico trap is the world’s first and best cigarette beetle pheromone trap. GPAL is confident that with the availability of the Storgard and Ecomone ranges of SIP pheromone traps in India, the Indian food industry has effective SIP monitoring tools. 

Top ten tips to control rodents at an organic food facility

Like the owners of conventional food facilities, owners of organic food facilities also contend with rodent attraction to the food in processing and storage. However, conventional rodent control that relies only on trapping and using toxic baits (or rodenticides, which are chemical pesticides) is not feasible at organic food facilities as the organic food standards bar the use of chemical pesticides. Furthermore, the secondary poisoning from certain rodenticides and the soil and water pollution by rodenticides not consumed by rodents are among serious concerns about the use of rodenticides in rodent control. While trapping rodents once they are inside a building is a conventional approach to rodent control, the question is, why wait for rodents to enter a facility? Why not prevent rodents by ensuring the cleanliness and storage outside a building do not favour rodents through harbourage? Even when the building exteriors are inhospitable to rodents, some mice and rats may still enter a facility. Creating a rodent-proof perimeter is important to prevent such accidentally invasive mice and rats. While our ten tips in this blog post discuss various approaches to rodent control, as the marketers of the Rodexit All-In-One rodent seal, we recommend its use as a key rodent prevention measure. In this detailed blog post, we present tips to help organic food facilities control rodents at their premises using non-chemical methods, including sanitation, rodent exclusion, and habitat reduction. At Giridhar Pai Associates LLP, we strongly believe that building managers can control rodents at an organic facility without relying on toxic chemical pesticides such as rodenticides by switching sanitation, rodent exclusion and habitat reduction. Like any pest management, rodent management must also follow an integrated approach of sanitation, exclusion, and creation of a pest-unfavourable habitat. By relying on those three methods, it is possible to reduce rodents entering a facility drastically. When we reduce the number of rodents that may enter a building to few by sanitation, exclusion and habitat reduction, it is easier to effectively trap and prevent them from contaminating food or damaging property at an organic food facility. In this blog post, we have listed below ten steps to minimise rodent occurrence and control rodents without using rodenticides at an organic food facility. 1.Sanitation: Keeping your facility clean and clutter-free eliminates rodent harbourage, as rodents prefer not-managed areas to take shelter, make nests, survive, and thrive outdoors. 2.Exclusion: Prevent rodent entry by sealing up cracks, holes and openings around doors, windows, pipes, and vents. The materials used for such rodent prevention are different depending on the rodent entry type but must be effective to prevent attempts by mice and rats to evade the barrier to gain entry indoors. Metal of sufficient thickness (24 or higher gauge for wall or pipe barriers and 22 or higher gauge for kick plates or door edging) is an effective rodent barrier and can cover the holes around pipes and door edges. Metal screens can prevent rodent entry from vents. We have found the RodeXit rodent seal to be an effective rodent barrier below doors and rolling shutters. 3.Denying food and water: Eliminate food sources that could attract rodents by promptly removing food spills and storing food in rodent-proof containers. As mice and rats also feed on garbage, denying food to them also requires eliminating their access to the trash. Trash must be kept in a closed container with lids and regularly removed from a facility. As mice and rats also need water to survive, avoiding standing water and leaky pipes and faucets or dripping condensate denies them water and prevents their survival and proliferation. 4.Deny harbourage: Prevent rodents from nesting by removing wood piles, debris, and overgrown vegetation around the facility. It is necessary to prevent rodents from using materials stored outdoors for nesting. Further, rodents may use trash and debris to make nests, which can be prevented by removing all potential nesting sites and materials. Rodents can also make nests indoors, and thus, the steps to deny harbourage to rodents outdoors must also be followed indoors to prevent rodent nesting. 5.Storage: Maintain organised storage and prevent material accumulation that could shelter rodents. Rodents are nocturnal creatures and spend their days away from human sight by seeking shelter inside piles and stored materials not checked regularly by people. Periodically inspecting non-moving materials helps to detect mice and rat harbourage, their nests, and their pups. 6.Rodent inspection: Regularly inspect the facility for rodent activity signs such as droppings, gnaw marks, shredded packaging, damaged food and rub marks.Rodents leave numerous signs that help detect mice and rat presence.Regular inspections uncover the presence of mice and rats through their urine, droppings, gnawing, damaged packaging, and the rub marks caused by their body oils. 7.Rodent monitoring: Monitor rodents regularly through non-toxic glue or live catch or snap traps to track rodent infestation and areas of rodent occurrence.Monitoring rodents is very important and can be done through a range of traps, which, if used in areas frequented by rodents, will help to capture them.Rodent trap use must be planned carefully to catch and prevent them from damaging property or contaminating food. 8.Employee awareness: Educating employees on rodent identification, prevention, and reporting of rodent sightings is an important step in rodent management.An employee at an organic food facility must know the types of rodents likely to occur at their workplace and the steps taken to prevent rodents.Employees must know the rodent-proofing devices and report rodent activity or any issue that could lead to rodent entry into the facility. 9.Rodent reporting: Every facility must foster a culture of awareness about rodents and encourage prompt reporting of rodent activity signs.As the presence of one rodent only indicates the likely presence of numerous others, a facility must ensure that all employees report signs of rodents or rodent sightings. 10.Rodent population records: A facility must maintain detailed records of rodent monitoring control measures to track the progress of the rodent control measures and identify rodent population trends.Food safety auditors rely on records to determine the effectiveness of a

The inspiring story of FLYght UV LED Insect Light Traps

Insect Light Traps (ILTs) can be Electric Fly Killers (EFKs), which electrocute insects or Electric Fly Catchers (EFCs), whose glueboards trap insects by adhesion. ILTs attract insects by emitting UV-A light, to which filth flies are positively phototactic. Phototaxis is insect behaviour in which a stimulus either attracts or repels it. UV-A light attracts houseflies, and other filth flies like flesh flies, blue bottle flies and green bottle flies. Commercial ILTs rely on a UV-A light source to attract filth flies, which traps either electrocute (as in EFKs) or trap on a glued surface (as in EFCs). Though traps to attract insects first became popular in the late nineteenth century, ILTs such as EFKs and EFCs are a relatively newer invention, with a US company launching the first commercial product in the late sixties of the twentieth century. USA’s Gilbert Industries – the world’s first manufacturer of professional insect light traps: Don Gilbert of the American company Gilbert Industries pioneered ILTs through his invention of an escape-resistant ILT in 1967, as described in his company’s website’s history section, which is one of the earliest records of professional ILTs. Before Don Gilbert launched what he called professional ILTs, those devices were used by scientists and farmers to attract and trap insects that responded positively to light. Don Gilbert is the pioneer who foresaw the potential for ILTs in businesses for indoor housefly control. He called his devices professional ILTs, to denote that his inventions were suitable for the professional pest control industry. Before Don Gilbert’s products, ILTs were popular primarily as outdoor insect control devices. Don Gilbert introduced ILTs for indoor use and saw their potential benefits inside food factories and pharmaceutical units. In 1972, Don Gilbert patented a glueboard ILT that would control insects by trapping them on a sticky surface, unlike his earlier ILT versions which electrocuted insects after attracting them with UV-A light. PCI – the Indian pioneer in ILTs: India’s pioneering pest control company, Pest Control (India) Pvt. Ltd. (PCI), was the first Indian company to introduce an ILT in India in 1979. PCI launched the Pest-O-Flash EFK, which killed insects by electrocution on a high-voltage grid and, even nearly half a century later, is still a popular Indian ILT brand. There was relatively less innovation in ILTs in India for the next two decades, with EFCs appearing in the market only this century. Around the beginning of the twenty-first century, in 2001, PCI launched Spider EFC, India’s first electric fly catcher, and it had glueboards to trap insects attracted to the trap’s UV light. Like its predecessor, Pest-O-Flash, Spider was a popular brand, and it is still commonly seen across businesses in India to trap filth flies. The advent of UV LEDs in ILTs: Like residential and commercial lighting sources, ILTs depended on fluorescent tubes until the past decade. However, fluorescent tubes generate mercury waste and contain glass, a hazard that makes them unsuitable for the food and pharmaceutical industries. To overcome glass contamination from their ILT tubes, fluorescent tube manufacturers sold shatterproof tubes inside plastic sleeves to contain glass shards in case of tube breakage. However, the glass sleeves reduce UV output from the fluorescent tubes and affect trap fly-catching efficacy. Further, the high cost of plastic-sleeved UV fluorescent tubes now makes it a high recurring cost, one of the reasons for the shift of ILT customers from UV fluorescent tube traps to UV LED traps. Several global manufacturers of ILTs foresaw the need for LEDs as a UV source to replace the UV fluorescent tubes in their traps. As a result, in the past decade, several manufacturers have introduced UV LED ILTs with varying degrees of product success. Giridhar Pai Associates LLP (GPAL) represents one of the few global UV LED ILT manufacturers, Pestroniks Innovations Pte. Ltd. of Singapore (Pestroniks Innovations). Armed with a bio-Visual Enhancer (bio-VE+) technology patent, Pestroniks Innovations introduced the FLYght UV LED ILT range in 2020. The FLYght One and FLYght Duo traps use eight LEDs that last fifty-thousand hours and generate the same UV output throughout their lives. As a result, they consume just twenty per cent of the electricity of conventional (fluorescent tube) ILTs. In addition, FLYght One and FLYght Duo are compact as they have only a power supply unit as their part in addition to UV LEDs. GPAL commercially launched the FLYght One UV LED ILT in India in 2020 and followed it up a year later with the FLYght Duo. Pestroniks Innovations proudly “Make In India” their entire FLYght range and export it worldwide. At GPAL are proud to be associated with Pestroniks Innovations, a world-leading brand that manufactures high-quality, high-performance products in India. In the past two years, many Indian businesses have switched to the FLYght UV LED ILT range. Their reasons for the purchase include product looks, sustainability concerns, improved product performance and low or no maintenance. After comparing the performance of the FLYght range, Indian customers have favoured it as the other UV LED ILTs have design flaws that prevent them from effectively attracting filth flies. Pestroniks Innovations’ researchers, with their vast experience, had foreseen the challenges of using UV LEDs in ILTs and designed FLYght traps to maximise the attraction of filth flies. Further, right from the first product, FLYght One, to the second in the series, the FLYght Duo, Pestroniks Innovations ILT range incorporates very high power savings of 72% over 30 W fluorescent tube ILTs and 80% over 45W fluorescent tube ILTs. Some other UV LED manufacturers use many UV LEDs in their ILTs, making such traps consume as much electricity as conventional fluorescent tube ILTs and negating the switch from fluorescent to LEDs for a UV light source. We feel that customers primarily switch to UV LED ILTs to save power costs, and if such traps do not help achieve such an objective, customers will not switch to UV LED ILTs. We sell FLYght ILTs through the pest control industry, with pest control operators as resellers. However,

Top Ten Mistakes Users Make with Their Electric Flycatchers

As the pioneers of UV LED electric flycatchers in India, we keenly study businesses’ use of electric flycatchers (EFCs). We estimate that customers buy nearly 25,000 electric flycatchers each year in India. But, sadly, users’ installation and maintenance of electric flycatchers make them ineffective fly management tools. Effective fly management combines multiple approaches, including prevention by better hygiene, using screens and other devices to prevent housefly entry indoors, monitoring by electric flycatchers, and using pesticides against housefly larvae and adults. The sole use of electric flycatchers won’t solve housefly problems, and businesses must focus on integrated fly management through the steps we listed above to prevent houseflies inside their premises. Electric flycatchers are just one tool in housefly management. They primarily indicate the infestation level apart from the source to identify the different flying insect species in their surroundings. As few flycatcher manufacturers try to educate their customers, not correctly installing and using electric flycatchers across businesses negates the purpose of electric flycatchers, i.e. monitoring. Incorrectly installed and poorly maintained electric flycatchers cannot serve any purpose. We list below the most common mistakes we have found in flycatcher use in India during our visits to hundreds of businesses nationwide. 1. Objects blocking the light of the flycatcher: Placing an object in front of the flycatcher blocks the UV rays from it and prevents it from attracting houseflies and other filth flies to the trap. The flycatcher must be visible and not have any obstructions around it that block its light from being seen by houseflies at a distance from it. 2. Installing electric flycatchers too high above the ground: One of the most common mistakes in flycatcher installation is placing the trap very high where it won’t attract or trap houseflies and is difficult to maintain. Houseflies are active about five feet above the ground though they may also be at floor level and higher than five feet. Therefore, a flycatcher must be installed five feet above the floor on a wall to maximise its attraction and ensure effective housefly trapping. 3. Placing electric flycatchers on the floor: Some users who find ground-crawling houseflies decide to place electric flycatchers on the ground, assuming it to be the best position for those devices. Unfortunately, though floor-placed fly catchers attract and trap houseflies, they will fail to attract all houseflies around them. Further, floor-placed electric flycatchers are prone to disturbance and damage by foot or other traffic. 4. Not replacing the electric flycatcher’s glueboards periodically: Electric flycatchers function by attracting houseflies to UV light and trapping them on a glueboard. Glueboards inside electric flycatchers become filled with houseflies and insects, with the period for glueboard replacement varying by location and season. We recommend a replacement of the glueboard once monthly, at least, or when the glueboard is full of trapped insects. Glueboards full of dead insects will attract parasites that feed on insects and won’t trap any insects as the glue surface is full of trapped insects. 5. Not replacing the flycatcher light source after expiry: The manufacturers of the UV fluorescent tubes specify a life for their light source, with most such tubes lasting about eight thousand hours or ten months. UV fluorescent tubes stop emitting UV after expiry and no longer attract houseflies. It is a good practice to note the date of replacement of a UV fluorescent tube and the next replacement date on it. In the case of FLYght UV LED electric flycatchers with LEDs that last 50,000 hours, there is no replacement date as the light sources last more than five years without replacement. 6. Placing electric flycatchers at the wrong location: A flycatcher must not attract houseflies from the outdoors. Hence, a common guideline for flycatcher installation is placing them perpendicular to an entrance about twenty-five feet away. Electric flycatchers don’t work in areas of very low or very high temperatures. Also, wet areas are not suitable for flycatcher placement. Outdoor fly catcher use is also a wrong practice as they won’t work in daylight and at night will attract a lot of night flying insects like moths and chironomids to the trap. 7. Using electric flycatchers as a control tool: Electric flycatchers are not a control tool as they do not trap every housefly or filth fly in a space. However, flycatcher glueboards are a good indicator of the fly pressure inside a building and supplement fly prevention and control measures. 8. Placing the flycatcher too close to light sources: Electric flycatchers are less ineffective when there are other light sources near them, as such objects could attract houseflies away from the electric flycatchers. Therefore, there must not be other competing light sources near a flycatcher for it to attract houseflies. 9. Using electric flycatchers in places with excessive dust: Electric flycatchers rely on glueboards to trap houseflies and other filth flies they attract by UV light. However, dust and debris surrounding a flycatcher can make the device ineffective as the glueboard would not trap the insects that the UV light attracts to the flycatcher. 10. Not consistently using the flycatcher: Electric flycatchers are effective when they are present and switched on during day time when houseflies are active. Some spaces like food factories, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, kitchens and others prone to housefly infestation must have sufficient electric flycatchers to monitor housefly levels. Unless electric flycatchers are present year-round and switched on during the day, fly management would be ineffective due to the limited flycatcher availability. Earlier, we published a blog, The FLYght Guide to Insect Light Trap (ILT) Use, on our website listing the dos and Don’ts of ILT use. You can refer to that blog post for simple tips on using fly catchers effectively to manage houseflies at your facility. Our flycatcher range of UV LED electric flycatchers, FLYght One and FLYght Duo, have in-built features to minimise their maintenance. As they have UV LEDs that last 50,000 hours, our customers can use both FLYght One and Duo for more than five

Top ten reasons to choose the FLYght Duo Insect Light Trap (ILT)

Singapore’s Pestroniks Innovations Pte. Ltd. (Pestroniks) is a global leader in the field formed by the intersection of intelligent electronics and pest management.  The first generation ILTs: When the first-generation ILTs (fly-killers) appeared for sale in the United States about a century ago, they had an electric grid to electrocute insects attracted by the traps’ ultra-violet (UV) light emission.  Such traps, available even in 2023, have been in use hung from the ceiling or mounted on walls by the users. The second generation ILTs: After some decades of the first-generation ILTs, manufacturers introduced the second-generation traps (fly-catchers) in which insects attracted by the UV would get stuck on glueboards.  Fly-catchers also attracted insects through UV emission but trapped such insects on a glueboard.  ILT manufacturers introduced a range of wall-mounted fly-catchers.  They could customize the units for public areas to make the traps appear like light sources rather than housefly trapping devices. For nearly a century after fly killers appeared in pest control, introducing fly-catchers was the only major change in the ILT segment in capturing insects attracted to the device.  The third generation ILTs: Only in the 21st century did another change occur in ILTs – with manufacturers switching to UV LEDs instead of fluorescent tubes common in fly killers and fly-catchers.  UV LED ILTs are the third generation of the category in which the LED light source overcomes two principal limitations of UV fluorescent tube ILTs.  First, UV LED ILTs consume less than 2/3rds of low-power fluorescent tube ILTs, and as LEDs last longer, there is no need for annual light source replacement in UV LED ILTs. One of the first product categories that Pestroniks researched in the past few years was ILTs – which have not evolved much over a century since their advent in the twentieth century.  Pestroniks launches the FLYght ILT range: Pestroniks introduced the FLYght One in 2020 and the FLYght Duo in 2021 to become the first brand to launch domestically manufactured UV LED ILT in India.  Pestroniks is a “Make-In-India” proponent which manufactures the FLYght One and FLYght Duo at Mysuru in the southern-Indian state of Karnataka. A few global ILT manufacturers have used UV LEDs in their ILTs.  However, UV LED ILTs are still evolving, with trap makers using different approaches in their design for maximizing housefly catches. Pestroniks’ unique bio-VE+ patented technology: Pestroniks distinguishes its FLYght UV LED ILT range using patented bio-visual (bio-VE+) enhancer technology.  Further, Pestroniks makes metallic traps sturdier and long-lasting than the traps with plastic housing that other brands produce. The FLYght range is unique from other UV LED ILTs in the market.  Top ten reasons to choose the FLYght Duo ILT:  Following are the top ten reasons why we want customers to choose the FLYght Duo ILT over other brands.  The accompanying video illustrates each of the reasons visually.  In addition, it helps you better understand the FLYght Duo’s features and its ability to trap houseflies as part of an integrated fly management program. Pestroniks have mimicked the FLYght Duo copying carnivorous plants by designing the trap’s bio-VE+ board to reflect UV from the LEDs as a blue glow having UV rays in the range and intensity that strongly attract houseflies.  FLYght ILTs are the only range in the market with unique bio-VE+ technology. Unlike UV fluorescent tubes, whose UV output reduces significantly (approximately 10% each month in most brands), FLYght Duo LEDs generate constant UV throughout their 50,000-hour life. In contrast to the FLYght, UV fluorescent tube ILTs need glass sleeves to make the tubes shatterproof.  However, plastic sleeves around UV fluorescent tubes reduce the UV emission intensity and impact the fly-catching ability of the ILTs with such tubes. Unlike many other unattractive ILTs available in the market, the FLYght Duo stands out by its attractive appearance that melds into front-of-house business spaces. We are sure that our blog post has convinced you about the unique features of the Pestroniks FLYght Duo UV LED Insect Light Trap.  Since we launched this ILT globally in 2021, we have had fast adoption of this amazing product by the pest control industries of different markets worldwide.  Through the efforts of our national and regional distributors, we have also succeeded in hastening the adoption of UV LED technology among users of pest control services and products.  We are confident that our two-series videos that summarise FLYght Duo features and demonstrate the quick maintenance of the trap will further accelerate FLYght Duo adoption globally.  Please get in touch with us if you need more information on the FLYght Duo.

The FLYght One Story in white and black

When we recently introduced the black FLYght One to customers, we didn’t change just the color of the trap but far more. Here is the three-year story of FLYght One, India’s first UV LED flycatcher. The beginning We developed the first FLYght trap prototypes in late 2019. After confirming the design would work, we produced evaluation samples in early 2020, just before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pandemic-induced lockdowns slowed product development, and we waited till July 2020 to launch FLYght One, the first Pestroniks Innovations Pte. Ltd. product. FLYght versus fluorescent tube flycatchers We made many changes to the flycatcher design through the enormous design flexibility that FLYght One’s eight LEDs allowed us. As we were free from housing three fluorescent tubes and the ballast common to second-generation flycatchers, we could significantly reduce the size of our UV LED flycatcher. Like any other product, the FLYght range also has evolved with the FLYght Duo that arrived in 2021, having improved features over the FLYght One. Over the past year, to improve the look, feel, and performance of the FLYght One, we returned to the drawing board to reconfigure it for enhanced housefly capture. Using the feedback from our customers, we re-engineered the FLYght One to the new unit now available to customers. The old versus new FLYght One As we retained the product’s functional features, both FLYght One versions share some features, as described below. Further, we have highlighted in our description the new features of the FLYght One beginning January 2023. What remains the same in both versions Metal housing: We continue to use steel in FLYght One trap which makes them sturdy and rugged compared to traditional plastic-bodied flycatchers that are prone to damage and have high parts replacement costs. UV LEDs and bio-VE+: Both trap versions have eight X 1W LEDs and a bio-VE+ board. The bio-VE+ board is a bio-Visual Enhancer that reflects the UV from the LEDs after enhancing the wavelengths and intensity of such light. The blue glow emanating from the bio-VE+ board of all FLYght traps contains houseflies attracting UV wavelengths. Glue board : Both the old and new FLYght Ones are usable with the universal glue board that is 418 mm X 283 mm. Flies hidden from view : Like in all FLYght traps, the new FLYght One’s glueboard at the back of the trap is hidden from view, and people near the trap can’t see any of the houseflies it has trapped other than by taking the glueboard out of the trap. What is different in the new FLYght One Color: The all-black FLYght One stands out in any setting in contrast to the all-white FLYght One we made earlier, leading us to proudly introduce our ‘Machine-in-Black (MIB) Contrasting colors attract houseflies more, and the black exterior of the FLYght One juxtaposed with the white color of its bio-VE+ board has higher housefly attraction than a white bio-VE+ board inside a white FLYght One. Size: The new FLYght One has a length X width X depth of 476 X 237 X 98 mm versus the 425 X 196 X 112 mm of the old FLYght One. The FLYght One is now longer and wider than its older version. The new trap is heavier by 500 gm. at 2.75 kg. against the 2.25 kg. of its previous version. However, the FLYght One is still very light compared to other flycatchers in the market, and a technician can easily lift it with one hand for installation and maintenance. Wider bio-VE+ board : The bio-VE+ board of the new FLYght One is 2X the width of the old one. We are still researching whether the wider bio-VE+ board attracts more houseflies to the trap. Board position : The new FLYght One allows the insertion of the bio-VE+ board horizontally and the glue board vertically, letting users make board changes easily and quickly. We have simplified glueboard use and position by having a single slot for the glueboard at the back of the trap. In the old FLYght One, users had to make two pieces of the glueboard and insert them into the two slots of the trap. Thus, our customers now save time they would have spent readying two pieces of the universal glueboard for use in a FLYght One trap. More and different housefly entry holes : The old FLYght One has 110 round holes through which houseflies enter the trap. The new FLYght One has 226 hexagonal holes through which houseflies enter it. Our research has shown a difference in catch rates of hexagonal trap openings compared to round openings. Pricing : We offer the new FLYght at a 19% lesser price than the older FLYght One, helping customers benefit from an overall lesser purchase price and the low cost of ownership. As the pioneers of India’s UV LED fly catcher segment, we have interacted with hundreds of customers and introduced them to our novel technology. We continually improve our user experience by simplifying our products to make them easy to install and maintain. For example, a user can install FLYght traps in less than five minutes as they only have to remove the release paper of the glueboards before powering the trap for the first time. We call it ‘plug and flay’ technology in which our customers plug their FLYght flycatchers and flay houseflies in the premises. Interacting with customers in Sri Lanka, we have found that the rising electricity prices make the FLYght range of flycatchers more attractive to customers looking for lower electricity costs for housefly monitoring. We are confident that 2023 will be the inflection year in which hundreds of Indian customers will switch from second-generation flycatchers with fluorescent tubes to Pestroniks Innovation Pte. Ltd.’s third-generation UV LED flycatchers.

Giridhar Pai Associates LLP completes distribution of 200 meters of the RodeXit rodent seal in India in January 2023

We begin 2023 by sharing the journey of our third product, the RodeXit All-In-One seal – a rodent-proofing strip.  🐭 Mice and rats no longer have unfettered entry into Indian buildings with a RodeXit rodent seal barrier! RodeXit’s ten steel wires deter the toughest rodents attempting to gnaw their way into a structure. 🐁 We were very confident that the RodeXit rodent strip would change rodent management in India when we launched it in 2022 thanks to the efforts of our friend, Raja Mahendran, and the RodeXit rodent seal co-inventor Bjørn von Ryberg. In this blog post, we are glad to share the success of an international collaboration of pest management professionals across Europe, India, and Australia to rodent-proof and secure Indian buildings against mice and rats. In September 2021, the international business consultant Raja Mahendran based in Australia, proposed that we evaluate the potential for the RodeXit rodent-proofing strip in India.  Our discussions with Raja Mahendran soon led to our first online meeting with Raja Mahendran and RodeXit rodent seal’s co-inventor, Bjorn von Ryberg, in October 2021.  The RodeXit rodent seal is a product from Denmark currently available only in the United States of America and India for pest management professionals (PMPs) to securely rodent-proof buildings against rodent entry. Bjorn von Ryberg was very receptive to our market positioning suggestion for the RodeXit rodent seal in India and helped us price it for just rupees five hundred a foot for the end-consumer.    We have retained the highly economical INR 500/foot price for the RodeXit rodent seal despite currency fluctuations and increased freight costs since we launched RodeXit in India.  Also, Indian PMPs can increase their revenue by offering a RodeXit rodent seal installation service.  As the RodeXit rodent seal is a simple product, Indian pest control technicians can quickly learn and fix it for customers, generating revenue for their pest control company. In December 2021, we signed a distribution agreement with RodeXit North America (RNA) ApS for Giridhar Pai Associates LLP (GPAL) to become the first Asian RodeXit distributor. As a result of GPAL’s RodeXit distribution agreement with RNA ApS, India is now only the second country in the world where RodeXit is available other than the United States of America.  We ordered and received our first shipment of 200 meters of the RodeXit rodent seal in India in March 2022.  We started distributing RodeXit samples among GPAL distributors and end consumers starting April 2022.   However, our progress was slow as there is no other rodent-proofing strip in India, barring the RodeXit All-In-One seal, and we had first to educate users about the concept of rodent-proofing.  Most Indian PMPs rely on trapping and poison-baiting rodents. However, with the customers not demanding humane and non-toxic rodent management solutions, there has been little incentive for rodent-proofing in India. We widely shared RodeXit samples among our distributors, who showed them to their customers afterward. As a result, one of our distributors, Pecopp, made a short video to promote RodeXit and became the first Indian pest control operator (PCO) to sell the RodeXit rodent seal to a customer in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Pecopp exhibited RodeXit for the first time at an Indian trade show at the Clean India Show, Greater NOIDA, from 13 to 15 July 2022. In January 2023, Aaditya Pest Specializers Private Limited became the second Indian PCO to supply RodeXit to a customer in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A direct order for 100 m. RodeXit from a leading Indian FMCG group in January 2023 helped GPAL complete the sale of its first 200-meter RodeXit rodent seal import shipment, marking a significant milestone for rodent-proofing in India.  Thus, over ten months, starting in April 2022, GPAL finished distributing 200 meters of the RodeXit seal it imported into India in March 2022. Food safety auditors commonly highlight the rodent entry points in the food industry where they conduct food safety audits. However, till we launched the RodeXit rodent seal in 2022, there was no simple, easy-to-use, and inexpensive rodent-proofing product in India. RodeXit is very easy to install in most cases requiring less than an hour, which we shall soon demonstrate through RodeXit installation videos filmed in India.  As RNA ApS has sold RodeXit mainly in the United States, we don’t yet have videos demonstrating how to rodent-proof doors and rolling shutters in India using the RodeXit rodent seal.  GPAL’s RodeXit videos will make it easy for Indian PMPs and building owners to understand how to use the RodeXit rodent seal to deny rodent entry by the use of the RodeXit rodent seal. With the increasing concern about using certain rodent traps and rodenticides, the need for alternative rodent management methods has never been greater.  Several Indian states have already restricted the use of glueboards for trapping mice and rats.  Further, non-target species may ingest rodenticides, and large quantities of rodenticides that are not consumed by rodents contaminate soil and water, polluting them.  Sanitation is the first step in rodent management, and it must be followed by rodent entry prevention into buildings.  By restricting rodent entry into buildings, building owners can reduce or eliminate the use of rodent traps.  Preventing rodents also helps eliminate rodent damage to property inside buildings. The second step to rodent management is preventing rodent entry, for which GPAL is happy to offer the “RodeXit All-In-One seal” to rodent-proof buildings against mice and rats.  As you read above, GPAL has initiated India’s rodent-proofing revolution over the past year with the RodeXit rodent seal!    We are confident that we shall soon complete the distribution of our second consignment of 200 meters of the RodeXit seal in India that arrived in February 2023. Till recently, there was only one other rodent-proofing solution in India, but that option is no longer available.  Also, that product range had multiple options and components, making it difficult for the user to understand and implement that rodent-proofing method. With the advent of the RodeXit rodent seal, Indian

Giridhar Pai Associates LLP’s third-year journey in 2022

Giridhar Pai Associates LLP’s third-year journey in 2022 In a year that started with the peak of the Omicron COVID-19 wave in India, we completed one more year of business without pandemic restrictions, like in 2020 and 2021.  In 2022, it was a fresh start to business as earlier, with people returning to industry tradeshows and in-person meetings.  We progressed significantly in the third year of our company and recorded the following milestones on the way. January 2022: We revamped our website removing its e-commerce feature and adding the Aedes-X and RodeXit products and details about mosquitoes and rodents to complement our new product range.  We changed our LinkedIn and Facebook profile images to reflect the three international products we represent. We reached 400 followers of GPAL on our LinkedIn company profile. We received our Importer Exporter Code (IEC) from the Government of India. February 2022: We got our first export order from Big Tree Brands, Zambia, and shipped them FLYght Duos on February 22 22. We Ordered 200 m. RodeXit All-In-One seal from RodeXit ApS on February 22, 2022. We reached 500 followers on GPAL’s LinkedIn profile. March 2022: We received 200 m. RodeXit from Denmark on March 25, 2022, making India the second country in the world where the RodeXit All-In-One seal is available for pest control operators (PCOs) for rodent-proofing. April 2022: We had the RodeXit online launch in India by Bjorn von Ryberg and Raja Mahendran on April 21, 2022, for the GPAL distributors across India. July 2022: Pecopp Pest Control Services Pvt. Ltd. Sold the first RodeXit 25 m. roll in India to its customer in the state of Maharashtra. Our distributor, Pecopp Pest Control Services Pvt. Ltd., displayed FLYght One, FLYght Duo, Aedes-X, and RodeXit for the first time at a tradeshow in the Clean India Show 2022 from 13-15 July, 2022 at the India Exposition Mart, Greater Noida. November 2022: We shipped our 200th FLYght trap shipped in India on November 2, 2022. We reached 1000 followers on LinkedIn on November 3, 2022. We completed the Government of India’s Startup India registration on November 9, 2022. In closing, we thank our customers, distributors, and business partners, Pestroniks Innovative Pte. Ltd., for their excellent support to GPAL in its third-year journey.

We shipped our 200th FLYght trap to an Indian customer on November 2, 2022

We shipped the 1st FLYght Trap to Sad Vaidya Sala Private Limited on September 14, 2021 We shipped the 100th FLYght trap to Symega Food Ingredients Limited on October 6, 2021. Today, on November 2, 2022, we shipped our 200th FLYght Trap to AB Mauri India Private Limited. FLYght UV LED Insect Light Trap (ILT) is India’s first Make-In-India product of its kind we manufacture at Mysuru. Starting 2019, when we developed the product, we have been progressing in our FLYght sales to replace ILTs in India from fluorescent tube ones to UV LED ones. Such a switch from UV fluorescent to UV LED is happening globally, and we are proud to mention that India is one of the first countries to have locally-made UV LED ILTs. The greatest benefits of UV LED ILTs are that ones like FLYght consume only 20% of the electricity of the fluorescent tube (conventional) traps. Further, FLYght UV LEDs last 50,000 hours and do not need a replacement for five years. Most fluorescent tubes last about ten months, after which they do not emit UV, which attracts filth flies to such traps. The discarded tubes contribute to solid waste with heavy metals during each fluorescent tube replacement. Hundreds of Indian customers have switched from conventional ILTs to FLYght UV LED ILTs. We started by introducing steel FLYght traps and followed it up with aluminum-bodied ones, which are light yet sturdy. FLYght traps have a bio-Visual Enhancer (VE+) coated board that enhances the UV intensity and wavelengths of the eight UV LEDs emissions. FLYght traps attract and trap as many filth flies as larger conventional flycatchers.  In addition, as FLYght traps rely on universal glue boards, our customers are free to source their replacement glueboards from any source, though we prefer they order from us. In humanity’s journey towards Net Zero, FLYght and products like it will play a key role in substantially reducing electricity consumption during fly monitoring with flycatchers. We thank all our customers for their FLYght trap purchases.  We also thank our distributors for supporting our sales and Pestroniks for efficient order handling and dispatches.

Scroll to Top