Pest Information

Storgard Dome Traps and Pheromone Lures for Cigarette, Confused Flour and Red Flour Beetles are available in India from Giridhar Pai Associates LLP

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,

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

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