BULLETINA Quarterly Publ ication of Aardwolf Pestkare (S) Pte Ltd

Oct – Dec 2016MCI (P) 034/04/2016

Launched in 2001 through 7 Pest Management Professionals, which included Aardwolf Pestkare, Bayer Environmental Science celebrated the 15th Anniversary of “Agenda” termiticide at the Pest Summit 2016 Singapore.

A total of more than 5,000 premises have since been termite-proofed in Singapore, which translates to about 1 property a day.

This is done by building a termiticide barrier underneath the building. This protection against the dreaded subterranean termites carries a 5-year warranty, backed by Bayer.

Pest Summit 2016 Singapore

Bayer’s “Agenda” Termiticide Celebrates 15 Years in Singapore

From left, Patrick Chong, John Lui, Harry Singh, Lee Teck Seng, Steph Chua, Andrew Chan, Philip Tan and Jason Nash.

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A group photo of the participants. Please see pages from 7 - 12 for the story.

Adam Carew-Reid from Starkeys Australia was in Jakarta for discussion with the Aardwolf Team on the development of a new Mosquito Trap for Indonesia.

Given the environmental situation it is probably the best approach to supplement the “search-and-destroy” control of the vectors of dengue, chikungunya, malaria and Zika virus.

Our Technical Manager, Dr Jerry Hu Jian, was given his 5-year service award of a 5-day holiday with his wife Shu Ping in any ASEAN country. He fondly recalled the day he landed in Singapore Changi

Designing a new Mosquito Trapfor Indonesia

Dr Hu receiving his 5-year service award.

Adam and the Aardwolf Pestkare Directors.

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For the memory, Dr Hu when he first landed in Singapore to take up his appointment. He still looks just as young today.Airport and John Ho received him. Their first stop was the St Joseph’s Church Bukit Timah, where Patrick Chong and his family were running a charity mee siam stall on the Church Saint’s Feast Day.

Recalls Dr Hu, “I was surprised. I wondered if I had joined a religious organization by mistake!”

Ideally such a trap employs lactic acid that mimics the human sweat, carbon dioxide and ultra-violet light to attract and knock-off these bloodsuckers.

Dr Hu completes 5 years service

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Congratulations to our Technical Executive Mohd

Yazid Safari and Noreen on the birth of their first-

born Myreen Adyna. “She is definitely the first of

many more kids to come” said a confident Yazid.

We wish the family all the best.

….. our technician Muhd Ryzal Mikhail Abdol Majid

on the occasion of his marriage to Azlina Aziz.

We wish the couple much blessings and happiness.

And to Senior Technician Mohd Hafiz Saberan and Mastura on the arrival of their second son Haziq, and a brother for Harraz. This is a home where the name of all the males start with the letter “H”, standing for Happy.

We congratulate Technician Jajang Darwani of our Bandung Branch, Indonesia and his wife Sri Wahyuni, on the birth of their first born Syakira Alfarizqia. Yes, mother and daughter are doing well, thank you. And the father? He has been smiling ever since.

All Best Wishes to …..

Here is the Class of June 2016 at the Singapore Polytechnic’s Advanced Food Hygiene Course, coordinated by Martyn Wong.

The interesting question asked was on the behaviour of the House Lizard. Strictly this is not a pest because it feeds on flies and the reproductives of ants and the alates of termites. But unfortunately it walks all over the ceiling looking for these insects and rains its droppings.

In the past it was believed that it moves around using suction cups attached to its feet. Today with the help of the electronic microscope, we can see that it is capable of these antics because of the hundreds of hairs on the underside of its legs, which it uses to “hook” its way around.

To prove this point, you can place a House Lizard in an empty glass jar and you will see it “swimming” helplessly around. If it has suction cups, it would easily “cup” its way out of the jar.

Class Of June 2016

Congratulations To OurProud Parents

National Environment Agency bans the use of rodenticide inside Food & Beverage Outlets in Singapore for fear of contamination. Only traps are permitted.

Lim Li May made her maiden call as the Technical Sales Manager of Bayer with a training session on the new range of pesticides.

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NARA attracts rats

Trainer from Bayer

Rats are attracted to these outlets because of the availability of food. To ensure that these vectors are attracted to the trap, Bentz Jaz has just launched NARA, a synthetic product in 3 scents – meat, fish and vanilla.

So with NARA, it is good-bye to the good old barbequed “sotong” (cuttlefish), which was traditionally used to bait the rat, not by Aardwolf Pestkare though.

Dr How Yee Fatt of Bentz Jaz conducted the

training for our chaps on the use of NARA.

Aardwolf Pestkare will be conducting field trials before we include them in our list of approved pesticides.

Asiatic Agriculture Industries has launched a wireless Ultra Low Volume fogger. The advantage is that it is light and it purrs when in use.

Sales Executive Jay Lee from Asiatic Agriculture presented the machine to the Aardwolf Pestkare staff during our Thursday Touch-Base Day.

Sales Manager Alvin Li Jun Jie of Mass Technologies delivered an interesting and humourous session on the proper donning of the 3M Respirator that all our technicians use. He rated this as the premium personal protective equipment in his field.

We are proud to announce that all 6 of our recent trainees passed the examination conducted by the Institute of Technical Education, with 2

Front row (from left) are Muhd Zuhaili Samsuri (Grade A), Service Development Manager Lily Lim and Norhazmi Hassan (Grade A).

Back row (from left) are Mohd Shaiful Rizan Rosli, James Chai, Suhaimi Sabari and Muhd Naili Musrupe.

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Supervisors Nordinigh, Nazree, Tony, Fauzee and Nazmi giving their attention to Jay (man in a tie).

A lighter, wireless Ultra Low Volume Fogger

Proper Donning of the Respirator

NEA LICENCES

scoring “Grade A”. They are now licensed by the National Environment Agency to conduct Vector Management Services.

There is excitement in the air.

As part of the preparation for our 20th Anniversary Celebration of Aardwolf Pestkare in 2017, a competition was held for all staff to design a new T-shirt for our Technicians.

The response was over whelming, as seen in the display here.

The winner, who will walk away with the $300 prize money, will be announced in January 2017.

JieFang Ribao is our first Client in the newspaper industry in China and they are one of the largest in the print media.

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CALLING OUR BUDDING DESIGNERS!

Our New Client in China

So on her recent visit to China, our Lily Lim was all excited to be introduced to Manager Ni Yong and the General Manager Tong Jie by Rosalind Yang.

Seen here are from left are Ni Yong, Lily, Tong Jie and Rosalind.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

In his Keynote Address at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore, John expressed confidence that the pest management industry can survive today’s world of rising costs and shortage of suitable manpower. To do so, it has to improve productivity, adopt innovations to solve existing problems and embrace the green technology that is fast emerging.

The rodent infestation that has been making headlines in Singapore, can be better managed if we concentrate our effort in these 5 critical areas:

1. Stop playing the “Blame Game”. The management of shopping malls should take a holistic view and be responsible for rodent control and not put the blame solely on their tenants, the Food & Beverage Outlets (F&B Outlets). This is because the rodents will not recognise the space allocated to an outlet and will forage everywhere. The F&B Outlets have the responsibility to improve their sanitation practices and remove all food when they close for the night.

2. Effective and sustainable rodent control is achieved through field training and legwork. Computers and Wi-Fi are meant to monitor their activities, not to replace legwork.

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Getting to know...

3. Presently the technician’s licence is automatically renewed by NEA at the end of every 3 years. To promote upgrading he recommended that the technician attends a short refresher course before his licence is renewed, every 3 years.

4. The tender system of selecting the successful company based on the lowest tender is outdated. The industry applauds the policy of “Best Sourcing”, not cheap sourcing.

5. During their inspection rounds, Enforcement officers should ensure that the food waste disposal capacity is adequate. Rodents are nocturnal creatures and take their meal in the silence of the night before the food waste is disposed in the morning.

The objective of pest management is to achieve “Zero Infestation” inside a designated area.

John Ho-Ohara, Group Managing Director, Aardwolf Pestkare (S) Pte Ltd.

Rats feeding at night in an overfilled waste disposal bin.

PEST SUMMIT 2016 SINGAPORE – Some of the Papers Presented

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Pest Control (India) is the industry’s largest player in India, with an annual turnover in excess of S$80 million.

Sharing the gems in his company’s success, he explained that the acronym PCI stands for “Public, Company and Individual” in that order. Satisfying and exceeding the customer’s expectations is the company’s paramount purpose.

The company readily acknowledges that finally the technician who delivers the service is the point man who makes the difference between success and failure. The company devotes the majority of its resources to empowering and entrusting him to excel and assume his role as the standard bearer of the company.

Employees who have to leave the company do so because there is a loss of integrity.

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“Operating a Pest Management Company – The Indian Experience”

“The Importance of Food Safety Audits in Viable Pest Management for Food Industry”Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has come a long way in replacing the dependency on pesticides to clear a pest infestation. Today it is built on a science-based programme that relies heavily on our understanding of pests’ biology and behaviour, and then selecting the most appropriate tool to eliminate the infestation.

Auditing plays a major role in this changeover. The question is how many food plants will pass an unannounced audit.

Unfortunately ignorance is present in every aspect of IPM. Pest Management Professionals must play a bigger role in educating their clients in the area of prevention and they can only do this if they acquire a high level of knowledge.

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“Integrated Pest Management Approaches to Increase Productivity

and Reducing Pesticide Exposure”Integrated Pest Management (IPM) has come about after the injudicious use of pesticides has resulted in:

1. Accumulation of toxic pesticide residues2. Pesticide resistance3. Emergence of a second pest4. Pest resurgence5. Impact on non-target organisms, and6. Adverse economic and social consequences.

Maintaining a pest-free environment involves many stakeholders: building owner, residents, food establishments, building maintenance and the pest management professionals. The programme has to be discussed with and accepted by all parties concerned, for it to succeed.

Compared to conventional pest control, IPM may be deemed to be more expensive and time consuming but by reducing pesticide exposure and increasing productivity, it saves money by reducing unnecessary treatments, before the pest population reaches nuisance proportions.

An urban society will surely be better served by the adoption of IPM.

There is an urgent need for an innovative approach to fight the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Singapore.

The recent increasing frequency and magnitude of dengue epidemics transmitted by the Aedes aegypti have highlighted the limitations of our current vector control tools. It is this same species that also transmits the chikungunya and the Zika virus.

Environmental Health Institute is conducting studies and risk assessments of using male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to suppress their population in Singapore.

Wolbachia is a naturally occurring bacterium found in more than 60% of insect species but interestingly, it is not found in the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The male mosquito does not bite and its main purpose is to mate and fertilise the eggs carried by

the female mosquito. The eggs are then laid but they do not hatch.

This suppression strategy takes time and more data is required before it is adopted on a national scale. Meanwhile it is back to searching-and-destroying the mosquito breeding sources, larviciding, thermal fogging and misting.

“Wolbachia – Singapore: Using Male Aedes to Fight Dengue Mosquitoes”

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Pest Summit 2016 Singapore

Arrival of Guest-of-Honour.

Speech by Guest-of-Honour Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources & Ministry of Health.

From left, Deputy CEO Khoo Seow Poh, Dr Amy Khor, Andrew Chan and SPMA Vice-President Ng Say Kiat. Opening Ceremony.

Welcome Performance.

Chilling Out. Aardwolf Pestkare Singapore delegates.

Visiting the Exhibition Booths.

Speech by President of SPMA Andrew E L Chan.

Welcome Address by Chairman of Organising Committee Noh Mohd.

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Aardwolf Pestkare delegates from Indonesia & China.

Termicam Team from Australia.

Section of the participants.

Signatories of FAOPMA-Pest Summit.

Yam Seng!

See you next in Thailand.

Performance at Gala Dinner.

Guest-of-Honour at Gala Dinner, Chief Executive Officer of the National Environment Agency, Ronnie Tay.

Contingent from Indonesia.

With Vice Secretary-General Zhang Junping from Chinese Pest Control Association (3rd person from left) and Professor Meng Fengxia from National Institute for Communicable Disease Control & Prevention, China (1st person from right). The others in the photo, from left, are Rosalind Yang, John Ho and Professor Lee Chow Yang.

Pest Summit 2016 Organising Committee.

11Editorial Design: Equity Communications Pte Ltd Printer: Hock Cheong Printings Pte Ltd

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Aardwolf Pestkare (Singapore) Pte LtdCompany Reg No: 199700791R

26 Third Lok Yang Road, Singapore 628015 T 6268 1771 F 6265 1551E enquiries@aardwolfpestkare.com W www.aardwolfpestkare.com

Here are the speakers at the Pest Summit:

Dr Jim Fredericks, National Pest Management Association, USA.

Junichiro Katayama, Semco Co Ltd, Japan.

Dr Dong-Hwan Choe, University of California, USA.

Professor Dodi Nandika, Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia.

Dr Surachate Jamornmarn, Kasetsart University, Thailand.

Dr Kok-Boon Neoh, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.

Heng Yi Wei, Agro Technic Pte Ltd, Singapore.

Dr Chung-Chi Lin, University of Education, Taiwan. Shawn Miley, Rentokil, Australia.

Kwek Keng Chuan, National Environment Agency, Singapore.

Dr Hui-Siang Tee, Public Utility Board, Singapore.

Dr Ng Lee Ching, Environmental Health Institute, Singapore, with her son Anton, the youngest attendee at the Pest Summit.

Su-Chart Lee, King Service Center Co Ltd, Thailand.

Dr Partho Dang, Consultant, Philippines.

Dr M T Siva-Jothy, University of Sheffield, UK.

Dr Scotty Chin-Cheng Yang, Kyoto University, Japan.

Grace Yap, Environmental Health Institute, Singapore.

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