The Internet of Things (IoT) looks set to be the future of pest control, especially for commercial accounts where rodents are the top priority.
For many years, the image of a professional pest control treatment has been that of a pest manager spraying a house with their trusted stainless steel sprayer. But technology is making big inroads into pest management and it’s important for pest managers to keep up to date with the new technology and its potential applications. One of the significant areas of development in recent years is the use of IoT in pest monitoring.
What exactly is IoT?
In case you were afraid to ask, IoT means the Internet of Things, a general term that refers to a network of connected devices and the associated technology that facilitates communication, both between the devices and the cloud, and between the devices themselves.
In urban pest management, IoT offers a range of benefits. The key opportunity is in real-time, remote monitoring of pest activity. IoT monitoring devices and traps are equipped with sensors and cameras to pick up pest activity. Depending on the sensors used, the devices can measure additional parameters in addition to pest activity, such as temperature and humidity. The system can then provide early detection of pests and trigger instant alerts, as well as measuring ongoing pest levels.
Better data = better pest management
Collecting data is great, but the power of any IoT system is in the data analysis and subsequent insights it can provide. Building up a picture of pest activity across a site allows pest managers to make informed decisions about their pest management strategies. The concept of ‘big data’, which harnesses the data from multiple data sets, for example across all sites for a pest control company, has the potential to provide further useful information.
Such systems allow for simplified record keeping and compliance with both regulatory and customer requirements. Providing customers with access to reports and data for their site is increasingly becoming the norm in commercial accounts.
For pest control companies the technology can deliver significant cost savings and improved efficiencies: less travel to sites, less time spent on site; more targeted applications, meaning less product usage and faster results; quicker, more accurate analysis; better, automatically produced reports, and access to information across the business.
IoT in Rodent Management
In urban pest management, the first area that tapped into IoT technology was rodent management, and a number of products are already on the market. All the major international pest control companies offer 24/7 rodent monitoring systems – Flick (SMART), Rentokil (PestConnect) and Ecolab (IRMS – Intelligent Rodent Monitoring System) – which are actively marketed to commercial accounts. Notably, Flick is also offering its SMART system as a premium add-on to residential customers.
Rodent monitoring systems have been launched by a number of the ‘traditional’ suppliers of rodent control products such as Bell (iQ), Ensystex (Rodenthor Digital) and Envu (although the technology was recently sold to Woodstream Corporation). However, a number of tech suppliers are moving into the pest control market, either in their own right or in collaboration with traditional suppliers or pest control companies. There are an increasing number of options in the US and Europe, and whilst limited in Australia (only Ratsense), the options can be expected to increase in the future.
Whilst rodent monitoring is leading the way, similar technology is being developed for other pests, such as termites, flies, bed bugs and stored product pests. Remote monitoring should prove beneficial in most pest management systems where regular inspections form part of the service i.e. termite baiting, management of fly traps, bed bug detection and monitoring of stored product pests. Combining the technology with AI, for example to allow remote identification of stored product pests, is also being developed.
Sounds good, but is it right for me?
The reaction to this new technology from many small pest control companies is that since many of their customers don’t want or cannot afford this technology, it’s not really a relevant technology for their business. The reality is, that like many new technologies the reliability will increase, and the costs will decrease as it becomes more established, resulting in it becoming more mainstream.
It is becoming increasingly common in the commercial pest control market and is making its first steps into the residential market. If you offer commercial pest control services, you need to be up to speed with this technology, and even if you’re not jumping on board the tech bandwagon just yet, you need to watch this space.
