In this feature, Agserv business consultant Andy Knox invites a pest control professional to talk about their favourite product. Here, he asks pest manager Sam Syal, “What is your favourite product and why?”
Sam Syal (pictured above) is the proprietor of Termite Solutions Melbourne. He is a sole trader based in the Dandenong area of Victoria and works all around the state.
At the start of his career in pest control – first with Rentokil in Albury over a decade ago and later with Statewide Pest Control – Mr Syal mainly used Bell Laboratories’ Contrac Blox as his go-to rodenticide. A traditional block bait, he found it very effective, particularly around poultry farms where major rodent infestations can be a significant problem.
Since opening his own business in 2018, servicing mainly residential clients along with a select few major commercial accounts, Mr Syal has sourced his products from Agserv’s Melbourne branch.
“Despite my business name, rodent control is a pretty major part of my business,” explained Mr Syal. “I use four or five pails of bait every month.
“I first heard about Bell Labs’ Contrac Soft Bait at a Pestech seminar in Melbourne some three or four years ago. Since trying the product out, I now use it exclusively on both rats and mice.”
Contrac Soft Bait is a single-feed formulation, containing the second-generation anticoagulant bromadiolone. Samuel Wood from Bell Labs tells us that it is their most extensively researched and tested rodenticide, which has undergone comprehensive field testing to ensure its performance in urban, rural, commercial and residential settings.
Mr Wood explains that Contrac Soft Bait was specially formulated with an optimal blend of saturated and unsaturated fats. This unique, oil-based formulation coupled with a manufacturing process that ensures maximum contact of the sachet to the soft bait, allowing maximum permeation of scent and flavour through the paper, results in increased bait acceptance.
Mr Syal has certainly seen the results for himself. He tells us that on several occasions he has taken over clients from other companies who had tried all sorts of baits, with little success. Contrac Soft Bait has never failed him. Over the past few years he has occasionally tested some of the new rodenticide baits that have entered the market but he tells us that those baits remain half-used in his shed while he continues to support and have complete faith in Contrac Soft.
Mr Syal says he will continue to source Contrac Soft Bait from the Agserv team in Melbourne due to the team’s “outstanding help and support” and friendly, approachable service. Mr Syal enjoys dropping by for a chat with branch manager David Seccul who offers assistance and advice both technical and business related.
