5 New Pest Control Technologies for Food Facilities

While an effective pest control plan is crucial in all industries, it is especially important for companies that handle food. For food and beverage processors, ensuring that pest control methods are as up to date and comprehensive as possible is paramount for the safety of staff and customers.

Several new and evolving pest control technologies can help improve the effectiveness of existing pest control plans and strategies by providing real-time data on hot spots and trends, reducing invasive treatments, and improving targeted pest management for treatment and removal. These technologies can help support an existing integrated pest management (IPM) plan to support your facility.

New and Evolving Pest Control Technologies

Part of forming a comprehensive pest control strategy is to regularly implement new and evolving technologies at your facility that continuously improve your existing pest control plan. In recent years, several technologies have emerged that can help improve the effectiveness of pest control, as well as the safety of food processing facilities and the goods they produce.

• Remote rodent monitoring: This involves the use of wireless sensor networks to collect data on pest activity. These sensors can be strategically placed in key areas to monitor temperature, humidity and other environmental factors that influence pest behavior. By collecting this data, pest control providers can focus on prevention by better predicting and analyzing pest behavior to find the root cause of the pest issue.
• LED insect light traps (ILTs): These traps are designed to emit light in specific spectra that are attractive to target pests while minimizing attraction to non-target species. This makes them more efficient and environmentally responsible compared with traditional insect light traps. LED ILTs consume less energy than conventional fluorescent lamps, reducing operational costs. They also have a longer lifespan, reducing the frequency of bulb replacements.
• Advanced application equipment: Improvements in the equipment used to apply chemical treatments include changing power sources from gasoline engines and direct electric power to battery-driven devices. This reduces environmental impact and allows for better control over the output of products, making a more effective application service.
• Insect monitoring and counting technologies: Many manufacturers are in the development stages of producing ILT devices that can count the number of insects captured and use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify types of insects captured. This technology will provide more accurate analysis of pest activity trending around your facility.
• Redesigning rodent management: Legislative changes in some parts of the United States are driving a change to managing rodent populations. Moving away from dependence on traditional rodenticides and using carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide instead to help reduce populations in burrow systems is becoming more common.

These new pest control technologies can help protect your food processing facility by maximizing preventive tactics to help minimize pest issues.

Integrated Pest Management

Now that you understand some of the newest technological advancements in pest control, it’s important to establish how these can fit into the overall pest control strategy. Integrated pest management (IPM) programs employ a comprehensive and sustainable approach that combines proactive pest prevention, regular monitoring, and targeted interventions to minimize the use of chemical treatments and help effectively manage pest populations in your facility. In an all-inclusive, ongoing, proactive cycle focused on prevention for your facility, providers will implement the most effective customized pest control measures to benefit the needs of the facility. Providers then continue to monitor the program’s effectiveness and perform check-ins as needed to ensure the facility is cared for.

With a focus on innovation and prevention, IPM is one of the most promising ways to bring in new technologies regularly and intentionally. A successful IPM program: