by Vaughn Entwistle, Features editor, Milling and Grain
It is no secret that rodents and the diseases they can transmit are a looming menace to any business in the stored grain industry. Rodents are also bad for the bottom line: ineffective rodent control in milling and grain storage can directly result in significant product loss and even trigger large-scale recalls.
It is no secret that rodents and the diseases they can transmit are a looming menace to any business in the stored grain industry. Rodents are also bad for the bottom line: ineffective rodent control in milling and grain storage can directly result in significant product loss and even trigger large-scale recalls.
The marketplace needs a solution to not only empower professionals to proactively manage these environments, but also mitigate risk and reduce complexity of compliance with new regulations, including the FDA's Food Safety Modernisation Act in the United States. Effective rodent monitoring programs are essential, but some believe that service providers often become trapped in an endless cycle of routine trap checking that distracts from a holistic focus on inspection and proactive exclusion strategies.
Enter, the RMS
Hearing the needs of customers and the marketplace, Bayer created the Rodent Monitoring System (RMS), which monitors rodent traps 24/7 and reports trap status and capture alerts. The Bayer RMS is the first solution in the Bayer Digital Pest Management platform that unites decades of Bayer professional pest management expertise with the computing power of the Microsoft Azure cloud.
The platform is part of the Bayer commitment to bringing innovative solutions to stored grain and food safety professionals.
By automating the vast majority of rodent trap inspections, service providers can now shift their time and focus from checking empty traps to proactive integrated pest management strategies, rapid corrective actions and preventive measures.
The result: the quality of the entire service is improved helping to support their customer's food safety program.
Real-time alerts
Contrary to today's manual service, digital monitoring provides real-time alerts when a rodent is caught enabling professionals to remove the pest immediately, better safeguarding sites. In grain storage and silo settings, the RMS effectively provides around-the-clock perimeter pest monitoring, creating an early warning system around key investments.
"Our solution can be used as a perimeter monitoring solution where traps are used today," said Peter Jardine, Head of Marketing for Bayer Digital Pest Management. "We offer a system that enables traps to tell the user about their status, captures, time and date stamps, trend reporting, and more."
So how exactly does the Bayer Rodent Monitoring System work?
The Bayer RMS uses sensors that allow each trap – often in numerous and otherwise hard-to-access locations – to be monitored 24/7.
"Our system is designed to retrofit on different types of traps like multi-catch and snap traps," said Mr Jardine. "There are plans to expand the breadth of the RMS, with a new solution for monitoring bait, too."
While real-time graphic site plans show the status of all monitored locations, rodent captures trigger an immediate notification to the pest management company and/or facility management via e-mail or text message. Real-time reporting and trending from the system helps illustrate the effectiveness of trap placement schemes and optimise them to improve effectiveness of the rodent control program. That latter point, especially, allows professionals to shift from a reactive to a proactive management strategy.
"This allows you to be a better 'pest detective,'" said Alex Ko, MS, PhD, Bayer Product Development Manager. "Patterns of activity can give you clues as to where pest problems originate."
Bayer RMS users can reduce the amount of paperwork and analog filing. Every RMS user has access to an easily navigated web portal with intuitive dashboard views that identify conditions in the facility, real-time audit records, daily system status messages, inspection and maintenance progress reports, including system performance capture history and trap movements.
"We designed our system for use where rodent control is mission critical – with a particular focus on food processing and food touching businesses," said Mr Jardine. "We believe this is a game-changing strategy for rodent control and food safety."
For more information on Bayer's Rodent Monitoring System visit the website, HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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