The number one reason Danny Kelly and his team at Pest-Ex are happy that BASF have launched their new Trelona® Advance Termite Bait System (ATBS) is very simple: it’s what their customers have always wanted.
The Trelona ATBS system offers a choice of approaches. You can either use the ATBS bait stations in a traditional monitoring program or make them ‘Active on Application’ – loading each one with up to 248 grams of the advanced Trelona bait to encourage quick feeding and colony control.
As Danny Kelly explains, the Pest-Ex team will be using the Active on Application method because “that’s not only what customers expect a baiting system to be, it's what they think it already is.”
Pest-Ex operates out of five locations from Tweed Heads to the Sunshine Coast, so they do a huge amount of termite protection for homes and businesses. Their first preference is to install a Termidor® treated zone, but they’ve always used baiting systems as an alternative when the site isn’t suitable for Termidor installation. That’s fine with them, but the systems that were available up to now haven’t been what customers were ideally looking for.
“The old systems, realistically, are just timber in the ground,” Danny says. “It’s an interception and monitor system. When we installed one of those older ones, we wouldn’t go back for four weeks. If the termites started to feed on the wood monitors on the first day, it could be a month before we came back and got the chance to add the active bait. With Trelona ATBS, the system is working 24/7.”
Danny didn’t have to wait long to see the difference the Active on Application approach can make. “We tested the system before it was launched and after two weeks termites had eaten bait in two stations. The minute they hit those stations they were feeding and carrying bait back to the nest.”
Danny has tried out an active bait system in the past, but says its big disadvantage is the need to remove the rods to inspect them. “We mainly deal with the schedorhinotermes species of termites. They’re very shy and hate disturbance. Once you take the rod out, they take off and the system fails because they never come back. We’ve seen it happen.”
Trelona ATBS stations can be inspected without disturbance or contamination. “It’s a sealed system, so there’s no contamination by the technicians’ hands. We choose to run all the stations ‘Active on Application’ – with two bait cartridges in each – so each station has enough bait in it to solve the whole termite problem.”
Pest-Ex customers are already noticing the difference. “They see a lot more value in the Trelona ATBS system,” says Danny. “They like the stations’ appearance because they’re neat and tidy and sit flush with the grass. They also like the fact that when they see the tablets inside they’re seeing the solution to the problem. With the competing stations, they think ‘I’m paying thousands for a certain number of stations with timber in them.’ And of course that cost is justified because they’re paying for all the follow-up. But customers are a whole lot happier paying similar dollars for a system that they can see working from the start.”
Danny says the reduced cost of maintaining the system is another big competitive benefit of Trelona ATBS. “People don’t really like ongoing costs. That’s why Termidor soil treatments are good and we install them whenever we can. The great thing about Trelona ATBS is you can scale back the visits. A lot of companies are doing them three-monthly, but we are going back every eight weeks. We expect to retain a lot more work in the second year because the cost will be so much more favourable. And our customers want the Trelona system. It’s everything a bait system should be.”
The icing on the cake for Danny Kelly is that Trelona ATBS is a BASF product. “BASF has been my go-to supplier since I started. Based on the last twelve years of my relationship with BASF through Termidor, as soon as I heard this new system was coming out I had complete confidence in it. I bet no other bait system in the world has the sort of the back-up BASF provide through their whole business structure. Touch wood, I’ve never had to go to BASF with a problem, but I’m sure if I ever did have to, they’d support me 100%.”
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