Five ways PestConnect can contribute to a business’s sustainability goals

The best pest control practices in both agriculture and the urban environment have emphasised sustainability for decades by using integrated pest management techniques to focus on prevention and avoiding pesticides or reducing the amount of toxic chemicals used. Wildlife legislation and best practice guidelines of organisations such as the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use in the UK and the OECD have also led to the move to control rodenticide use to minimise exposure of wild mammals and birds.

More recently, ideas of sustainability have broadened, driven by the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, to include factors such as reducing fossil fuel use because of the impact on global warming and the “cradle-to-grave” environmental impact of products and services, including reducing the use of toxic substances, plastics and generation of waste. 

The PestConnect system of connected rodent-control devices has been designed with sustainability in mind, and the solution as a whole can help businesses improve sustainability in operations. Here are five ways the PestConnect system can contribute to a business’s sustainability goals.

1. Bait-free options for rodent control

Embracing non-toxic pest control solutions are a key part of the Rentokil sustainability strategy. The PestConnect range has several rat and mouse control devices that use no rodenticides. Rentokil was the first company in the world to develop a mouse trap that uses only CO2 to dispatch mice, providing a quick-acting alternative to rodenticides. The RADAR intelligent mouse trap automatically detects and traps a mouse in a chamber and then releases CO2 inside the sealed chamber, putting the mouse to sleep. This is safe for people and other animals, and there is no risk of rodenticide contamination in the surrounding area – or from the contained mouse body. It is safe for high-dependency businesses such as those handling food.

Another rodenticide-free device is the snap trap, Rat Riddance Connect. This is a traditional snap trap with added sensors to detect when it has been triggered and wireless communications to send alerts to the PestConnect system. As with RADAR, its ability to alert a technician will enable a rapid response to deal with the caught rodent.

2. Help prevent rodenticide leaking into local ecosystems

Legislation and guidelines in several countries, such as the EU, US, and UK, require pest controllers to take measures when using bait to prevent rodenticide from getting into local ecosystems to protect wildlife from poisoning. This should also be standard practice for every responsible pest controller. If other wild animals can access the bait, they will carry it into the surrounding area, where predators could catch them and pass rodenticide up the food chain. 

The Dual Autogate solution was designed to comply with wildlife protection and biocidal product legislation. It secures the bait behind a gate and has internal sensors that can detect the presence of rodents. Based on research into rat and mouse behaviour, the gate is opened when a certain number of sensor activations have been registered over a set period. This protects other small animals that may occasionally enter the bait box, enables compliance with relevant legislation and best-practice guidelines and is safer to use for handlers.

3. Reduced rodenticide use by 24/7 monitoring and data analysis

A third way connected devices can reduce the quantity of rodenticide used is by making pest control more targeted and effective. Data from customers who have adopted PestConnect show that it can reduce rodenticide use by up to 60%. Continuous and remote monitoring of device activations enables technicians to respond quickly and make earlier interventions to improve pest control measures on a customer site. In addition, the large amounts of activity data automatically sent from the devices and stored in the PestConnect system can be analysed to show trends and patterns in pest activity. 

Used along with the onsite survey information recorded by the technicians when they visit the customer site, these trends and patterns provide insights for optimising the pest control measures, such as identifying the pest hotspots in a building or external sites, for placing traps and bait boxes. The early interventions and more efficient placing of bait can reduce the overall amount of rodenticide used.

4. Save carbon emissions from vehicles 

Vehicle trips can be saved using PestConnect. The remote monitoring data sent by connected devices indicates the pest activity in each device on a customer site. This helps technicians optimise the customer’s pest management plan and improve the effectiveness of rodent control measures. The technician’s time is spent on more productive activities for the customer. 

The ability to remotely monitor and analyse the onsite situation can reduce the number of unnecessary visits for checking empty traps and bait boxes while giving superior protection. The ability of PestConnect devices to send alerts automatically ensures that trips are only made when a rodent or other animal has been trapped.

5. Reduce the use of paper 

Traditional pest control can involve writing paper notes for every service visit and using multiple types of paper forms for managing the pest control activities of the customer. With PestConnect, everything is done electronically, and all technician reports of service visits and customer information are provided online in the myRentokil customer portal. 

This not only saves large amounts of paper across the business and for customers, but it also allows customers to do all their reporting and auditing electronically, with the added benefit of direct access to pest insight data for their site. Access to reports and data is available on any device to anyone in the company given a login, so there is no need to print anything. Over four million reports are generated for our customers annually using online reporting tools.

Embedding sustainability across a business

Every business needs to consider sustainability across all aspects of its operations. With pressure from investors and increasing legislation relating to sustainability, it is essential also to consider the impact on suppliers and customers. 

Rodent control is probably not the first area that comes to mind when considering sustainability in business operations, but it includes several important areas related to environmental protection. The PestConnect system provides a more effective and efficient way to provide rodent control for businesses and can also be a more sustainable solution than traditional pest control.