The 5th Benelux Pest was held on September 25 at the golf resort Edda Huzid, Voorthuizen in the centre of The Netherlands. More than 200 people attended coming from The Netherland as well from Belgium, Germany, UK, Sweden and Italy.
Benelux Pest was the first to be held without Jonathan Peck who, sadly, passed away the week before. The whole event was Jonathan’s inspiration and he was also the man behind the settng-up of the Dutch Pest Control News. During the event, Rupert Broome, group managing director at Killgerm, remembered Jonathan as a special person whose goal was to improve pest control in every way. He said that Jonathan enjoyed these kinds of exhibition very much because of the way they bring together professionals, sector associations, training institutes and end-users in our field.
| Last year 28 exhibitors demonstrated their products and this year the number exhibiting increased to 31.They came from the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany, Sweden and Italy. Well-known names included:Killgerm, PestWest, NVPB, PestScan, Bell Laboratories, Ratpak, Silvanderson, Suterra, Woodstream, Mabi,BASF, Bayer, Zapi, Syngenta, P+L, Edialux, Frowein, Hofman and, of course,Pest Control News.
A number of companies exhibited new rodenticide products based on the anticoagulants that are alreadywell known in the Netherlands and Belgium. For example. Killgerm Benelux showed their product SakaratDifenakill for the first time. This year the computer companies also played an important role. Plug inPest Free showed a product which, when plugged into a socket, produces an electric field that stressesand disorientates pests. During the day 15 minutes presentations were made by 10 exhibitors. The presentations were wellattended, especially in the morning. The keynote speaker was Jeroen Koole, director of PCF, a companyspecialising in fauna control. The title of the talk was: IPM, a wider view. Mr Koole accepted that pestcontrollers know a lot about the control of mice, rats and insects in buildings, but, he questionedwhether they also looked outside buildings and whether they actively considered alternative pest controlmeasures. He also queried how many of the other pests, which can also be a risk to clients, both in and outsidebuildings, were considered? Summing-up, Mr Koole’s advice was to be pro-active, innovative and if necessary toco-operate with others to solve clients’ problems. After the exhibition a demonstration by the Technical University of Utrecht was held. A robot bird, theso-called Robird, was flown over the fields. Robird won the 2011 UVS International Innovative Award asthe most innovative technology on remote controlled aircraft systems. Robirds can be used as a birdmanagement tool to chase away problem birds. The demonstration proved that the product works because thepigeons and crows in the field where all successfully scared off! At the end of the day, 80 people gathered for the Pest Control News ”walking” dinner. The lovelyfive-course dinner, the wonderful magician and the music made this event a roaring success. |
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At the end of the Benelux Pest 2013 day, a number of the exhibitors signed up for Benelux Pest 2014 which just goes to show that they were very happy with the event.Our thanks to Joeke Nijboer, editor of Benelux Pest Control News for sending in this report. |
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