Urban Entomologists Glimpse The Future at Bayer Field Day

CLAYTON, N.C. – Representatives from leading universities specializing in urban pest management recently toured the Bayer Environmental Science Research and Training Center in Clayton, N.C., to learn about the company’s latest product developments, new formulation technologies and state-of-the-art training for PMPs.

In welcoming the distinguished group of 50 university educators, Dr. Joe Hope, manager of field development and technical services, said the Bayer ES Field Day was a “great opportunity to show the research community and university cooperators the products we’re developing for the industry,” as well as illustrate the company’s ongoing investment in research and development.

Steve Burt, managing director of Bayer’s Professional Pest Management Business, described Clayton as a “very special site” that plays a critical role in the company’s support of its pest control and “green” businesses (golf, landscape management, right-of-ways, etc.). “They are two very important businesses we’ve been in for a long time and we’ll be in for a long time,” he said.

In his opening remarks, Burt provided an overview of the current state of the pest control market, pointing out that despite poor swarm seasons the last three years the termite market continues to prosper. He attributes the growth to the strong housing market and the fact PCOs have become more adept at marketing their termite services year-round. “The level of professionalism in marketing termite control services has grown,” he said. And while housing starts have slowed in recent months, Burt said “they’re still running at record levels” from an historical perspective, “so we think it could have an impact on the termite market, but not a massive one.”

While the termite market has experienced modest, albeit steady growth in recent years, that’s not the case for the general insect control (GIC) market, which Burt observed has been “very strong. We think it’s going to be another strong year,” he said, thanks, in part, to a strong residential market and the resurgence of bed bugs, cockroaches, mosquitoes and other public health pests. “For the foreseeable future the (pest control) industry will continue to grow,” he predicted.

To meet the product needs of an expanding market, Burt said Bayer ES is continuing to invest millions of dollars in research and development, including $20 million a year in North America alone at the Clayton Research Center. “We have a global approach to the market,” he said, and the United States is a very important part of that strategy since it represents the largest, most stable urban pest control market in the world. Yet the cost of developing new active ingredients (AI’s), the engine that has driven product development historically, is becoming increasingly prohibitive. That’s why in addition to developing new AI’s Bayer is investing in “proximity innovation,” where scientists at the company’s Clayton Research Center and other sites around the world spend time and resources enhancing the company’s existing technologies.

For example, the company recently extended its Premise® brand by developing Premise Foam and Premise Granules for PCOs involved in the termite market. It also plans to introduce PremisePro, a new termiticide formulation designed for perimeter treatments and the pre-treat market, later this year.

“New active ingredients are becoming increasingly hard to find,” Burt said. “It’s difficult to introduce something that is spectacularly new to the market,” so that’s why Bayer is investing in proximity innovation.

Overseeing all of this new product development is Dr. Nick Hamon, director of research and development at Bayer. Hamon provided university researchers with an overview of the mission of the Bayer Research and Training Center, located 35 miles from the company’s North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The company’s vision for the lab, according to Hamon, was to create “a development and training center dedicated to professional products, with in-house testing capabilities facilitating a smooth transition from lab to field to customer.”

“We’ve realized that vision,” he said, but it hasn’t come cheap. To develop six to eight new products annually, Bayer ES employs more than 50 scientists in multiple disciplines, devoting more than 4,500 days per year in field research alone. In addition, Bayer invests $2.5 million per year in cooperative research with 30 universities and cooperators throughout the United States. “We have a fantastic (product) pipeline right now, but we’re not relying on this great new chemistry for our future,” Hamon said. “We’re taking what we have and making it better. It’s not about AI’s. It’s about what you do with them once they come to market.”

“Some of the science that goes on behind the Bayer walls is absolutely stunning,” Hamon added. The 281-acre site, which includes 11,000-square feet of office and laboratory space, is the centerpiece of the company’s structural pest control research effort in North America.

Following Hamon on the program was Product Development Manager Dr. Byron Reid, who shared what Bayer is doing in support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to reduce the devastating effects of malaria in Africa and other emerging countries. Bayer is working with several other global companies to “fast track development of improved insecticides and other mosquito control methods” to fight malaria, which kills 2,000 children a day in Africa, Reid says. “We’re really happy to be involved in this effort,” he said. “We believe it’s a responsibility of leadership.” To learn more about the effort, visit www.gatesfoundation.org.

Following the group presentation, attendees were divided into smaller groups to observe a series of lab and field research demonstrations, including product demonstrations of Premise Foam and Premise Granules, Maxforce GR Fly Bait, and Maxforce FC Select. Technical Service & Development Specialists Chip Anderson, Mike Chapman and Gary Braness also shared the type of training that goes on at Bayer Mobile University training programs around the country. The training programs were launched in 2004 and have helped educate thousands of PCOs in various safety procedures and the proper pesticide applications.

Following the demonstrations, attendees were treated to a dinner hosted by Josh Weeks, head of Bayer’s Professional Business. Weeks thanked the university researchers in attendance – who were in town to attend the National Conference on Urban Entomology – saying the Clayton Research Facility “is a very important part of our business strategy” that fills three important functions for the company:

• To take the new technologies Bayer is investing in and evaluate them during the early stages of development for possible use in various specialty markets, including structural pest control.
• To utilize “proximity innovation” to enhance existing products in order to advance the company’s business.
• To use the Bayer Research and Training Center for customer outreach and training, as well as for continuing education of staff and university personnel.

 “Thank you for coming,” he said. “Bayer plans to continue to reinvent itself through technology and market commitment.”