Bayer Announces Digital Pest Management Services Platform

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – This week’s PestWorld event marked the public unveiling of Bayer Digital Pest Management, a new services platform that unites decades of Bayer professional pest management expertise with the power of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. 

“Recognizing the accelerated pace of change, increasing regulatory challenges and evolving needs of our customers, we are collaborating with Microsoft to help power our services platform, which we’re confident will help elevate and expand the strategic role of pest management professionals,” said Chris Pienaar, head of Bayer Digital Pest Management. “Through this platform, we’re able to offer our customers an unparalleled combination of pest management industry experience and technological infrastructure that delivers both a smarter way of doing business and a new competitive advantage.”

The services platform will empower pest management professionals (PMPs) with solutions that leverage the Internet of Things and connected technologies to automate workflows, translate data into actionable insights, provide greater transparency and create space for new growth opportunities.

“The Microsoft Cloud is designed to be flexible and scalable to solve business challenges that impact how we work and live,” said Caglayan Arkan, general manager, Manufacturing at Microsoft. “We’re excited to work with Bayer to bring the power of the cloud and artificial intelligence to their pest services platform to change how their customers address health and safety concerns across the world.” 

The first solution in market under the Bayer Digital Pest Management umbrella is an innovative Rodent Monitoring System. Designed for PMPs responsible for protecting people from the health and safety risks posed by rodents, the system addresses the needs of sensitive businesses such as food processing, where rodent control is mission critical and there is a significant need to mitigate risk and reduce complexity of compliance with new regulations (including the Food Safety Modern Act (FSMA) and Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognized certifications). The Bayer Rodent Monitoring System helps free PMPs from manual, repetitive tasks, enabling a more proactive focus on holistic preventative pest management and food safety. 

“Rodent traps really haven’t changed much in more than a century, with two mechanical functions: trap and kill,” said Peter Jardine, head of marketing for digital pest management. “Currently, a rodent could remain undiscovered in a trap for as long as a week or a month until the the trap is manually inspected. The service provider has no way of knowing when the rodent was captured and cannot quickly respond to get to the root cause and head off further infestation. The Bayer Rodent Monitoring System changes all of that.” 

The Bayer Rodent Monitoring System uses sensors that allow each trap in a facility – often in numerous and otherwise hard-to-access locations – to be monitored 24/7.  Rodent captures trigger an immediate notification to the pest management company and/or facility management via e-mail or text message. Real-time graphic floorplans show the status of all monitor locations, so there is no lost time checking empty traps.  And up-to-the-minute reporting and trending from the system helps pest management companies review the effectiveness of trap placement schemes and optimize them to improve effectiveness of the rodent control program. 

“Once installed, all responsible personnel can remotely log on to the Bayer Digital Pest Management web portal to access the full activity history of all devices,” said Jardine. “The activities include trap movements, rodent captures, system status, battery levels and the daily ‘heart beat’ messages of every monitor, which verify the status and integrity of the system. We like to say that, ‘It’s not only wireless, but also tireless.’”

Unlike competitive products, Bayer says its Rodent Monitoring System can be adapted to existing multi-catch and snap traps and does not utilize wifi or facility IT infrastructure. Microsoft’s award-winning Azure cloud services securely manage the Bayer Digital Pest Management portal and provide artificial intelligence and machine learning, which enables predictive analytics. The Bayer Rodent Monitoring System is a subscription service that includes the monitoring equipment, sensors, client and customer set up, software updates, apps, portal access, reporting, training, and installation assistance. The turn-key solution is customized based on unique facility variables, including business type, pest history, facility complexity and footprint.

“We envisioned and developed Bayer Digital Pest Management with our customers,” said Pienaar. “And we’ve made significant investments to support and further grow this new services platform. We envision that it will become a home for other connected devices from Bayer as well as other companies, creating an ecosystem that professionals can leverage to create better performance and a better business – we’re in this for the long haul.”

For more information on Bayer Digital Pest Management and the Bayer Rodent Monitoring system, visit https://www.backedbybayer.com/pest-management.