Innovative New Ant Bait Gel Putting the Squeeze on Ants

6 Sept 2019 Innovative New Ant Bait Gel Putting the Squeeze on Ants

“New AttractANT PRO® Ant Bait Gel is the culmination of years of extensive research and development,” said Rowan Gregson Technical Solutions Advisor at Sundew Solutions, “specifically developed for local conditions and the need of Australian pest management professional in mind.”

“The building blocks for creating the best ant bait gel started with screening hundreds of ‘attractants’ to find something that was universally accepted by the broadest range of ant species” an excited Mr Gregson said.  “Current offerings have very limited appeal and require pest managers to carry multiple products in the chance of having something that ants will consume on the day.”

Research and development isn’t just about discovering new molecules, it’s about working with pest management professionals on day to day issues and innovating with solutions to make their life easier, more professional, reduce the likelihood of call backs, and return greater revenue per technician in the field.

“Once we discovered the unique attractant highly sought after by the broadest range of ant species the challenge came of successfully suspending it in a gel matrix along with the powerful active ingredient, indoxacarb,” explained Rowan. “Using ordinary gel matrixes wasn’t an option as the exciting new attractant used in AttractANT PRO simply wouldn’t mix.”

The breakthrough came in the form of a unique polymer technology that allowed the homogeneous mix of secret attractant, indoxacarb and liquid gel matrix – the result being AttractANT PRO Ant Bait Gel.

“It took Sundew an additional 2 years of work in collaboration with the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) to have the secret polymer approved,” continued Rowan, “This cutting edge polymer technology gives AttractANT PRO its unique attractiveness, exceptional performance characteristics, and delivers a firm gel matrix that can be applied to vertical surfaces without running like other unsightly products.”

The innovative polymer matrix also has another important characteristic – it is highly attractive to liquid feeding as well as solid feeding ants.  The unique attractant in the polymer is attractive to sugar feeders as well as many protein feeding ants.  This makes AttractANT PRO a very versatile and valuable tool in a technicians arsenal of pest treatment tactics.

“The investment to bring AttractANT PRO Ant Bait Gel represents hundreds of thousands of dollars in registering new sources of active ingredient, unique formulation development & chemistry, efficacy studies in the field, as well as registration costs with the APVMA,” explained Rowan, “it has taken us 5 years of research and development to get to where the product is now in pest managers hands.”

Sundew wasn’t content to just develop the most technically advanced formulation for Aussie pest managers.

“We took things up a notch as we know pest managers love to get value for money,” said Rowan, “so we packed AttractANT PRO in a large 50 gram tube and priced it the same as present products in the market so the pestie get 66% more product for free.”

While developing this product, Sundew engaged the services of an external market research company to talk with pest management professionals to explore opportunities to further improve the way ant bait gels were delivered.  What the market research showed was that pesties faced challenges in the awkward way gels were presently packaged in syringes.

“Once we had the results from the market research company it was glaringly obvious that the majority of technicians from across Australia disliked the way gel baits were packaged in syringes,” continued Rowan, “tips leak and break, pistons fail, guns break and are lost, there’s just so many things to go wrong.”

Sundew engaged the services of a specialised packaging consultant to source a customised delivery solution to address all the shortcomings of present options on the market place.  The end result is a simple pharmaceutical grade squeeze tube with applicator tip and screw cap top.  This makes AttractANT PRO the most versatile ant bait gel available to pest management professionals in Australia.

“The icing on the cake with AttractantPRO is that we also include a free strip of ANTstripz – a professional platform for the application of gel,” concluded Rowan.

AttractANT PRO Ant Bait Gel is available from Agserv, David Grays, Garrards and Globe Pest Solutions.