Welcome
 
Welcome to the Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association January 2018 edition.  Please read for more details below or visit our website for online version
A message from the President....
 
Dear Members

On behalf of the AEPMA Board, I would like to wish all members a happy new year.  May 2018 be satisfying, both business-wise and personally.

My first job as President is a pleasant one.  For those who did not know, David Gay was awarded an Order of Australia Medal on Australia Day for services to business and the pest management industry.  Congratulations to David on behalf of the pest management industry for a thoroughly deserved award.

It is also with regret that I announce the retirement of Trevor Scott, not only from the AEPMA Board but also from the industry.  We wish him well in his retirement and thank him for his efforts to date.

2018, for the pest management industry, is shaping up as a year of action for your Association.  On the agenda are the following activities:-

  • Marketing of the Codes of Practice. This will occur following the sending out of renewal notices to give members the added opportunity of marketing their services against that of non-members.
  • Field Biologist training and course release.  This course, after considerable effort and resources from AEPMA, is nearing completion and we will be shortly contacting interested parties to run the first course.
  • AEPMA conference.  This year, it will be held at The Star, Gold Coast, 19-21 September.  Already I can promise members a first-rate program and events have been organised.
  • Pest Manager of the Year.  Nominations will open in March for this ongoing activity and promotion of industry.  Those who have not been involved in the process should seriously consider their possible involvement.
  • Launch of Excellence Awards.  Industry has been working for some time on a possible award for excellence and this year we are pleased to announce that this will occur.  Further details to follow.
  • FAOPMA conference. This will be held in Shenzhen, China from 26-29 September.
  • Licensing Changes. Industry has now been negotiating nationally and with NSW and QLD on possible changing of licensing for pest managers.  These efforts will either come to fruition or fail this year.  Importantly, members will need to remember what the licensing arrangements are going forward and we are optimistic about bringing about change.

This time of year is also renewal time and I would urge members to renew their membership for 2018.

Can you afford not to be a member?

The Association's executive and I are looking forward to the opportunities that 2018 will provide to members.

Regards

Vasilli Tsoutouras
President

Membership Renewals - Are you making the most of your membersip?

An email will shortly be sent to all members, inviting them to renew their AEPMA membership for 2018-19.

With traffic increasing to the AEPMA website, it is now more important than ever for members to update their profiles. www.aepma.com.au – is where consumers look when trying to locate a pest manager.  

AEPMA Professional Members have postcodes attached to their profile to cover their service areas.  Did you know that you are able to add or change the postcodes attached to your profile to better reflect your service area? For only 50c per postcode per annum, members are able to increase the number of postcodes attached to their account.  

Renewal is easy, when you receive your renewal notice, either click on the link in the message, or go to www.aepma.com.au, go to the industry portal and login with your username and password (valid for current members). 

Renew your membership today and let AEPMA continue to promote your business.

‘Back to school’ with Bayer Best Practice Procedure - Ants

Chris Mills, Pest Territory Sales Manager (QLD/NT/NZ), Environmental Science, Bayer

The Bayer Pest Management team was recently called upon to solve a very unusual ant problem at a construction site where a new school was being built. It was a problem neither the pest manager nor the construction company had never seen before: ants damaging the cement render on the building, which had not even been finished yet! 

It was agreed that the best approach was to go ‘back to the books’ by employing the best practice procedure as outlined in the Amplify program. Amplify is a free training portal offering Bayer customers pest management training courses that take 30-60 minutes to complete. The Amplify course on ant control outlines a four-step process that should be followed on discovery of an ant infestation: identification, prevention, barrier, and baiting. 

Although our particular ant problem was a new situation for all parties concerned, we were quietly confident that if we followed the guidelines outlined in the Amplify program alongside products from the Bayer professional pest control range, we would achieve the desired results and outcomes in a timely fashion.  

Click here to read full article

'Super nests' of European wasps feared in Canberra this season

Authorities are warning that "super nests" of up to 10,000 European wasps each could emerge in Canberra this season, with a big jump in the number of nests reported to date.

During December and the first few weeks in January, 120 nests have been reported, a substantial increase from last year's 15 European wasp nests reported for the same period last year, an ACT Pest Controller said.

The pest controller was called to a home in Palmerston, Gungahlin, on Monday, where the homeowner noticed a nest inside the wall beside her front door.

"The majority of nests have been reported on residential land in wall cavities and in four cases the [European wasps] gnawed through the gyprock and entered homes", he said.

Click here to read full article

Labour hire licensing laws have wide effect  - an IR Update

The various Labor States are working hard, to make being in the labour hire business more difficult. And users of labour hire are in their sights as well. So far Queensland and South Australia have passed laws requiring labour hire services to be licensed.  

Both pieces of legislation contemplate heavy fines and/ or imprisonment for employers that use unlicensed providers, so it’s buyer beware. Both laws come into force in 2018, SA in March, with Queensland following in April. Victoria is busy getting its version up and running too. Others are likely to follow. 

And the reach of these laws is deep. The laws cover any circumstance where a provider supplies, to another person, a worker to do work.   

Click here to view full article.


 
Demand the backyard back

Demand insecticide can now be directly applied to ornamental foliage to control mosquitoes. 

With the height of summer upon us and another busy mosquito season, it’s worthwhile considering how you can offer your customers a reliable and cost-effective program to control these pests, so they can enjoy happy and pest-free time outdoors.

Many mosquito species are significant urban pests that readily breed in small containers and other water receptacles around homes and businesses. Not only can they be daytime or evening feeders, mosquitoes are also potential vectors of diseases like the Ross River virus and dengue fever.

As a result, council managed mosquito abatement departments, who are responsible for managing mosquitoes arising from waterways and flood waters in their local area, may often approach pest control operators for advice on what they can do to help manage them.

Click here to read full article


 

 

 

Every day is bring-your-dog-to-work day for this Brisbane rodent-hunting duo

Pest control doesn't sound like the world's best gig, but what if you could take your trusty detection dog home with you every night?

If you're a pet owner, you probably dread the moment you have to head to work and leave your four-legged friend at home.

The inevitable pangs of guilt are often made worse by the sound of soft whimpering and a longing gaze, especially if your pet is a new addition to the family.

But Kris Kozera doesn't have to go through this daily torture.

He gets to take his dog to work with him.

Mr Kozera is a dog handler with the rodent control team at Brisbane City Council.

Click here to read full article

Collaboration and coordination avoids a potential ‘toad-tastrophe’

Replacing a fence in your backyard is not usually a cause for concern, but for one Perth resident recently – it caused quite a string of events.

While removing one of the stumps from an already established hole in the ground, the resident was extremely shocked to see a warty looking ‘toad’ at the bottom of the hole.

Cane toads are not yet present in Perth, so knowing something unusual was lurking in the hole and not thinking it was a native frog – the resident immediately sent an image of the toad to Corrin Everett, from the WA Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), who leads the WA Cane Toad Strategy.

Click here to read full article

Seclira set for widespread acceptance

If actions speak louder than words, then Liam Bridge of Allpest in Perth sent the strongest possible positive message about the latest pest control solution from BASF.

He took some of the first batch he received home as the new product of choice to solve his own pest issues.

As the head of the Urban Pest Management and Commercial Division at WA’s largest pest control organisation, Liam helps decide which products are included on the Approved Products List the company’s technicians choose from. So he was keen to weigh up the suitability of new Seclira® WSG by testing it in a variety of situations. Not just to see how high a level of control it produced, but also to assess its flexibility and user-friendliness. 

Seclira is the first non-staining, odourless, broad-spectrum, general insect control product for indoor and outdoor use, so it has the potential to establish itself as the new first-choice solution for most regular pest control call-outs.

Click here to read full article.

Red-bellied black snake hitches ride on outside of ute on NSW South Coast

A NSW South Coast driver has received a slippery surprise, after a red-bellied black snake scaled his window while he was driving near Eden.

Ted Ogier was running a delivery for his employer when the snake slithered out from the bonnet.  

From there, the venomous reptile wrapped itself around the driver's side mirror, as the car continued along the road. 

"It'd come out from under the engine bay under the bonnet, it was probably a bit warm there," Mr Ogier said.

"It was sort of tapping on the window a couple of times, because it obviously wanted to get in."

Mr Ogier called his co-worker Kai Pearse, who came equipped with a broom to remove the snake.

"I just had a broom in the back of the ute and … basically just got him off the car nice and safely, and just ushered him into the bushland off on the side of the road," Mr Pearse said.

The pair estimated the snake was 2.5-metres long, and Mr Pearse theorised the snake had entered the engine bay seeking warmth.

"Last night it got a bit cold down here on the South Coast, so I think he's got up into the engine bay of the vehicle, and he sat up on the engine to keep himself warm," he said.

"Then this morning Ted's taken that vehicle down to Eden and it might've got a bit too hot in there, so he wanted out."

Despite the experience, Mr Ogier said there were worse critters to encounter on the road.  "Not as frightening as getting a spider on the inside — spiders are one thing I don't like, but I don't like snakes either," he said.

Marsupial thought extinct in NSW discovered in state's west

IT HASN’T been seen in more than 100 years, so this little marsupial is causing quite a stir in the west of NSW.

A TINY marsupial that was thought to be locally extinct from New South Wales for more than 100 years has remerged in the state’s west.

The crest-tailed mulgara, or Dasycercus cristicauda, can still be found around other parts of Australia in desert areas, but was recently discovered living in the northwest of NSW in Tibooburra’s Sturt National Park.

It was only known to inhabit NSW through the discovery of bone fragments and was thought to have gone extinct from the region over a century ago due to the introduction of invasive species.

Click here to read full article.

Newsletter contributions/comments

AEPMA welcomes any contributions or suggestions for articles that you feel are relevant to the industry. Simply forward to info@aepma.com.au.

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  • NSW Branch Meeting at Tea Gardens - 3 & 4 February 2018
  • PMITAG NSW Meeting - 14 March 2018
  • PMITAG NSW Meeting - 13 June 2018
  • PMITAG NSW Meeting - 12 September 2018
  • SAVE THE DATE!  AEPMA 2018 National Conference on the Gold Coast - 19-21 September 2018   
  • FAOPMA 2018 - 26-29 September in Shenzhen, China 
  • PMITAG NSW Meeting - 14 November 2018

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