Protecting your property during prudent times

A California-based client who was having her house in Metro Manila installed with Sentricon Termite Colony Elimination System instructed her pest control operator to use the product in her other residence in a remote area in Samar. She readily paid the extra cost for bringing the technology there and monitoring the progress regularly, and thus, the job was accomplished.

The request may seem extravagant, even unwise, in these financially challenging times but many property owners trust Sentricon to be an investment that takes care of one’s bigger investment, be it a high-value home or a sprawling property like a resort complex, a hospital, or a hotel. The anti-termite technology, developed by Dow AgroSciences LLC in conjunction with some universities in the US, took the local industry by storm ten years ago by being the first termite baiting system launched in the Philippines. Today, as new baiting products are being introduced in the local market that claim to offer protection at a lower cost, Sentricon is being positioned as providing proven total colony elimination.

The pioneer is not resting easy. In the area of research and development, according to Dow Chemical Philippines Country Manager Roberto Batungbacal, Recruit II AG PTC and Recruit II IG PTC are some improvements made on existing baits. Even though the active ingredient and dosage remain the same (0.5% hexaflumuron), the new bait is more palatable so termites feed quicker on the matrix, the toxin is spread around the colony more quickly, and the elimination process is speeded up.

On the distribution front, Dow AgroSciences has streamlined its business model two years ago to better serve end-users. FHREG Sentri Corp., one of two local distributors of Sentricon, was established in January this year and is being managed by Gladez Ilao-Talavera, former marketing executive of Sentricon, alongside top-performing Sentricon authorized operators Elmer Baradas of Entom Pest Control, Hector Binwek of Biotech Environmental Services, Ramon Catarata of Vira Pest, and Tony Lazaro of Topbest Pest Services.

Metro Manila is already well-covered by Sentricon operators, and interest has grown outside the Philippine capital. The Samar property mentioned earlier, wherein a bulk of the expense went into transporting the system and regular visits, is pointed out as a case study for expanding the coverage of Sentricon. Catarata says that rather than taking accounts from outside Metro Manila, which translates to huge mobilization costs, the group is in the process of identifying possible partners in the provinces. “Our plan for our company is really to accredit only reliable partners because we want to protect our product, which is Sentricon. We are very selective about our business partners,” Talavera adds.

Ensuring the quality of authorized operators is essential in making the product successful, according to Simon Keng Chye Teo, Dow AgroSciences Country Commercial Leader for Philippines and Vietnam. “If everybody has Sentricon and 90% don’t have adequate training or knowledge, it destroys the whole market. There will always be a place for the barrier treatments. But we believe that the baiting market can still grow.”

Batungbacal speaks from experience when he describes that “risk and toxicity of the chemicals” are top concerns when considering anti-termite solutions. “I have a baby, four kids. One of the things that my wife is concerned about is what could affect the house, the children, plants, ground water, that kind of thing. More and more homeowners, especially those with children, will be more concerned about the traditional products versus Sentricon.”

Since the beginning, one of the key selling points of Sentricon Termite Colony Elimination System has been its commitment to public health and the environment. “We are ensuring that whatever business we’re in is sustainable for the long term. Protection of the environment is just one of those goals. The Sentricon baiting system does not use the traditional method of providing barriers in the soil against termites. It is a very specific bait, which is placed in the ground inside stations and it is the termites that come to the bait rather than the users putting chemicals on the soil.

“One of the reasons why Sentricon is ‘expensive’ is because it’s not just a man with a can spraying chemicals on the soil. It’s a lot more than that,” Teo explains. Authorized operators go through a certification process, where they are trained on the physiology of termites and how the product works. Some termites cause tremendous economic and structural damages but not all termites destroy properties and many homeowners and even some pest control operators are not aware of this, so that when they see a termite they assume it is destructive. “So the training comes into play and there’s a cost associated with the training, the certification process,” adds Teo.

Lazaro tells of installing Sentricon in his own parish church in Loyola Heights that was featured in a major daily. The story received feedback from as far as Tacloban, Cebu, and Davao, which was followed by treatments in two other churches, this time in Marikina and Pampanga. Batungbacal notes, “That points out how Filipinos value the churches here. We’re talking of high-value properties. Obviously people wouldn’t hesitate on gems like that.”

“Property is a key part of anyone’s investment,” says Teo, “whether it’s your home, your factory, or your commercial property it’s a very big investment. Having a baiting system like Sentricon is one of the ways to protect that big investment.”