The Centre for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) Committee of Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS), Kampar Campus organised a webinar titled “Pest Control Around Us: Low-key but Essential” via Microsoft Teams on 14 September 2022. The webinar attracted more than 60 participants in attendance.

Present at the webinar were COSH Team Leader for Training and Communication Sub-Committee of CFS Hoh Ming Chee, CFS Deputy Director for Academic Phang Ying Ning, CFS Head of Science and Engineering Department Ooi Siew Fong, CFS academic Cynthia Choo Pei Yi, COSH members, UTAR staff and students, and participants.

The webinar aimed to shed light on the role played by pest control in one’s daily life, educate participants on the feasible DIY pest control methods for home or working space and help them determine the perfect moment to call for pest control experts.

Invited to grace the webinar as the speaker was NLC General Pest Control Butterworth Assistant Business Development Manager Sophia Liew. With seven years of experience in the pest control industry, her main focuses were on stored-product insect research and control applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Sophia Liew began the webinar by sharing the four levels of pest control, namely household and consumer level; food and beverage industry (F&B) and retail level; factory level, and agricultural farm level. She stated that each level requires different styles of pest control as their operation scale and focus are different from one another. As an example, she explained that the household and consumer level is concerned about house structures’ and properties’ condition, whereas F&B and retail level is concerned with sanitation because it directly affects the products’ quality.

Next, she introduced the methods used by pest control organisations to counter pests including the “Spray-and-Pay” method which is the old and uncommon way, and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which is the modern and more effective way. Focusing on IPM, she explained that it consists of five steps, namely inspection, identification, prevention, treatment and monitoring. It is ideal since it addresses pest problems at the root level compared to the “Spray and Pay” method which only addresses pest problems at a superficial level.

Urban pests such as ants, cockroaches, rodents and termites were introduced. When introducing each pest, Sophia Liew elaborated on their common species, characteristics, lifecycle, behaviour, habitat, infestation patterns, and also DIY countermeasure and prevention methods. “If the pest problems persist even after using DIY countermeasures, people should consider seeking help from professional pest controllers as they would have the professional tools to conduct an in-depth investigation using IPM in order to solve the problems,” she added.

Before closing the webinar session, she gave advice to the participants, saying, “To have a successful pest control, you will need a clear understanding of the pest and situation; feasible budget and treatment alternatives; good cooperation between clients and pest controllers, and lastly proper communication of expectations and acceptance levels.”

The webinar ended with a Q&A session and a virtual group photography session.