JANUARY - MARCH 2018

MCI (P) 005/04/2017

CEREMONY 2017The Home Team NS Complex, Bukit Batok was an excellent choice for the 6th Bursary Award Ceremony.

The kids were fully entertained by the games galore and the adults went into battle, shooting arrows at each other. Fortunately (or unfortunately) the arrows don’t always fly straight.

There was a total of 52 recipients, who went on stage under the watchful eyes of some 116 proud parents and siblings. We are glad that 3 recipients, Lynette Chong, Lim Chang Xue and Liyana Razali, are studying at our local universities.

Our Most Improved Leadership Award recipient was Ryan Tan, while the Top Academic Award went to Kristle Chia.

The children were invited to come, dress up in a traditional costume, to participate in a “Racial Harmony” competition. The top 3 cutest winners were Reysha Aurelia, Vyonn Gan and Raifa Daura.

Our MCs for the

event, Kristle Chia

and Ilsyah Ramzan.

John Yeo with the Primary School recipients.

Patrick Chong with the Secondary School recipients.

Our 3 university undergraduates

with Patrick Chong.

Top Academic Award winner

Kristle Chia & Most Improved

Leadership Award recipient Ryan Tan.Our Young Supporters.

Participants in the Racial Harmony Traditional Costume competition.

Merit Award winners with John Ho.

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Two awesome photos taken by a drone at a company social outing in T Jungleland, Sentul, Bogor.

NEWS FROM INDONESIA

We have conducted 2 seminars for our Clients on Integrated Pest Management. They were both well received.

NOVEMBER 2017This is the Class of November 2017 at the Singapore Polytechnic’s Advanced Food Hygiene Course, organised by coordinator Martyn Wong.

John Ho conducted the session on Integrated Pest Management. During Question & Answer, an interesting question was raised for the first time.

QUESTION: We have had problems in engaging a decent pest management company to treat our premises. With 320 companies licensed by NEA, is there a classification of the companies to guide the end-user as to what to expect in terms of quality of service?

ANSWER: Unfortunately, this is still lacking in pest management in Singapore. The market is currently guided by trial and error.

Until such a classification is available, the next best approach is to interview the Technician who is going to carry out the service to check on his knowledge, experience and his attitude. There is no point interviewing the manager or anyone senior from the company. Meet the person who is actually going to do the work.

WITH LOVEWe welcomed our old friends, Nancy Lee and her daughter Allis Lu, from Chung His Chemical Plant, Taiwan to Singapore when they wanted to see how we conduct our TermiCam operation.

They spent a day with our Thermographer Alvin Goh and observed him doing his work. Alvin has been on the job for 8 glorious years.

They left Singapore, satisfied with what they had learnt. And we were happy we could help.

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LONG SERVICE AWARDSOur heartiest congratulations to both our Ahmads on completion of 5-year service with the company.

They are Senior Technicians Ahmad Pinadi and Ahmad Wahib, seen here with their Long Service Award. We wish them many more happy years.

When you are single and you spend most of your waking hours at

work, and you like your work, it naturally follows that the seed of

romance will be planted and it will grow into a life-long partnership.

This happened in the case of Service Controller Nur Sabrina Rahim and

Foreman Ismadi Hassim.

The members from the company

rejoiced in their marriage.

Congratulations Sabrina and Ismadi.

GETTING TO KNOW…

FAOPMA-PEST SUMMIT 2017 CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

November 2017 saw the merger of the Federation of Asian and Oceana Pest Managers Association (FAOPMA) with Pest Summit, so that henceforth the industry will project a unified voice.

FAOPMA is the umbrella body that represents the pest control associations predominantly in North Asia. Pest Summit is the convention organiser for pest management in South East Asia.

The occasion was marked by a combined convention in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The organising chairman Su-Chart Lee reported that a record 1,509 delegates with 153 exhibitors attended the event. It was a mini-United Nations with the flags of 35 countries fluttering at the Empress Hotel. Thailand was dominant with more than a quarter of the participants.

Professor Lee Chow Yang delivered the Keynote Address entitled “Present Challenges and Issues Confronting the Pest Management Industry and Vector Control in Asia”.

He elaborated key challenges in business, technical aspects, pest emergence and human resources. Amongst those challenges that were highlighted were the impact of intense acquisition of companies by large multinational pest management companies, influence of climate change of mosquito vectors of dengue and Zika, and the challenges in retaining staff of the millennial generation. As of now, we are also seeing more and more of our junior staff leaving to join Uber and Grab. Prof Lee also discussed finding the solutions to some of these challenges using Blue Ocean Strategy and Ancient Military Strategies.

“No, this is no fake news.”

In November when John Ho and his wife Sun Wei made their first visit to the Holy Land, Jerusalem he was surprised to see what appears to be a termite mud track on a tree outside his hotel room.

“It can’t be true!” he thought to himself. So, on his return to Singapore, he checked it out with Technical Manager, Dr Jerry Hu.

Dr Hu’s reply was “I know of no other insects that make such trails in a desert environment except for subterranean termite, Reticulitermes sp. As it is winter now in Jerusalem, the subterranean termite, Reticulitermes sp., has retreated from the tree surface and moved deeper into the ground where the temperatures are more moderate.”

The delegation from Aardwolf Pestkare Singapore and Indonesia, posing with Professor Lee Chow Yang, the Keynote Speaker at the convention.

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