My Amazing Trip to Ecuador – Work and Play
By Tom Mueller, CEO of Insects Limited. Inc.
One of the best things about the pest control industry is the people you meet. I have had the privilege of being exposed to this industry my whole life and genuinely great people seem to be a constant. Maybe that and stubbornness. I am only partly joking.
Throughout my 11 years of being in the industry full-time, that fact has not changed. I don’t remember when it was, but several years ago I met Marcus Rezende with Truly Nolen International. Marcus is their entomologist, and he is genuinely a great person, someone who cares about his customers, is passionate about the industry, and believes in Insects Limited, the products we provide, and the professional services we deliver.
I have always known the name Truly Nolen. Talk about great branding! When I first met Marcus, I didn’t fully understand the difference between Truly Nolen and Truly Nolen International, and if I am honest, I didn’t fully understand Truly Nolen International (TNI) until a few weeks ago. To make my life a little easier, I have taken to ChatGPT to help explain the difference between the two entities. Here is what it told me.
While they share a name and heritage, Truly Nolen and Truly Nolen International are separate entities with different business focuses.
Truly Nolen (U.S.-based) is the well-known pest control company founded in the United States. It operates company-owned branches and franchises across the U.S., offering residential and commercial pest control services. This is the company many recognize by its signature yellow mouse cars and strong presence in North America.
Truly Nolen International, on the other hand, is a separate company that focuses on international franchising and partnerships. It brings pest management expertise and the Truly Nolen brand to countries around the world, including places like Ecuador. These international operations are typically independently owned and operated under the Truly Nolen brand, following its systems and standards but tailored to local needs and regulations.
In essence, Truly Nolen handles operations within the U.S., while Truly Nolen International helps expand the brand and pest management strategies globally.
Marcus supports the individual franchises for Truly Nolen International, and for years he has invited me to different places and events to support and learn more about his company. I finally did, and I am so happy I did.
I would like to preface this experience by saying I did not make the trip easy on myself. The invitation was very last minute, which is okay, and fairly normal. This time, however, I had a vacation planned for the week before, and we all know how travel goes these days. It started with me traveling back from the vacation with my wife. We landed in Charlotte and were met with delays with our flight home. My flight out the next day would be taking me right back to Charlotte, so after the 2nd delay, I walked to the customer service desk and tried to figure out how I could just stay in Charlotte as I was going to be coming back through in less than 7 hours. It worked out. It was very serendipitous or what I like to call “a God wink.” The first lady I spoke with had no interest in helping me figure this out, but I could not have been luckier. The gentleman sitting right next to her just happened to be from Ecuador. He saw my itinerary and was so willing to help at 10:00pm.
Step one, rearrange my flights. Step two, get a hotel and rental car. Why a rental car you ask. Well, my bag was still heading home, and I was not going to have any clothes. I woke up the next morning and grabbed all the basics I would need for Ecuador from Walmart, steel toe boots, high viz, socks, underwear, a belt, work pants, a nicer outfit, and of course, toiletries. Step three, board the plane for Ecuador. I didn’t end up getting into Ecuador until 9:45pm. Thank goodness it is only a one-hour time difference.
I cannot tell you how accommodating TNI was throughout this trip. They had someone pick me up and take me to the hotel. What I didn’t realize was the altitude! I was sleeping at 8,400 feet above sea level, and when I woke up, I thought I was going to fall over (or maybe it felt like a mild to medium hangover).
The itinerary for the next few days was 4 food facilities, and a little fun. I was there to learn and help provide my experience and the expertise I have gathered throughout my life in this industry. Let me tell you, getting out of the office and back into the field was the most fun part of the trip.
For the sake of your time reading this article, I will skip ahead to the 3rd and 4th facilities. Let me just say this: I was amazed at how clean the first two facilities were. So much so that I started to think I was losing my inspection abilities with how little of signs we saw for pests. (Note: The images of the two facilities are the two that had no pest issues worth noting from my trip) I was reassured with our visit to the third facility. It too was clean and organized but this distribution facility fell victim to two classic scenarios.
The first was exclusion and incoming inspection. The facility receives products from all over the world and distributes them to retail businesses. The Insects Limited All Beetle Trap with SPB Lure was used to monitor crawling stored product insects. Rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) was showing up in their monitors, and they were quickly able to identify a shipment of whole seed product with the insect presence. This facility was also alerted to the issue because one of their customers complained about the insect showing up with a shipment of pasta which showed that the infestation had spread from the whole seed item to the nearby pasta. TNI and the facility acted quickly, secluded the products and are currently working to ensure the insect population is eradicated.
The second issue happened while we were inspecting the items for Rice Weevil. The facility was not utilizing food moth pheromones at the time, but as I have shared before, I am a human lure. If there are moths around, they come to me. Out of the corner of my eye comes a fluttering object. Ephestia! We all turn behind us to see roughly 10 moths fluttering on the second rack up. Present in that rack were 7 boxes of product. The boxes had been slit open with a box cutter and sliced the bags inside. We were unable to tell how long that product had been sitting there, but it was long enough for the insects to find it and make it their new home. The fun part of this entire time in our inspection was explaining the importance of monitoring, and making the correlation to how the Rice weevil infestation had spread and so to can the moth infestation. Utilizing food moth pheromones would have tipped the TNI and the facility off to this issue early, and they would have been able to dispose of the products before it got out of control. For the remainder of the trip, I was known as “el Hombre Polilla” (the Moth Man).
Our final facility was a large customer for TNI Ecuador, and it was beautiful. They are a producer of a well-known chocolate and wafer treat, and as with every single food producer, this customer was not immune to insect issues. The challenge for this customer is old processing equipment. When I say old, I mean old, huge, heavy, and impossible to take apart and clean. It is on their list to upgrade, but for now, they have to make do. The insect present was Red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum). Picture a room that smells like chocolate, is very warm, and has linoleum tile floors (well used to have linoleum tile floors). The perfect breeding ground for insects with food debris to make its way under the tile. Both companies implemented pheromone monitors, but I was able to use this as an example of the difference between sex pheromones and aggregation pheromones and how insects utilizing these different pheromones respond to each.
Red flour beetles communicate using an aggregation pheromone. This insect is not strongly responsive to a monitor. To the pheromone, yes, but the monitor, no. Because aggregation pheromones are a “call to gather,” and because the beetle is long lived, they do not feel the need to leave the area where they are surrounded by a food source and other insects of the same species to find locate monitor until the infestation is large. They also will not travel as long of a distance to get to a monitor as a moth. This means the monitor needs to be strategically placed in conducive conditioned areas to have a chance at capturing the insects and alerting the pest management professional to an issue.
For this chocolate and wafer treat manufacturer, the monitors used were placed incorrectly. They were on the other side of the room from where they first started noticing the infestation, and where they first detected the issue was a perfect conducive condition with voids, shadowed and undisturbed equipment and plenty of debris. I was able to use this opportunity to educate my customer and theirs about the difference in sex and aggregation pheromones, and the proper set up for each. Moving forward, I have no doubt they will be able to address any resurgence of the pests quickly.
As a side note, I do not know exactly what I was expecting from food manufacturers in Ecuador as I had never been to any country in South America, but I was absolutely amazed at the level of food safety programs and professionals at each facility, and I believe that TNI Ecuador has raised the level of professionalism for the companies they service.
As this newsletter article goes a bit longer than I like, I would like to close by quickly describing the fun we had as well. One of TNI Ecuador’s owners has one of the most amazing hotels I have in which I ever stayed. It was his generational family farm that had been turned into a hotel where conferences and events were held. The details and planning of this place were incredible. Out my window were the mountains, and in the common area were llamas, peacocks, ducks, and plenty of room for all of them to roam and graze. Multiple corporate conferences were being held on site, and I don’t know if I have ever had the feeling of being in a hotel and being that relaxed. It is truly (no pun intended) an amazing place.
On the last day of my visit, we headed up the mountains into the Amazon Rainforest to an unbelievable resort centered around relaxation and hot springs from the volcanoes. It really felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but I doubt that will be the case. I am predicting it will not be my last time to visit Ecuador and to see the great people I worked with for 2.5 days.
Insects Limited, an Insect Pheromone Company
Insects Limited, Inc. researches, tests, develops, manufactures and distributes pheromones and trapping systems for insects in a global marketplace. The highly qualified staff also can assist with consultation, areas of expert witness, training presentations and grant writing.
Insects Limited, Inc. specializes in a unique niche of pest control that provides mainstream products and services to protect stored food, grain, museum collections, tobacco, timber and fiber worldwide. Please take some time to view these products and services in our web store.
