Insect identification
Mike Kelly (Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society) is happy to identify insects and mites of significance to public health and food manufacture and storage. Identification of such pests is often important in establishing the origins and development of infestation and contamination problems. This is of importance both in avoiding or defending litigation or, more usually, enabling better strategies for pest management to be developed.
Specimens are turned round as quickly as possible and the reply always includes detail on the biology and life history of the subject and, where appropriate, its pest status in the context of the situation.
For further information on our identification service, contact Mike Kelly
Expert witness
Acheta's consultants are able to provide expert witness services in all fields of pest control related to public health and food storage or manufacture. We are prepared to accept instruction in legally aided and criminal cases, and as single or joint experts.
We are also prepared to participate in an initial, free of charge, conversation concerning specific cases.
Your enquiry should, initially, be directed to the person whose expertise most closely matches the subject matter of your enquiry. Further details of each consultants specific fields of expertise are provided in the About section of this website.
Field trials of pest control products
A wide variety of monitoring and control devices and products are available to the 21st Century pest controller. Deciding between them can be bewildering, with selection often made with little or no regard to the efficacy of the product concerned.
We have access to a diverse variety of food manufacturing and warehousing sites, and are able to set-up and run comparative field trials of products.
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An example of such a trial that we have recently run for our own information and benefit, comparing the performance of three different types of stored product moth monitor, is available in the free-of-charge publications section of this site.
Clients interested in this service should contact Dr John Simmons
Insect resistant packaging
A finished manufactured food product, such as a packet of biscuits, or breakfast cereal, is protected against subsequent insect attack in warehouses away from the factory only by the design and quality of the packaging. This is simple to understand but is, nevertheless, often forgotten during the product and packaging development stages. It is only when complaints arrive from customers, sometimes overseas customers, that this truth comes back to haunt the factory QA team.
By this stage, it is often difficult to know where in the product chain, from factory to centralised warehouse, to local distribution storage, to supermarket, to cash-and-carry, to corner shop, and sometimes even the consumer’s own pantry, the infestation has actually occurred. The risks vary at each stage, but the product final packaging is the last resort, and must resist physical damage from fork-lift truck and manual handling, and the mandibles of roving, hungry insects. Young beetle and moth larvae are generally too small to chew through plastic and polythene, and aluminium foil, but can sometimes penetrate paper and cardboard packaging. However, as moth and beetle larvae grow and certainly when beetle grubs become adults, their mandible strength increases significantly, and then even thick polythene food containers and foil sachets may be breached.
Careful laboratory trials can be done to show the weak design and manufacture points with all existing packaging, and compared with developed designs, looking at different species, and their different life stages, looking at how the risks to packaged food changes during insect development. This is the work which puts facts before hunches and before thoughtless risk taking.
Just how well will health-food crispy bars withstand moths and beetles in a southern French warehouse, or in a Malaysian corner shop, over a 3 to 6 month shelf-life period? These tests will guide the thinking and planning of product manufacturers and marketing planners though objective, technical results.
For further details of this service please contact Mike Kelly.
Insect food preference trials
Where manufactured foods are warehoused, or stored under shop conditions, the existing infestation present in these situations becomes critical to the safety and good condition of the products.
Some products act like magnets to certain insect species, and it can be extremely valuable to know in advance if a food product will be subjected to increased infestation pressures because of the type or recipe of the food. Simple-to-run food preference trials are very valuable and very cost effective.
For further details of this service please contact Mike Kelly.
Biscuit beetles have damaged this joke product, because it is made of compressed cereal!
