Green Pest Control Company Uses Carbon Dioxide To Kills Moles, Ants

Fayetteville Business Uses CO2 To Kills Moles, Ants

David Jones tried constantly to rid his lawn of pesky moles. Then he saw a friend back his pickup onto a football field four-and-a-half years ago and fill mole tunnels with exhaust, hoping the carbon dioxide would kill the animals.

"That got my mind going," he said. "There had to be a way to make this work."

At A Glance

Launch Party

APGR Green is holding a public launch party for its green products Mole-Zap and Ant-Zap. The event starts at 10 a.m. today at the Fayetteville Farmers Coop, 417 W. Martin Luther King Blvd., in Fayetteville.

On the Web

mole-zap.com

ant-zap.com

omri-org

Jones contacted a patent attorney who discovered no one had patented killing moles with carbon dioxide. He began experimenting with different ways to inject carbon dioxide into mole tunnels, and he reached out to Sam Noto and Jim Shaddox. The group created Fayetteville-based APGR Green, maker of the organic pest control products Mole-Zap and Ant-Zap.

Moles spend most of their lives underground and their surface tunnels are easy to spot. The animals are not rodents, but are insectivores that survive by feeding on invertebrate prey.

Neal Mays, Benton County extension agent, said it's hard to come up with many advantages to having moles in your yard, but he said moles eat grubs that can also be a problem for a home gardener. Mole tunnels can also help aerate compacted soil.

"Moles are not going to cause lasting damage to a lawn. Grasses have the ability to recolonize," he said.

Mole-Zap uses a hose and probe to inject carbon dioxide into active mole tunnels. Users need to hold the nozzle down for five seconds before stepping on about six feet of tunnel to trap the gas and mark the spot that has been treated. The steps are repeated until the the entire tunnel is treated. One carbon dioxide cylinder will treat a 20-foot tunnel.

"The carbon dioxide displaces the oxygen, and the moles go to sleep and don't wake up," Shaddox said.

The same process is used on ant hills. The ant probe is longer to prevent bites.

"We are a true grassroots startup," Jones said. "We've done everything from designing the packaging."

The products are made in Taiwan and are put together by Genuine Innovations, maker of their carbon dioxide cartridge holder.

The company began selling its products online earlier this year and is holding a public launch party today at the Fayetteville Farmers Co-op. APGR Green works with distributors who have the product on shelves in 21 states. Mole-Zap and Ant-Zap are sold locally at Chicken Holler in Farmington, Nitron Industries in Johnson and area farmers co-ops.

Jones said they have sold hundreds of starter kits, which come with two carbon dioxide cartridges, and 2,000 carbon dioxide refills. He said it took three years to gain approval from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The technology is patent-pending.

The products are also listed with the Organic Materials Review Institute. The institute is a nonprofit group founded in 1997 and based in Eugene, Ore.

"With so many people going green these days, it was a great opportunity for us to go down that path," Shaddox said.

The institute provides independent reviews of products used in certified organic production, handling and processing, said Amy Bradsher, marketing director. Products with an institute listing can be used in certified organic operations under the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Organic Program.

"Organic certification is federally regulated and is for food and fiber products," she said. "We review products that help in those operations."

APGR Green qualified for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission's Equity Investment Tax Credit program, which helped it raise more than $500,000. Scott Hardin, commission spokesman, said the program offers investors in qualified startup companies a tax credit worth one-third of their investment.

The tax credit program has a cap of $6.25 million per year. Hardin said 37 companies have cashed in on the program since Jan. 1, 2009.

Businesses must be a new and pay wages over the state average, Hardin said. Most companies using the program are technology-based.

"Our intent is to create local jobs down the road," Jones said of APGR Green.

NW News on 04/17/2014

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