Blog Post

Baiting Bad Practice

steven light • Aug 21, 2020
Welcome back everyone, as the title says today we want to talk about bad practice in pest control and one particular case we came across today.

Today we were called out for a wasp nest in which their regular pest company had failed to destroy, as you may guess the client wasn’t happy with that service. Wasps were not in the companies contract with the client so we attended, sorted it 100% guaranteed there and then.

Whilst there and after the client is happy that we managed to sort that issue straight away we were asked to look at the rodent issues. A little bit of a back story, this was on a farm. 
We checked it out and probably found the worst pest practices in place for at least the last 4 years. This is the list of the wrongdoings we found from a very quick walk around.

  • Homemade wooden bait stations that were not locked in any way.
  • Multiple different formulations/active ingredient of bait.
  • Enough bait per station to wipe out every rodent passing for months
  • No bait secured (this gets worse)
  • Rodenticide outside the box
  • No paperwork at all for the job they are undertaking leaving no protection for the client or the “business”

This type of practice isn’t common any more and this would normally be associated with a “cowboy” worker but it does happen. This was someone who has been servicing this site for many, many years and until our visit, the client hadn’t realised how bad/illegal it was.



To expand on the no bait secured in the list above. after we reported our findings from this quick look around the client revealed more. A couple of times in the past (including on one of there most recent visits) he had witnessed his dog eat a couple of sachets of pasta bait that was left loose in trays. By this time we were smoking from the ears and trying to keep our professional composure. It was hard not to explode but the client wasn’t at fault and we conversed appropriately. 



We explained everything we found and the legalities surrounding pest control nowadays, was such a lovely bloke. Suffice to say we now have to put a proposal forward for the rat issue, will we get it? Who knows but, now the client understands the legal implications of using the current company (if it even is an actual company), even if we don’t it’s a bit better knowing it won’t be this bad any more.



There is nothing worse for us than seeing nature being put in harm's way, yes rats and mice are pests but they are also part of a complicated ecosystem in which humans still struggle to understand. There is a very fine line between nature and pest and it’s our job to try and define that line. When it’s nature education plays an important part of our job and can negate the need to waste our client's money for unnecessary treatment and visits. The same applies to treatments, they are all situation dependant and each one is different.



There will be another blog very shortly on the subject of bees and it’s going to be a very good, happy, feel-good story so Keep your eyes peeled folks.



For now, thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments or feedback on our Facebook and Twitter pages.



Regards

The shire pest solutions team



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