No Money In Pest Control!

[yorky_1 0]

Pest Control is just like any other industry/Occupation, theres good people out there and theres bad. Theres always going to be someone willing to be a busy fool, and do a job for Nowt! But on the other hand, theres also customers out there who are willing to get a job done in a safe professional way where cost comes down the list of considerations when it comes to deciding who to hire

[foxtails 272]

a decent thread for a change, makes good reading guys

[Waz 4,252]

Its good business when you have got a good portfolio of contracts. Plus seasonal work. I was full time for 5 years, and now part time for about 10 years, wondering whether to go full time again as living abroad its took me 10 years to crack the language

[Matt 160]

Get it right and there's good money to be made.

 

Get it wrong and you'll end up the same way as the majority; poor.

 

I've been in this game for a long time, and it's certainly changed over the years. When I started out there were far fewer small businesses, and as long as you could compete with the big boys, and had a good idea what you were doing it was perfectly possible to make a good living without getting any bits of paper or joining any organisations.

 

These days it's a bit harder; the legislation seems to be stacked against the professional, and there are many, many more companies competing for work.

 

I'm quite lucky in some ways as despite having every bit of paper going, and lots of experience of the industry I've chosen to turn my back on it and concentrate on the moles. I'll never be as well off as I was, but I have much more job satisfaction and lot's less hassle.

 

As others have already said; having the certificates won't make you a pest controller; and some of the worst work I've seen done has been by 'qualified' pest controllers with little experience or common sense; but that's not a reason not to get qualified. Some of the worst driving I've seen has been by qualified drivers, but I still think that doing a driving test is a good idea.

 

One thing is certain.... if you are sat at home thinking that pest control could be a good way of earning good money then you are probably not going to make it. If you want a 'vocation' and enjoy meeting new people and solving problems, then go for it.

[Moll. 1,770]

 

If you want a 'vocation' and enjoy meeting new people and solving problems, then go for it.

 

[bobcullen79 1,495]

Interesting. I dont have a gcse to my name, nor trade. That said, I`m not backwards in coming forwards. This is a job I feel I would be well suited for, be it self employed or on for a firm, fleas and mice or rabbits and other things. I didnt screw my loaf as a youngster because I was told I was pissing in the wind coming from a inner city council estate and being interested in the countryside/wildlife industry .

 

Which course would give me the biggest leg up into the industry? Is the BPCA level 2 any good? Is the 5 day residential any better than the online course?

[Mr Muddy 141]

 

 

Which course would give me the biggest leg up into the industry? Is the BPCA level 2 any good? Is the 5 day residential any better than the online course?

 

Mate, unless it’s changed in the last 18 months the BPCA online course I’ve seen was just text cut from the BMP manual and pasted on the internet with a basic multiple choice quiz; serious rip-off.

 

The BMP manual (or something similar) is well worth getting before you even start. You might find you lose interested in pest control after wading through legal and technical stuff you’ve got to know. Then again, if you genuinely enjoy reading it you might want to take it further.

[DIDO.1 22,587]

its been discussed on here before do a search (level 2 etc.)

 

 

Personally id say get as much experience as possible by shadowing a pest controller then do some of the 1 day courses, the sx rodent control course is better than what you will learn about rodents on the bpca speed writing residential. Study study study in your own time from a manual (they are about £100).

Then have a punt at doing the level 2 exam, I found it no problem at all (though I had done pest control my whole life, most of it was common sense). Then try and get a job with one of the big companies. I think the days of getting the big companies to pay for your training is coming to an end though some one who knows better may say otherwise.

[derbylad1 293]

Whilst I was still in the army, I decided that when I left I would never work for anyone again....no way!!!

 

I took a massive gamble and got my head stuck in the books, did my research, spent time working with a pest controller, loved it!! but it was hard work. I went on the 5 day residential BPCA Level 2 course....did some more learning and then set up my own business. The course is all about health & safety, legislation and some of the materials you'd be expected to use. It doesn't teach you how to be a pest controller!!!

 

I've learnt from my mistakes, not in the job but marketing/advertising. You need to invest wisely, I did and its paid off. I'm not going to go into details, as my competition might be on here...I'm not that daft...lol. But I will say, if you want to do domestic/commercial work then you need to have good SEO (search engine optimisation), this means where you rank on google/bing etc...as this is where 90% of potential customers find you. Gone are the days of Yellow pages (just gone bust) or leaflets.

 

After 3 years, I now rank number 1 on google, 40 - 50% of my customers are recommendations and "work of mouth"......roll on May 2014...but I love this quiet period to get out more with the dogs.

[moley 115]

qualifications are good, so are courses , they teach u h&s and all the basic stuff, but they dont teach you experience, its experience that puts you ahead of the competition, the little things that get results, good luck to anyone willing to give it a try, i had 23 years of pesting self employed, have a good regular wage now, not sure if its a good thing or a bad one

[desertdog 149]

there is alot to be said for working for a company, regular wage,etc,these days companys will train you, but you will be expected to pay them back for training if you leave, the last pest control company i worked for wanted a commitent of two years, they went down the pan so i was ok,id already trained some 5years previous with an indepent trainer and gained the rsph2.i would not work for another company if i could help it, i love what i do and have enough work to be comfortable,the trouble with companies is they over stretch the work load and this makes bad for the operator and the customer and they end up loosing work due to bad management, i found this when i worked for one of them, got run ragged covering other peoples patchs and not being able to keep up my own,dont have this problem now, but i do miss the regular wage.

[AdvancedFoxControlLondon 4]

No Money In Pest Control!!!!!!!

You want to see what some people charge and get more work than they no what to do with!

I sub-contract work from 10+ other local companies (only fox work) and charge my normal rate to them. One of them charges 100% on top of my quote.

Which would end up at around £750 to control urban foxes!

I no one company charges £1,500 PER NIGHT to shoot foxes, even if they don't get anything! And they get a fair bit of work.

 

There are hundreds of companies out there that do a bit of everything including pest control and make no money as they don't value their time.

Once you get to the stage of employing people time is money.

 

If you charge a fair rate and don't take the p*** whilst getting the job done quickly and arrive when you say you will there is good money to be had in pest control!

 

Look at the likes of Rentokil, Green Compliance, Eco Lab, Mitie and so on! They don't do it for the fun of it!

[nod 285]

Rento just brought green compliance

[Paul in North Lincs 15]

I read the article this transpired from and I also thought he was a total nugget confused between a dream world and reality. Shooting rats on a farm IMO is a hobby. We use the guise of pest control in this capacity to enable us to have abit of sport. There is very good money in pest control..... not all glamorous granted, but lucrative all the same.

 

You are only as good as the service you provide, and the market you are targeting. We would all love 40k a year plinking rats pigeons and scutts..... but I'd imagine these jobs are very limited if not impossible to find.......I do work in the sector, and do have a small number of shooting contacts, although the big dollar appears to seen more in the food sector in large factories that are heavily audited, specialized bird work and anything where there is a direct risk to public or employees health and saftey

[Ratmanwan 66]

There is good money to be made in pest control if you are prepared to work at it. Give a good service, for the right money, turn up when you say you would and recommendations follow one after another. For the first 2 or 3 years I really struggled. Now 13 years later I wouldn't swap for anyone. Big contract food plants are good money but are boring and a headache for paperwork. I do get paid for rabbit, feral pigeon and fox work but it only makes up about 10% of total work,it's about the same for friends in the business