Pest Control ..does It Pay The Bills ?

[myersbg 1,385]

I've been at it full time now for 8yrs, for the first 2 it was a real struggle, sometimes i wondered if i had done the right thing, i jacked in the building trade as i ffing hated it after nearly 30 yrs, but i knew if things did not turn out i could go back to it if i needed to.I have done loads of courses or as some call it retraining, i have spent more time in classrooms in the last eight years than i ever did when i was at school, at least it seems that way.

It takes a long time to get a good name in the business and five minutes or one bad job to get a bad one, there is a lot of paper work involved and every body thinks that you are sat next to the phone waiting for them to ring.

some jobs are great and you feel like you are getting paid to go out to play, others are sh1t, had one the other day from social services that you would not pass on to your worst competitor, the place would have looked better if it had been bombed [and i dont mean smoke].

60% of my work now is word of mouth or repeat customers, but you have to be willing to turn out 6or 7 days a week and forget about 9 to 5

and be careful where you spend [or waste] money on advertising.

Last year i made a few quid from the rabbits especially in gardens, this year the myxie has killed probably 95% of them, just another thing that can alter what you can make.

 

 

Brian

[ratattack 111]

Well yesterday in a loft at 5pm in full PPE removing a bumblebee nest I did question my sanity!! It must've been near 40c in there. Looked like I'd had a shower when came out I was wringing wet! Yet the day before it was all outdoor wasps and quite pleasant.

[stop.end 4,082]

I have been up and running on my own about 4 months now, I have the RSPH level 2 and I am registered with BASIS and BPCA... I worked for a big firm for about 8 months and too be honest the company was just bait box bashing, and didn't do any wildlife management so I decided to go out on my own..... hmmm still wondering if it was the right thing to do... long hours and a lot of driving...expensive to set up on your own and a awful lot of paper work and paper trail... I do pest control and wildlife management so its starting too pick up with farm work and golf courses once word gets round you can do a good job... but im finding hard to get my foot in the commercial side of things at the minute... a fella from my city had the only pest control company for more than 20 years so more or less had the place sewn up... but slowly and surely im starting to get calls.... but I know it will take a lot more work yet to get me anywhere near where id like to be with it...

[earth-thrower 493]

thanks lads.. some very informative reading.

 

top site is the THL.

 

Looks like I'm going to have to go abroad and earn some money instead.

France (or possibly one or two other european countries) is the place to be a 'moleman', now,....lol Its finished here, too many at it now,...lol I tell you, if i was even a bit younger id be over there, but im too set in my ways now.Even a camper van, or similar, would have sufficed initially, to go over with, see if you could get established. ?

Edited July 2, 2015 by earth-thrower

[Nicepix 5,650]

 

thanks lads.. some very informative reading.

 

top site is the THL.

 

Looks like I'm going to have to go abroad and earn some money instead.

France (or possibly one or two other european countries) is the place to be a 'moleman', now,....lol Its finished here, too many at it now,...lol I tell you, if i was even a bit younger id be over there, but im too set in my ways now.Even a camper van, or similar, would have sufficed initially, to go over with, see if you could get established. ?

 

 

Yes, you are right to an extent. The banning of Strychnine along with milder winters and wetter summers has seen a mole population explosion in France and probably other countries too. Not in all areas of France though. And the agricultural side isn't as well established. French farmers and small holders don't seem to want to pay for mole control or in some cases don't believe it works. Most customers are British residents or holiday home owners.

 

If anyone is looking to work in France and do some pest control the thing to do is to log onto Anglo Info forum and look at the Directory section of each department to see whether there is any competition. Areas with lots of Brits; Dordogne, Tarn, Pays de Loire, Normandy, Brittany, etc. are the places to look at. It has taken me around two years to get established, but now I'm barely having to advertise and almost at full capacity, three days a week, doing moles. If I wanted to go into wasps, hornets, rodents, etc. I could easily double that.

 

For me it is extra income. Don't get me wrong; I'm not offering a cheap service. Just tailoring it to fit in with my life. As I already get a pension there is no need for me to be full time. But if you can afford to stand a couple of years building a business you can easily make a full time job of it.