Protecting Public Health with Professional Pest Control

The mere thought of discovering pests in your own property is enough to send a shiver down the spine.

However, whilst most single infestations can be dealt with using the help of a professional, the wider impact of rising pest activity on public health is an even more frightening prospect.

Dealing with pests in urban environments across the UK has never been harder, as rising chemical and behavioural resistance, an aging workforce, and ever tightening restrictions on the pest controller’s toolkit combine to pose a serious threat to the future of this vital profession.

Chris Cagienard, managing director of Glasgow-based Pest Solutions and President of the British Pest Control Association (BPCA), shares his thoughts on why it is so critical that these threats are taken seriously, and fast, to protect public health in Scotland and across the UK.

What is the role of professional pest control?

The fundamental purpose of the pest control industry is to protect people and property from the threat posed by pests such as rodents, birds, and insects.

Without it, infestations would soon escalate out of all control, leading to the rapid spread of disease, property destruction, and a highly unsanitary and unsafe environment in the homes we live in and the places we work and play.

At Pest Solutions, we have been helping to protect Scotland’s businesses and homes from this threat for well over 20 years and have seen first-hand the rising difficulties faced by pest controllers are facing in their battle against pest activity.

We are operating in a landscape where protecting the public is becoming more and more difficult every day, with significant challenges that the professional pest control industry must overcome in the weeks, months and years to come.

What are the biggest challenges to modern pest control?

Challenge 1: Chemical resistance

What is the resistance status of rodents in your area? This is one of the leading questions that every pest professional should be asking. With increasing levels of chemical resistance to the most commonly used rodenticide baits being detected throughout the UK it is vital to know that the products being used to gain control are achieving the required result.

Responsible rodenticide usage is absolutely essential to the control of rats and mice, two of the most prolific and common pest species in the UK.

Unfortunately, the more that these rodenticides are used, the higher the level of chemical resistance that these species develop and the less effective their usage will become. Even worse, treatment programmes that use these pesticides will eradicate the non-resistant rodents alone, leaving a population of fully resistant rats and mice to pass on their genetic code.

This has the potential to render a huge portion of the pest controller’s toolbox useless, reducing the amount of options available to them and making achieving control a much more difficult task. It is not only rodents where these trends have been identified either and chemical resistance has been observed in many insect species including bed bugs over the past few years.

What are we doing about it?

The continued testing and development of baits, effective monitoring and reporting of product effectiveness, and extensive chemical resistance research are all essential parts of overcoming this significant threat and are all fundamental to the way we work here at Pest Solutions.

Property managers should make sure that their pest control contractor knows this information and, like our team here at Pest Solutions, has an active tail sampling programme to scientifically test for DNA sequences for resistance, allowing the right product choices to be made.

Challenge 2: Behavioural resistance

It isn’t only the bodies of rodents that are becoming savvier to the potential effects of rodenticides, their minds are too.

We have identified a sharp increase in learned behavioural resistance in recent times, with rodents simply refuse to interact with traps or bait stations in some urban environments such as Edinburgh and Glasgow city centre.

One of the most worrying trends that we have observed is evidence of Coeliac disease in rodents. This is concerning as most of our products are grain-based, meaning that these rodents will avoid baits due to food intolerances.

What are we doing about it?

We have invested heavily in behavioural research, hiring a number of excellent Graduate Field Biologists from animal behavioural science backgrounds.

It is essential that the pest control industry not only understands what does and doesn’t work, but also WHY it does or doesn’t work. By understanding the species we manage, we can create more sustainable action plans that not only help to control pests today but will also lay the foundations to maintaining this control in the years and decades to come.

Challenge 3: Increase in littering

One of the biggest causes of behavioural resistance in rodents is the unacceptable level of littering in our towns and cities. This creates an abundance of food choices where our products just cannot compete for palatability.

This is one challenge that we, or even the entire pest control industry, cannot tackle alone, and universal education, collaboration, and cooperation are essential if we are to begin turning the tide.

What are we doing about it?

This is one of the areas that our team at Pest Solutions feels incredible strongly about and have been frustrated by the lack of action from public bodies on such an important societal and public health issue.

In response, we have launched our very “Enough is Enough” anti-littering campaign to help educate the public about the relationship between littering and pests, encouraging fellow businesses, local groups and individuals to join us in cleaning the streets of our town and city centres.

This is only the beginning, however, and we will continue to lobby councils, public health bodies and both the UK and Scottish Governments to take more widespread action.

Challenge 4 – Loss of the professional toolkit

The smaller the number of different options professional pest controllers have when attempting to tackle pest infestations the harder achieving control becomes.

With the regulation of Biocides tightening and challenges with product registration costs skyrocketing due to Brexit, the toolkit of a professional pest controller is shrinking, and we have already lost or stand to lose almost 30% of our professional products.

Not all restrictions are a negative, of course, with the widespread availability of certain rodenticides that has led to such a rapid rise in chemical resistance amongst rats and mice in the first place and misuse of products by untrained individuals is a serious threat.

The BPCA and the wider professional industry also support the ban on the public use of glue boards for untrained users to reduce cases of misuse and cruelty, with legislation banning rodent glue boards in England and Wales soon to be followed herein Scotland.

There is no excuse for animal cruelty, and when the ban on glue boards comes into place in Scotland housing managers/officers will have a legal responsibility to report the illegal use by tenants which will create potential conflict.

What are we doing about it?

New product innovation that will help overcome some of these challenges and at Pest Solutions we make sure our people are trained beyond the Level 2 industry standard with every technician working towards the Level 5 qualification ensuring our team can solve even the most stubborn issues effectively.

We also actively support the push for increased professionalism of the pest control industry, limiting access to key products to those with the knowledge and skills to use them effectively and responsibly.

Challenge 5: Loss of skilled workforce

The professional pest control industry is ageing, with 40% of our workforce due to retire in the next 10 years. Historically, we have not done a great job of attracting young people into the industry and without promoting the rewarding nature of the careers available, a massive loss of skills and experience is just around the corner.

We have done even worse in the area of diversity, with only 5% of the industry workforce being female.

What are we doing about it?

At Pest Solutions, we have responded to this trend and focussed on championing the career opportunity and showcasing how a professional pest controller has a focus on good animal welfare outcomes, protecting the environment and delivering customer service excellence. As a result, we have seen our business grow rapidly, and our team is now majority under 35 years of age and 52% female, with many of our young people being recognised as finalists and winners at the industry awards over the last 4 years.

Pest control done differently

What is the definition of insanity again?

Doing the same thing time and time and time again has put the pest control industry is a pretty tough spot.

Rising resistance, a lack of fresh talent, a lack of public education, and a failure to move on from the practices of old are just some of the factors leading to the battle for effective, long-term pest control is being slowly lost.

It’s time to turn the tide, and choosing the right pest control partner is essential to doing just that. For the sake of public health, responsible and forward-thinking pest control MUST be the future and it is essential to select a TrustMark approved BPCA member company to ensure that you achieve effective long-lasting results.