Training and more training.

It's currently a very interesting time for me with training in both directions going on! I have just completed a new short module on Pest Awareness and Rodent Control for delivery to our clients. This will assist them with BRC v6, and helps them to help us as well.

I have also just completed some on-line Hygiene training, my SPA renewal, and have a BPCA exam coming up. I seem to spend most of my time either delievering or receiving some form of training.

Training is absolutely crucial to any business, but is especially important for a  pest control business. We are essentially Lone Workers, and that makes supervision difficult and sometimes more ad-hoc than we'd like. So having formal training courses and revision sessions is essential to meet our responsibilities to our staff and to our clients.

The delivery of training can take anything from an hour to a week at a time, but preparing for it takes so much longer. I remember being told to allow a day prep time for an hours speaking - I guess that's about right.

So off now to do some studying, and to start preparing two more courses!

 

It's Tuesday so it must be Holland.

Just completed an audit at a site in Holland. Four days of inspecting machines and building fabric. Everything went really well for most of the inspection. Machinery and general fabric was cleaner than I've seen it, and levels of insect pest activity were minor, with no product risks at all.

Then I started looking in wall spaces and under floors and found a number of locations with mouse activity. Droppings in large numbers under the floors especially. Many of these Dutch factories have a floated concrete floor, or a concrete slab floor set on a sand base. Mice burrow underneath, and can get into wall spaces and follow cable runs into the factory.

What makes this particular situation unusual is that the area of the Netherlands concerned is, like much of England, suffering from low rainfall. This means that a sub-floor normally damp, and not liked by mice has suddenly become an ideal and very dry environment with lots of burrowing space. Hence, very large numbers of droppings present!

Fortunately, I have spotted this before the mice could get access to the wall cavities, but I am worried about what will happen if the weather changes and water table levels start to rise. This could push mice into the building quite rapidly. 

Pest controllers on site have been advised to get plenty (recoverable) bait in place. Let's hope they do so.

This is a classic case of changing environmental conditions allowing mice to exploit a location they have not really used before.

End of an era

Funny when a contract finishes - especially one that has lasted a long time.

I've just finished working at a large factory I've serviced for nearly twelve years. Lots of good friends there and loads of memories - some good, some not so.

Like the time we did some Thermokil work there are the plastic band end warped. Panic all round. Once it cooled down everything was OK, but it was a very tense few hours. Loads of pest issues associated with plant, hygiene and managing systems. I've learned a lot on how equipment works, and developed some theoretical and practical methods and systems based on that acquired knowledge.

The strangest part is knowing I'll be driving past the plant quite frequently, but will no longer be responsible for the pest control there. Not sure how that will feel. Mind you, it's not like I don't have plenty of other work to keep me occupied!!