By law (1990 Food Safety Act and associated regulation), food that is sold must be wholesome and free from contamination. If you sell or prepare food, you are required to demonstrate ‘due diligence’ that you have taken every precaution against contamination from flying insect pests. These pests are highly mobile and make no distinction between food prepared for our consumption and any other surface that they land on, walk over, defecate on or eat. Many insects have particularly unsavoury habits and therefore represent a high contamination risk to our food.

With this in mind, fly control becomes more than just hanging any old electric fly killer where it can be seen. It’s quality and effectiveness according to type and siting have a real bearing on how much protection you receive. The old adage ‘buy cheap, buy twice’ really does apply to the science of Electric Fly Killers (EFK). Many of the machines we have supplied are still working well after 20 years.  Anyone can go to a big DIY store and get a £20 machine that shines a blue light out. However, apart from sub-standard build quality, they’re usually only effective for a year at the most. Why? Well, read on…

A professional machine for those that take public health protection seriously...

So you buy a professional quality, all metal construction EFK from us at Acclaim  and you never have to worry about fly control again, right?

Well, not quite. Although the machine continues to work, the phosphors in the lamps degrade over 12 months. This means that, although the light continues to illuminate as far as humans are concerned, no insect-attracting ultraviolet light (UV) is given off by the tubes. Rather like insects can’t see the colour red, we can’t see the ultraviolet part of the spectrum that most attracts flies (usually a wavelength of around 350 nm). So, to us, old tubes may look good…to the insect, they’re no more attractive than anything else.

We once had a farmer call us up and tell us that he needed to buy some professional machines for broiler sheds. He said his EFKs were 4 years old and were no longer catching insects. We asked him if he’d ever had them serviced. He hadn’t.  We replaced the tubes, cleaned the machines down and re-sited them. Hey presto, he ended up enjoying highly effective fly control for a price that was about 2 per cent of what he’s been expecting to pay.

Also, if the machine is in an oily atmosphere, the bars will eventually become insulated against insects which reduces effectiveness. If you’ve decided to buy a professional sticky trap machine, the sticky boards will need to be regularly replaced. That is why we include the maintenance of the machine in a service plan for contract customers. Another important things is to ensure that you leave your EFKs open at night. A fairly beefy machine will throw out about 30 – 45 watts of UV light. A shop window lets in, what, about 500 watts maybe? So, as you can see, these machines work best if they’re properly sited away from food, light sources, open windows and doors. We have clever tools to measure the amount of competing UV light so that we site the machine in the best place. It’s not just a case of buying any old machine and fixing it to the wall. What machine you need depends on the nature the business, the size of the room, the room layout and a whole bunch of other factors. That is why you need a professional company to advise and install the machines.

If, on the other hand, you just buy a cheap machine, never get it serviced, cleaned or re-tubed, you may as well turn it off as it’ll be wasting electricity…it certainly won’t be catching flies.

A small domestic sticky trap...

As you know, we’re not the types to write something every day just to fill up the blog with pointless text. We really only blog when we’ve something to say. So, with  that in mind, please indulge us as we tell you about our new wasp and ant web pages.

This summer, we’re increasing our web presence by launching waspcontrolexperts.co.uk and antcontrolexperts.co.uk. We’ve been dealing with these pesky little pests since 1989 and we felt that its about time to shout about how good we are at removing them when they get into the wrong place. We’ve also put a few hints and tips on there just in case you’re unlucky enough to get stung this summer. You’ll find a link to the NHS website which gives you medical advice in case you have an allergic reaction.

We’re fully insured and are very fussy about making sure that we get the job done quickly with minimal impact on you life. We’ll come out within 24 hours and, if we have to make a return visit (very rare) will do so at no extra charge providing its the same nest we’ve treated.  Make sure you’re prepared this summer and if you do get a problem, call the wasp and ant control experts…

Ultra violet (UV) light is something that we often use to track rodents or squirrels that are being a little evasive. Its pretty simple when you get down to it. Sometimes you’ll get animals that won’t touch bait or traps so we have to be a little creative. We sprinkle a non-toxic tracking dust that the rodents run through when we’re not about. Once they do this, the dust is literally tracked back to where they’re nesting so that we can focus pest control in their tracks and nesting sites…remember that rats tend to stick to a ‘proven route’! The dust is reasonably difficult to see under normal artificial light in a loft. That doesn’t matter too much because, when we turn the lights of, the  dust fluoresces under ultra violet light. Although we can’t see UV (rather like insects can’t see red) we see the fluorescent effect which gives a phenomenal contract to the surrounding area. This allows us to effectively pinpoint the animal tracks and eliminate areas for control that the animal is not visiting.

Just another clever little thing we do…

Please see the stark contrast between the ‘before and after’ photos below…

The UV shows that the animal is disappearing into that hole in the bricks.

Animal tracks along a wall:

Animal tracks clearly seen...

An animal stops…

Here the animal has stopped and turned around...

We were recently called to a premises in Northampton to survey for some ‘insects that won’t go away’. The property was a block of flats that has a high turnover of residents who have just arrived in the UK and are seeking a better life. Because of this state of hyper-mobility, people arrive all the time and there has always been a chance of an infesting insect being brought into the building. On the occasion, the insect happened to be the German Cockroach (Blattella germanica).

Now the thing that you need to know about cockroaches is that there is a complete zero-tolerance of them amongst Environmental Health Officers (EHO). If they see just one in a restaurant/pub/food outlet etc, they will probably issue a temporary closure notice. It is as bad as finding a fresh mouse dropping or a signs of a rat in the building. Why? Well, there is a very good reason for this: Cockroaches are indicative of poor hygiene. If you have cockroaches, it basically means that you’re not keeping the place clean enough. So, quite rightly, the EHO’s ‘stamp down’ on cockroach presence

The German cockroach is omniverous and a scavenger. They particularly like starch, sugary foods, grease and meats. In certain situations where there is a shortage of foodstuffs, they may eat household items such as soap, glue and toothpaste or they may even turn cannibalistic, often chewing on the wings and legs of each other…nice!

So, they’re very good at surviving… This means that the two things that you need to know if you think you have cockroaches is that a treatment plan is both prolonged and has a financial cost reflecting that.  A cockroach can live anywhere in a building so the entire structure must be monitored for a period before gel baits are positioned and monitoring continues. Because cockroaches  produce ‘egg purses’, it makes it slightly more difficult to control the population without a significant monitoring effort. The egg purse can contain up to 200 eggs and may take up to 51 days to hatch depending of environmental conditions. Because of this, even when all the live cockroaches are dead, the pest controller must keep monitoring the property. If you don’t monitor you might not realise that you still have unwelcome guests. The following photos show monitoring traps placed in a property in the Northampton area. The client had tried to convince us that there were no cockroaches in the building:

The attractant lures the cockroaches on to the sticky trap.

Cockroaches on a monitoring trap…

Standing room only...

Luckily this showed that the building had a heavy infestation and we have started a treatment plan. It is so important to get a cockroach infestation under control immediately if you’re a business owner. Please ring us up for a chat if you think you might have a problem.

For a little while, our illustrious founder and trusted leader has been thinking about slowing down a bit. Although Merve, from Leicester, founded the company in 1989, he has been working pretty much non-stop ever since.  He wants a little more time for his garden, holidays, pottering about, base jumping and cage fighting. Ok, we made those last two up but you get the picture.

So, Dan (me) will be gradually taking over the main share of the management effort. Don’t worry though Merve fans. He will still be very much involved in the day-to-day running of the company and you will still see him about. We expect the handover of responsibility to be complete by 30 April 2012.

For those of you who don’t know Dan, he grew up around pest control before entering the Royal Navy in 2000. He did 7 years as an officer and then came back to the pest control world at Acclaim before a brief stint with the best Pest Control suppliers in the country: Killgerm Chemicals.  He came back to Acclaim at the start of 2012 and will be helping Merve to slow down a bit. We are very keen to stress that Merve will probably be around for many years to come so you won’t notice anything changing because of this. We will still be serving Leicester, Northampton, Market Harborough and the wider Midlands by keeping you safe from pests on a daily basis. We’re a family business so service will continue as normal. Just thought we better let you know and we’re really looking forward to working with you in 2012. Have a super year and we’ll catch you (and the pests) soon.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Take this example we encountered in Leicester on Tuesday night. The home-owner had been asking the landlord to get someone out as she had a feeling that she was not alone. We attended and immediately got to work by surveying the property. The house was clean and well kept in the living areas. Unfortunately, the home-owner hadn’t had the stomach to get into the areas that we pest controllers are comfortable to go. As soon as we went into the kitchen, we could ‘smell’ mice. As mice are incontinent, they urinate everywhere they go. This causes an ammonia-like urine smell which is very distinctive. We opened a food cupboard and were confronted with this:

Caught red 'pawed'

He then tried to get away by jumping onto a food packet:

But, he didn’t manage to get away. We controlled the situation. Now, those of you that are currently thinking ‘ahh, how cute’ would do well to think about the following:  mice can transmit diseases such as salmonellosis, meningitis, leptospirosis, rat-bite fever, ringworm, and dermatitis. Mice can transmit diseases by contaminating food with their urine, and faeces. In fact, one of the children in the house was off school due to illness. The house mouse produces about 80 droppings per day! From a breeding pair of mice, over 2500 offspring can develop within a year. They do not just chew on food, they can also start fires by gnawing electrical circuits. Apart from all the health concerns, the home-owner had to buy new food after throwing away a lot of good food due to mouse damage:

Naughty nibbling...

Another thing to note is that, although the following picture shows a packet of crackers that looks full,  the packet was in fact empty, having been completely emptied by the rodents. The mice had obviously been living in there for sometime:

Do yourself a favour this winter and double check cupboards, airing cupboards and sheds. If you think you might have unwelcome visitors, please get a reputable pest controller out to tackle the problem. Remember, when you first encounter a problem, that problem will only increase if not tackled. Luckily for this home-owner, we are on the case and soon she will be mouse-free.

The problem with moles is that they tend to bring out the worst in people. Normally most mild mannered people are fairly relaxed when it comes to pests. However, a keen gardener or a green keeper can become obsessed when a mole is tearing up their pride and joy! This is due to the fact that moles need to keep expanding their feeding areas. Hence the molehills. There is also a reason why kicking the molehills over only encourages the mole to build more..

You see, moles, like any other mammals,  need oxygen to breathe. In fact, they need 4% oxygen in the tunnels in order to go about their moley business. So, when you’re underground, how do you get air down there? Well, you build a molehill: the conical shape of the hill forces air into the tunnels which then lets Mr Mole live quite comfortably. That is why when you kick mole hills over, more appear overnight. Oh, they also use molehills as latrines as well. Nice.

So, apart from the aesthetics, why control moles?

• Molehills can cause damage to expensive lawnmowers and hedge trimmers: Never good to go over a stony molehill with the lawnmower.
• They can destabilise paths, sheds, chicken houses, etc
• They may dissuade potential customers for golf courses, parks etc
• They can cause horses to stumble (vet bills) and throw riders…See William III of England who died of pneumonia when he broke his collar bone.
• They can ruin silage used for animal feed during the winter resulting in expensive feed bills for farmers.

Come again? Why do they ruin silage? Well, basic science. You remember from school that there are two main types of bacterial respiration: aerobic and anaerobic. Well, when the silage has been cut when molehills are about, some of that soils will be packaged up with the bales that are then wrapped in plastic for storage over the winter. No air gets in but bacteria in the soil works away anaerobically and destroys the silage. When the farmer opens up the bales to feed the cattle, he finds that it is all mouldy and rotten. This means hungry cattle and the inevitable drive to the agricultural merchant. So, as you can see, there are real and ethical reasons why mole control is necessary. We would never advocate the destruction of moles on wild land or in areas where they’re not causing a problem. We also would advice no one to set up a mole control business in Ireland as there are no moles there!

So, how much do we charge for mole control? Well, that depends on how much land you have and how long you want the contract to run for. If you’re not sure, we’ll come out and advise you about it…for free.

You would never know....

Well, as you may know, that doesn’t sound ‘rat-like’. For a
start off, it’s quite unusual for timid rats to enter living areas in a nice,
clean, well kept care home and not be deterred by human presence. Secondly, its
physically impossible for rats to vomit so the ‘regurgitated food’ thing
sounded odd.

Anyway, I got there and has a good look round the room at all the
wall and floor junctions as well as trying to find if there was any obvious
signs of rodent ingress. It’s so important to try to establish the size of the
infestation before treatment occurs. Funnily enough, I couldn’t find any
evidence of vermin. I had found some animal droppings but they certainly didn’t
belong to a rat:

It was at that point that we found a little visitor snuggled
into the bottom of a curtain:

Not ready to get up

Go Away!

Now, it transpired that the staff often left one of the lounge
doors open and this little chap had obviously found his way in. It amused us
when one of the carers said ‘Oh please don’t kill it!’ As if Acclaim would harm
a hedgehog! Although it seemed in good health and very sleepy, I just wanted to
make sure this hedgehog had a fighting chance through the cold winter. I gave
‘Animals in need’ a call and had a good chat with a lady from there who advised
us to place the hedgehog in a towel and put it somewhere shaded outside.

Ready to move

Not too sure

A nice dark corner

Left in peace

We moved the hedgehog to this dark, quiet corner and one
of the carers left a plate of chicken for it to eat. We told them to give us a
call if they were concerned about it or it became ill. Happily, the hedgehog
has now moved and hopefully it’s set up a cosy home somewhere else. It just goes to
show that you never know what you’re going to find in this job.

When we think of ‘value’, do we equate that with ‘cheapest’? Is the cheapest available car the best option and best value for the chairman of the board? No, clearly not. It would not be appropriate and commensurate with a professional image.  Why do we not always buy the cheapest processed food available from Tesco/Waitrose/Aldi? Because we know that, long term, it may not represent the most nutritious option for us: it could have a long term negative affect on us. In other words, its not worth the money. Do we always go on  holiday in a one star hotel  or is it worth paying a little bit extra to go and pay for a three/four star? We often find that its worth the extra money: the service, experience and reassurance the service provides more than makes up for the financial outlay.

Well, its exactly the same in pest control. Now, this isn’t supposed to be a post covered in glorious self-promotion for Acclaim. There are a lot of good pest control companies out there who charge a fair price for a good job done. Unfortunatley, like any industry, there are also ‘Cowboys’ and then there are those that compete merely on ‘Price’. Now I’m sure that we all remember that every product is affected by The Marketing Mix‘ Basically, there are four main pillars that determine the marketing of a product:

Product (what it is and what it does),

Price (how much it is and the value/experience/feeling that provides),

Promotion (how it is promoted: bargain basement, premium product, etc).

Place (Where this fits into the market and what market segment will need it)

For a ‘Service’, there are three more:

Person (what was the person like that gave the service? Professional? Unprofessional? Slovenly? Dirty? Neat? Cheerful? Knowledgeable? Did you trust them? Did they fill you with confidence?)

Process (How did they do it? Did they seem to know what they were doing? Did they have the correct tools/equipment? Was it done on time? Were they better/worse than expected?)

Physical Evidence (is the job done? For example, a new door is the result of a double glazing company spending a day fitting a door. In the case of a pest control company, you should have a receipt and a form telling you exactly what was done and do’s and don’ts concerning chemically treated areas.)

So, here comes the main point I wanted to make. If you are paying a pest control company just £30 per quarter for a small pest control contract to cover the infestation of rodents and insects, including unlimited ‘follow-ups’ and ‘call-outs’, you have to question what they’re doing. Put it another way, how hard would you work for £2 per week? I guess that the answer is ‘not very’. Then think about the costs involved: rodenticides, insecticides, application equipment (sprayers and stuff), COSHH assessment, training, insurances (many insurances), vehicles, DIESEL, paperwork, staff wages, method statements, time taken, Health and Safety equipment… the list goes on and on. You have to question whether the pest control company really, really, really has your best interests at heart. Is your business in safe hands? Are you sure that they’re doing a good job no matter how ‘nice’ the technician may appear? How long do they take to do the inspection? Do they debrief you on findings, cleaning routines, areas for improvement, seasonality? Are you being blinded by their sexy marketing? What kind of an image do you want to portray to your customers? What do your suppliers say about you?

The fact is that if a company has found the cheapest suppliers, cut all its costs and is still making no money by doing the job properly, in order to turn a profit, it has to do one of two things: raise prices or cut corners (give a worse service). It was C. S. Lewis that said, ‘when you have eliminated the improbable, whatever is left, no matter how impossible, must be the truth’. So, if your pest controller is not raising prices, there can only be one option left. Logic dictates that they can’t be doing the job properly. We often hear it said that these companies say they can cut costs because they have a lot of customers in one geographical area. Consider what happens when a couple of his nearby contract customers close down: he would have to attend existing customers and make a loss due to revenue lost. It is an unworkable system which is doomed. Surely you want your suppliers to be there when you need them?

Bird netting installation quotations are usually pretty near a similar price: equipment, installation and manpower are normally set at industry standards. On the other hand,  pest control contracts can vary wildly in price as some companies compete by quietly cutting service.

At Acclaim, we give tailored solutions because we understand our customers and we understand pests. We know that each new premises is different from the last and pest control is not a mathematical equation. A bakery with its potential for rodents, insects and stored product pests offers a very different challenge to an engineering company of the same size. Clearly one has a greater risk of infestation. The effects and results of infestation would have wildly different ramifications for both premises. When considering a pest control company, always ask yourself what you’re getting and whether the price seems fair to you and to them. If it seems too good to be true, alarm bells should be ringing in your head. Remember: that £30 per quarter can be money down the drain…if you’d have paid a little more, it’d be money well spent. Pay cheap, pay twice. Cheap does not mean better or even ‘as good as’.  And remember: if you do get a serious infestation, the cost could be a lot, lot higher and its normally not just financial.