A Day With A Pest Controller

My first lesson from a pest controller: you never know where you're going to find the pests. My second lesson...

Do not talk about flies at lunch time.

It's that time again when I do my rounds with some of the teams we've got working here at Fantastic Services. I do it partly to get a feel for how things are going, but mainly because I'm a big believer in knowing how your business works from the ground up.

If you don't know how every person's job works, how can you improve the services you offer? So, every few months - and sometimes much more often - I'm in the field with one or other of our teams.

Today that's Craig, one of our pest controllers.

We start off at 9am at the local Fantastic HQ. I'm a few minutes early but Craig's already loaded the van and is set to go.

Our first port of call for the day is a rather nice family flat in Greenwich. This is the sort of area where I would never imagine there being any pests. When I ask what we're up against today though, Craig doesn't seem surprised.

"Today the enemy is mice," he says when I quiz him a little. "Mice are one of the most common house pests in all of London. They get everywhere. People have got this image of them as cute and furry little guys. But when they're not nice and safe in a cage, they're filthy, and they eat any food they can get their hands on."

All in all, he gives the impression of a man talking about going into battle against a dangerous foe.

We arrive at the flat's doorstep, and are shown in by a nice chap in his thirties. His name is David, and he lives here with his wife and young daughter. They've gone out for the day. Craig's already asking David about the mice. He wants to find out where David and his family have sighted "the enemy," as Craig insists on calling them. He goes room to room, inspecting in particular the kitchen area, utility room, and bathroom. Sure enough, there are holes on the floor under the kitchen units, behind the desk in the utility room, and under the bath around the pipes.

After a chat with David about what he's going to do, Craig's on his hands and knees filling every hole with expanding foam and wire wool. This is followed by putting down a pesticide called Neosorexa. I'm told this stuff kills "the enemy" in about 48 hours, meaning they'll get back to their nests by the time it takes effect.

David and Craig chat a bit more about what to do if he sights any more mice - chiefly, to call. The guaranteed service that David's chosen comes with two more free visits if needed, but Craig says this rarely happens. Mostly people opt to leave the traps where they are, especially if they're in hard to reach places. Craig hands over a report of everything he's done. They shake hands. Job finished.

Next up, we're off to a house in Croydon.

We're met at the door of the house in question by a young woman who's all smiles and gestures.

It quickly transpires that she lives here with five others in a sharing arrangement. Unfortunately, it also quickly becomes apparent that she speaks little-to-no English. And neither Craig nor I speak any Romanian...

Luckily, the Fantastic office team has already managed to communicate with her clearly over the phone, so Craig knows that he needs to treat every bedroom and the living room for bed bugs. He gets to work right away, gearing up in gloves and masks in preparation. He's using a treatment called Phobi Dose, which comes as a soluble sachet that's dissolved in water and then sprayed across each affected area. This involves a lot of careful taking apart and putting back together of beds so that everywhere is reached, and pulling out suitcases to treat them too. Craig writes down that they'll be back in two weeks to check on the situation, and to perform another treatment.

The young Romanian woman smiles and gestures again, and we're off to Bromley!

On the way we stop for a sandwich and a coke, during which we discuss our next enemy: flies. Craig's got the customer's description of the insects in front of him, and is pretty sure he knows which species we're going to be dealing with even before we arrive. He reels off a name in Latin, which I confess I don't catch. And then he starts telling me about flies' feeding and breeding habits. Apparently the presence of this particular species means there could be a dead animal. Needless to say, this news does not thrill me.

In fact as lunch continues, it turns out that Craig knows a lot about flies. Which from the point of view of the person who owns the company he works for, is a very good thing. From the point of view of the person who's eating a sandwich next to him, not so great.

Soon enough though, we're back on the road. We arrive at the next house on our docket - again, a London property I would never suspect of having any sort of pest problems. It's a lovely house, and Mary, the young woman who's booked us on her parent's behalf, seems very embarrassed about the whole situation.

Craig's common sense attitude soon convinces her that this is nothing to worry about though. He investigates the situation upstairs - apparently the flies have been coming in from the roof. Luckily, there are no dead animals - just a hole that Craig suggests one of our builders would be happy to take a look at.

He explains what's going to happen to Mary, who wisely accompanies me in vacating downstairs as Craig starts fumigating.

Soon enough, he's downstairs again and confirming with Mary that everything's dealt with. But if there's a sight or sound of the flies again, she's to call, and he'll be back...

And that's the end of my day with a pest controller. I learned a lot about pests and where to find them - in some cases rather too much! But I also learned that there's nowhere in London that's immune to pest infestation.

Next week I'll be going out with one of my favourite parts of the Fantastic team - the gardeners. I'm crossing my fingers for a sunny day and fresh cut grass...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rune Sovndahl, co-founder of Fantastic Services, has built his domestic services business from scratch to a point where they serve 230,000 domestic clients in London, the South East and the North West. With a ï¿¡28m turnover, it is easily the largest domestic cleaning company in London, yet the company has been self-financed since the outset. As well as the UK, Fantastic Services is already established as a leading cleaning company in Australia and USA.