Abate – development and ISO

This week, I have some exciting news to share about developments at Abate.

Abate is officially an OHSAS 18001 accredited company as from the 1st March 2012 along with being ISO 9001 for our fifth year running which is brilliant news.  

On the development front, we have a new technician, Carl, who is settling in nicely following his induction.  He will be working closely with our experienced team and attending courses to make sure that his skills are bang up to date and compliant with all the industry standards – in fact, not just compliant, but exceed standards, as our customer service is second to none.  Carl will be covering pest control in the Norwich area and other team members will be working further afield in Suffolk and Cambridge.

Coming soon – brilliant photographs and video so watch this space!

Tags: ISO, OHSAS, pest control east anglia, pest control norfolk, Pest control norwich

We are the champions……

Well, aren’t I a clever boy!  I have mentioned Wymondham Star Throwers in previous blogs and my passion for raising money.  Last Friday, we had the Star Throwers Charity Bowling night.  82 of us were bowling and we raised in excess of £1000 which was amazing.   And guess who won…….oh yes…..me!!  Look at the big grin.

I’m still planning the mammoth rowing expedition for Star Throwers, so watch this space and I would really appreciate all your support too.

Tags: Bowling, charity, Jon Blake, pest control norfolk, Wymondham Star Throwers

More about badger culling; update

Well, the badger culling pilot has been given the green light.  The first areas will be west Gloucestershire and west Somerset and is likely to start in August for a period of 6 weeks.  This will just be a start and is likely to progress to other areas and the aim is to reduce badger populations inside the cull zones by at least 70%.  Defra anticipates allowing 10 new cull zones each year.

Why has this been given the go-ahead?  The aim is to reduce tuberculosis in cattle and there have been strong debates for and against culling; Brian May of Queen has been particularly vociferous as a voice against badger culling.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that “culling in highly affected areas can constrain a disease that is costing about £100m per year and necessitates the death of tens of thousands of cattle”.  However, opponents, including scientists who spent a decade researching the issue, argue that culling cannot be a cost-effective way of tackling the disease and that it may destroy the badgers’ social structure so that they may move to other areas thus spreading the tuberculosis bacterium to other farms.

I wonder if we are just a bit sentimental about the badger, perhaps more so than deer or moles and if that alters our judgement.  I am going to sit on the fence in my blog about my opinion on culling, but my opinion is based on the effect on wildlife and whether I feel any cull would be effective anyway.

Tags: Badger culling, brian may, norfolk pest control, norwich pest control, protection of wildlife, queen, wildlife

The confusing issue of seagulls

Seagulls – what on earth could be confusing about a seagull?  Aren’t they just big birds by the sea that make an awful lot of noise and when heard, take you right back to your childhood days spent by the seaside?  Yes, there is that, but did you know that Herring gulls are on the RSPB red status list as being in decline and that the Lesser Black-backed gull is on the amber list?  And now I have told you, you are probably thinking ‘so what?’.  So what indeed.  Seaside residents are reporting that the number of gulls is increasing and they cause havoc amongst the residents, make a terrible mess and noise and some seagulls are poking their beaks into black rubbish bags, spreading the rubbish around and we all know what that attracts….oh yes, rats!

Culling is out of the question due to the RSPB status, so one enterprising council has come up with the idea of a fine.  A fine of anything up to £2500 for feeding the gulls.  Quite how this will be policed could be interesting and challenging, but all the same, Aldeburgh in Suffolk is now a now gull zone.  So, forget about Mary Poppins feeding the birds as this could land you with a whopper of a New Year present of an eye-watering £2500 fine.

There is a serious side to all of this and the National Pest Technician’s Association is keeping a keen eye on this as it is felt that the ‘green’ issues are taking precedent over looking after the public’ health- we will be watching this carefully.

Note: References Daily Telegraph 24 October 2011 and Today’s Technician January 2012

Bird Proofing Norfolk

Tags: Aldeburgh, norwich, NPTA, pest control norfolk, Pest control norwich, RSPB, Seagulls, Suffolk

New Year and 2012

A quick few words to wish everyone a very happy New Year and to say that I hope you enjoyed a lovely Christmas time that was rodent-free!

Our living-room looked as if a bomb had hit it on Christmas morning and we still have chocolates and biscuits in the office to tempt us!  Diet and exercise are definitely on the agenda particularly as I intend a rowing challenge for Charity this year in support of Wymondham Star Throwers; more about that another time.

Please don’t forget to dispose of all the mountain of rubbish we have at this time of year responsibly; rats love all the left-overs and birds and wildlife hate paper and sellotape.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

Tags: 2012, environment, New Year, norfolk, norwich, pest control norfolk, rats, Wymondham Star Throwers

Eight days of Christmas

A cheery rhyme for Christmas; just for you!

 

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a giant rat sitting in the middle of our pantry

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me, 2 blind moles

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, 3 wasp nests

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, 4 hungry squirrels

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, 5 grey pigeons

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me a nice bout of Weils disease

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a very dicky tummy

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me 8 tons of guano

 

Ok, enough is enough!  9-12 will only get very messy and after all, it is Christmas and the season of good will.

On a serious note though, with all of the extra food and then the inevitable left-over food over the Christmas period, make sure that it is wrapped and disposed of properly as rats will be attracted to it, particularly in sheds and outhouses.  If you do find an unwanted furry friend sitting on your doorstep, we are open over the Christmas period, so just give us a call, although, I hope you won’t have to!

Have a very merry Christmas and happy new year to you all.

Tags: pest control christmas, pest control norfolk, Pigeons, rats, wasp nests

And rats to you too!

You may have heard me recently at many many networking meetings speaking about rats and the sheer volume of numbers there are.  Why is this and why is it different this year?  Well, it’s partly due to the mild weather that we have been enjoying recently and that coupled with the additional amount of food that we are storing for the festive period in garages, sheds etc….is providing a veritable feast for rodents.

So please, take care with food storage and disposal and if you think you may have a problem with rats, please speak to a reputable pest management company.  There have been incidents recently of prosecutions for the misuse of rodenticides and some unethical pest controllers.  If unused bait is left out ‘just in case’, this is inevitably eaten by field mice and voles which in turn are eaten by barn owls and kestrels and then wildlife is contaminated with rodenticides. Improper use of rodenticides puts children, pets, wild animals and birds at risk.  So always use a Wildlife Aware pest control company – because they really care about the world that we all share.

 

Tags: field mice, owls, pest control norfolk, Pest control norwich, rats, voles

Up, up on the roof

Up, up on the roof – thank goodness it’s so far, been a mild autumn as the Abate team would not have been having such a great time on top of the scaffolding and the tower.  What on earth were we doing up there?  Bird-proofing of course.  We were laying down tracks of  ’scalextric’, not because we were boys with our toys, but to repel birds, particularly pigeons.

The system we use is Avishock so there are no unsightly spikes and netting to spoil the building aesthetics and it’s humane.  When a bird touches the building,  a slight shock is emitted and the bird flies away.

That’s me with the blue hat on…

Can you see me?

It's going to be blowy up there

Tags: Artchitecture, Avishock, environment, pest control norfolk, Pest control norwich, Pigeons, Wymondham

Sniffles, snuffles and house mites

Yes, it’s the season of snuffles, sniffles and coughs and of course, the most important of all (to me anyway), man-flu!

But, did you know that your snuffles may not be due to a cold, but due to a little pest, the house mite – here are some fabulous house mite facts:-

Unwanted bedmates: dust mite facts

* House dust mites measure between 0.4mm in length and up to 0.02mm in width

* The average life cycle of a dust mite is up to 20 days for a male, and 70 for a female

* Dust mites are one of the most common triggers of asthma

* A female can lay 60 to 100 eggs in the five weeks her life

* Prevention includes washing bedding at 60C, steam-cleaning carpets and curtains and replacing pillows annually, and mattresses every 8 to 10 years

And now for your delectation is a picture…

Bet you are enjoying this one!

Now, to really turn your stomach – the bit that makes us all sneezy is inhaling their……..poo, yes indeed, their poo.  So, we could all be mistaking our man-flu for something a little more sinister and are failing to treat the underlying cause.

A spokesperson for Allergy UK, said: “The home was somewhere we escape to but for millions is has become the trigger of allergies. Now runny nose and sneezing are in fact the most common indicators of a house dust-mite allergy, so the nation is not treating the root of the problem, just the symptoms.”

So take another look at the delightful picture above and maybe your runny nose is not just due to a seasonal cold.

Tags: Disease, Dust mites, environment, norwich, pest control norfolk, Pest control norwich, Wymondham

Business networking works for us!

I wonder how many Pest Control companies attend business networking meetings.  My guess is, not many – well I haven’t come across any more in this area of the country.  Why is that?  Many of my clients and potential clients also attend these meetings and they have been invaluable in referring business to people out of the networks, forming alliances with members such as Estate and Letting agents and also finding trusted suppliers.

I’m a member of three membership networks, 4Networking, Norfolk Business Club and BNI Morning Glory and they all work in different ways for me.  BNI is purely a referral and support network, 4Networking is Passport membership and I can attend any group across the UK and Norfolk Business Club has valuable speakers that have a wealth of knowledge to share that I would never have known about, or had to pay a very high cost to access.

The key to making membership a success is that it’s vital to engage with other members, don’t sell as people will buy from people the know and trust and most importantly, turn up for every meeting and treat it as part of your working day.

If you haven’t tried networking and think ‘it’s just not for me’, well my suggestion is to take another look at it – it’s not all cuff-links, suit and tie and the old boy network any more – it can also be fun!

Tags: 4Networking, blog, BNI, pest control norfolk, Pest control norwich