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!

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!