RESEARCH

Dr Hannah Fair, a departmental lecturer at University of Oxford, talks to PPC editors about her research exploring the social, financial and emotional impacts of living with pests.

The professional pest management industry could benefit from a lot more data. That doesn’t just include biological and chemical research, but also more insight into how and why people behave the way they do.

I’m a researcher based at the University of Oxford, and I’m launching a new project that’s trying to address some of the social science data gaps in pest management.

In my research I use interviews and observation to explore people’s values and behaviours, in order to try and address pressing social and environmental challenges.

I’m interested in ethical dilemmas, overlooked forms of expertise, and everyday decision-making in complex situations.

Previously I analysed public attitudes to nature in terms of rare and charismatic species (orangutans) but now I’m keen to understand what happens when people’s homes and lives get entangled with ordinary and unwanted creatures. 

For one part of this research, I’m exploring the social, financial and emotional impacts of living with pests. When it comes to domestic infestations, what responses are taken, by whom, why and with what consequence?

Do residents call in a pestie, use non-professional solutions, or just ignore the pest and hope it goes away?

How does this change based on the type of pest, the resident’s housing situation or other demographic factors?

To find this out I’ll be interviewing UK residents (mostly in cities) about their experiences of managing infestations. We all know that for residents pest control is often a distress purchase, but we don’t have much data about what that distress looks like or what the psychological costs of infestations might be.

By shining a light on this, this research will help make visible the social significance and value of pest management to everyday public wellbeing. 

How can pest professionals get involved?

As another side of this research, I’m interested in documenting the skills, practices and expertise involved in different aspects of professional pest management.

What are some of the everyday technical, ethical and reputations challenges pesties face, and how these are navigated? 

To find this out, I’m excited to interview professionals with a range of roles within the industry, and different degrees of experience, about their views on changes and challenges in the British pest management industry.

I’m keen to talk to sole traders, technicians working for large companies and managers of SMEs. I’m particularly interested in hearing from women working in pest control, and younger technicians, including graduates.

I’d like to hear your views on a range of issues including:

• Changing legislation
• The role of digital technologies
• Public attitudes and misconceptions
• Industry recruitment
• Threats to the toolkit
• The skills and attitudes it takes to make a great pest controller
• Anything else that you think I need to know. 

As well as interviews, I’d like to get a better sense of the practical realities of pest management. So, I’m also hoping to accompany a range of technicians on calls, getting an insight into work on the ground.

Through this I’m hoping to produce detailed and nuanced accounts of the work of pest management professionals that can challenge common public misconceptions about the industry. 

I’m working in collaboration with the BPCA’s Academic Relations Working Group, to ensure that the research I’m producing is relevant and useful for the industry.

All data collected will be securely managed, and all participants will be anonymised if they wish to be.

The research has received ethics approval and funding from the University of Oxford. As a researcher I’m impartial and have no commercial ties.

I plan to use this research to produce academic articles and reports for BPCA, that they can use in their policy and advocacy work to directly impact decision-makers. Of course, I’ll also share the findings in PPC magazine. 

Questions? Feedback? Please get in touch!

If you’re keen to be interviewed or have me join you for a day on the job, just drop me a message on hannah.fair@ouce.ox.ac.uk