GUEST BLOG
In this guest blog post, Kiwa Independent Pest Consultancy gives businesses tips on how to manage a contract with a pest control company.
It’s rare these days to see ‘in-house’ pest control. External specialist pest control contractors tend to be the main choice for clients.
The consequences of pest infestations can be severe, so it is essential that you have confidence in the service that you are receiving. Inadequate performance may result in prosecution, a punitive fine, and severe damage to the brand.
Even seemingly simple deficiencies, such as poor documentation, can result in non-conformances being raised, especially if your site complies with standards such as the BRC Global Standard, or to specific retailer codes of practice.
At the end of this article, we feature the scope of our own quality assurance (QA) audit report, which Kiwa Independent Pest consultants complete as part of every consultancy visit. Scores below 90% should trigger concerns about the quality of your contractor’s service.
Before we get to that though, here are some tips concerning what we look for when assessing service quality.
Spending some quality time together
How long does your pest control servicing team spend on site during a routine inspection?
Clearly, this will depend on the scale and complexity of your site. However, if you were simply to walk your site, covering most areas in four hours, and your technician covers this same ground in the same time, or less, then this should ring alarm bells.
Remember, an inspection is a site inspection, not just a bait box inspection.
Tip: Take some time (or nominate a member of your team) to accompany the technician on the next routine inspection. Note how long it takes to complete the service, how thorough it is, and assess just how knowledgeable is the technician.
Beware the bait box zombies!
The technician isn’t there just to check monitors and bait boxes; they are there to inspect the site. Are you confident that ALL areas are being inspected?
For example, if you have electronic fly killers (EFKs) and they are recording an increase in small flying insects, such as fruit flies or owl midges, is the technician exploring the ‘root cause’ for this? Have floor drains been inspected, are fly screens mentioned or door control issues highlighted?
Tip: Look at your service reports and recommendations to see if areas and issues outside of where monitors are located have been mentioned.
Are there issues you would expect to be raised which haven’t been? Perhaps inspect a few monitors yourself to see if they are where they should be.
Start at the beginning (a very good place to start)
Competence is about much more than training and qualifications, though that is a good place to start.
What qualifications does your technician hold? If your contract includes ‘in-depth’ or ‘field biologist’ inspections does the person have the appropriate experience?
The technician and field biologist do not do the same job. Your field biologist should have a depth and breadth of experience (and ideally a certificate to prove it) over and above your regular technician.
Tip 1: Take a look at the British Pest Control Association’s Training Pathway, for industry recognised courses that are typically endorsed by retailers codes of best practice. Alternatively, request a copy of our guide to pest control qualifications.
Tip 2: What does the Field Biologist do? Request a copy of our guide.
Devil is in the detail
The service report from the pest control servicing team should provide a good guide to the pest control status of your site. The report should be concise and to the point.
For example, does your pest control servicing team raise recommendations? Are the recommendations they raise of value, and do they genuinely reflect the conditions on your site? Reports without recommendations should be viewed with suspicion.
Tip 1: At the end of the service routine, and particularly technical inspections, make sure you hold a ‘close out’ meeting, even by remote means if necessary.
If the report is ‘light’ on detail and recommendations, but the meeting is full of insights, get the servicing team to include the detail in their service reports – you may not be available for every visit, so the report needs to be of value.
If no recommendations have been raised, ask why, and assess if things are being missed.
Tip 2: Every service report should contain the 5 W’s:
- What area was inspected?
- What was found?
- What was done ?
- What pesticide or tool was used?
- What further action is recommended?
To help make information more easily accessible, it is always good practice to have 'overview' sheets in your site folder, be it digital or hard copy.
Overview sheets can cover things like; recommendations stating who is responsible for it and when it should be completed by, sitings of pests by staff, and an overview of dates that the technician has visited the site for routine visits or call outs.
Keeping up to speed
Much has changed in recent years concerning the delivery of pest control services. Some of these changes are now integral to the label instructions on pest control products.
Label requirements are statutory (legal) requirements. Here are three changes which carry a statutory obligation.
1. The UK pest control industry has signed up to the stewardship scheme outlined by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU).
If rodenticides have been used in external areas around your site then you should be in possession of an Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA). This document should outline the justification for the use of these pesticide preparations.
Additionally, the ERA should clearly detail if other less toxic methods of control have been considered first. The ERA should be updated every 35 days during the time that the bait is deployed. Remember this is a statutory requirement.
Tip: Check to see what preparations have been used outside around your site. If rodenticide has been used, check to see if your pest control records contain an ERA.
2. The Biocidal Products Committee of the European Chemicals Agency have issued a document that manufacturers must follow when submitting label text for product authorisation.
It is a requirement that bait stations must be labelled appropriately on the outside when using rodenticides.
There are pre-printed labels available which ensure compliance with this requirement.
3. Since 2017, the pest control industry has been following the Pest Management Alliance – Code of Best Practice Humane Use of Rodent Glue Boards. Your pest control provider must be aware, and adhere to, the documents conditions of use.
Insightful observation
If your site is contracted to receive technical or field biologist inspections (most food manufacturing and warehousing sites are) then you should be provided with a detailed report containing the 5 W’s.
However, it should also deliver insight into what is happening across your site. This might involve interpretation of pest monitoring data, and not just a few (uninterpreted) graphs.
Tip: Have a good look at the report and assess the degree of insight it brings. You know your site better than others and you don’t need to be a pest control expert to know if the report is little more than a page of narrative and a few inappropriate recommendations.
Consider if the report really reflects your site. As well as being an opportunity to highlight areas which require improvement, the report should also confirm those areas which are being successfully managed – it shouldn’t all be about negatives.
Remember, your field biologist is meant to be a technical expert working on your behalf. You should benefit from their breadth and depth of experience.
How do Kiwa Independent Consultants assess quality?
We provide our clients with a quality assurance report as part of our inspection service. This is our unique scored assessment, bespoke to the service delivery being provided by the incumbent pest control provider.
You can request an abridged scope of our QA audit report for info. Some aspects of the service are straightforward and objective to assess. For example, assessment of the attendance record is generally a simple assessment of compliance or non-compliance.
However, some areas are much more challenging, not least because they are inherently subjective. For example, when we consider whether the choice of rodent monitor device and technique is acceptable and appropriate we venture into territory that is obviously very open to debate.
Clearly, both expertise and experience are required in order to come to any conclusion. We would always recommend that such decisions are for independent, trained professionals, such as Kiwa’s consultants; pest control is not an exact science.
Whilst it is rare that a perfect 100% score is issued for our QA reports, it is certainly not unknown. It is our experience that over time a pest control contractor’s performance does improve when we are involved and their service is being actively, and independently, assessed by experts.
To learn more contact Kiwa Independent Pest Consultancy:
+44 (0)1423-878872
uk.pestconsultancy@kiwa.com
This guidance was originally produced by Acheta Consulting, now part of Kiwa UK Ltd, and is intended as guidance only. Every effort has been made to ensure that all information provided is correct. Kiwa UK excludes all liability that you may suffer or incur arising out of the use of this guidance, save where such liability arises because of the negligence of Kiwa UK Ltd.