PPC111 | Technical

What are field biologists? What do they do? And how is their professional expertise and experience communicated meaningfully?

Regular PPC contributor Alex Wade from Wade Environmental gives us a look at what should be in a field biologist’s report.

An online CPD quiz based on this feature is now available on the BPCA website. BPCA Registered members and affiliates can take a CPD quiz at any time bpca.org.uk/cpd-quiz or sign up at bpca.org.uk/affiliate

Field biologists hold some of the most senior positions in our industry.

They are the experts who, through their knowledge and experience, can look at complicated sites (often heavily involved with food processing) and guide them and the associated pest management teams into compliance with audit standards.

How do they do this? We need to understand the standards and inspect a site’s pest activity (both present and potential).

Sounds exciting? Yeah! Sound a little terrifying at the same time? That’s okay, too. Let’s have a look at some basics.

For pest control in the UK, a field biology report is a detailed account of an inspection conducted by a suitably skilled person (ie the field biologist).

They investigate the population and behaviour of pests in a specific area, and the effectiveness of pest control measures in controlling their populations, usually to a set of audit standards.

The first thing to establish is that the person undertaking a field biologist report at a site should differ from the person responsible for that site’s day-to-day pest management.

That’s not to say that they cannot be from the same company, but it is challenging to remain objective or honest about your own failings when auditing your own work.

Additionally, this person should be ‘suitably qualified’, and this level varies depending on the audit standards being adhered to. That brings us neatly to our first point when building a field biology report: know your standards.

SIGAR – a field biology reporting model. This relates to all parts below.

Standards

All sites requiring a field biology inspection will operate to known standards set by the company itself or a larger governing body. They will cover everything the company needs to achieve to remain compliant.

This will include everything from how pests are prevented from being on site to how they are controlled, if and when they are discovered. Although pest management may be a small part of the standards in terms of type space on pages, the implications of failing these sections are critical to any business and doubly so for one dealing with food destined for public consumption.

These standards are regularly updated to ensure all the information is current and relevant to the changing needs of the industry. Be sure to check and double check that the standards you’re operating to, or reporting to, are the most recent.

Now this may immediately have you thinking: “this is far too rich for my blood, I’m out”. But I hasten to add that far from seeing standards as difficult, they are precisely the opposite.

These documents are literally giving you the answers to the test. They tell you what to look for in your inspections and the critical information to present in your reports.

UNDERSTAND

• Familiarise yourself with the audit standards
• Ensure the standards referred to are up-to-date
• Make sure the salient points are communicated clearly.

Inspection

You need to focus on three key elements:

• Adherence to the standards
• The presence of pests on a site
• The potential for pests (by way of building defects or procedural shortfalls). 

Your inspection will provide the bulk of your field biology report, so being thorough is critical. Not only does the report need to be clear, concise and traceable back to the site you are inspecting, but it has to provide value to your client.

As a minimum, ensure then that you capture:

• Site information – location, times, auditing personnel and reference number should all be clearly presented.
• Site maps – should be good quality with scales and as much detail as is practicable. Ideally, the site map should be broken into easily identifiable sections to assist with correlating information between the map and the report.
• Current levels of pest activity – ensure that the survey focuses on the areas between the bait placements. Think like your pests; go to where they are most likely to be. No area should be off limits (unless there is a safety risk).
• The quality of the work undertaken by the current provider – are the provisions made under the service agreement being achieved?
• Recommendations and alternatives to resolve highlighted issues – any issues seen which deviate from good practice guidance or have the capacity to cause or exaggerate a pest infestation need to be identified.
• Photographs and evidence – a picture will speak a thousand words and provide evidence to any statements you may make. Try to provide a photograph for every statement you make (within reason).

Note that your inspection should try to reference all areas inspected, even when no pest activity is identified. 

Remember, anyone reading your report won’t know if you have omitted reference to a particular area because there was no issue or because you simply missed it or couldn’t gain access to it. Always reference all parts of your inspection.

AWARENESS

Site inspections needs to focus on:

• Compliance to audit standards
• Evidence of pests on sites
• The potential for failure.

Gap analysis

Now you can start to compare what you have observed (the inspection) against what you expected to observe (the standards). The discrepancy between these, if any, should be highlighted in your report as part of a gap analysis.

This feedback must remain objective, proactive and constructive. It should not be seen to be unduly critical. The aim is to
increase levels of delivery and excellence through cooperation.

KNOWLEDGE

Your report needs to ascertain where the gaps lie between what is required, what has been achieved and what should be delivered.

Actions

Capture within your report the actions that have led to data generation. Data can be:

Qualitative – such as the observations made on pest activity in treatment reports or in pest sightings logs. 

Quantitive – such as that found on fly count data from electronic fly killers, moth pots or crawling insect traps. 

Both types of data sets can generate trending information as long as it is consistently captured. When data is analysed and compared over a sufficiently long enough time scale, it will provide valuable insights into:

• How effectively the current programme of work is at controlling pests on sites
• If completed recommendations show a net positive impact on the occurrence of pests
• Future-proofing sites by using the report as a predictive tool.

Ultimately though, data generation has to mean something. Where possible, engage with clients to establish reasonable and actionable levels of pests on site referred to as ‘critical control limits’.

ACTIVITY

What actions have been taken, or should be taken to close the gaps? Trend forecasting, critical control limits and good practice all feed into how and when action should occur.

Recommendations

Throughout your report, it’s crucial to provide solutions when highlighting problems.

If something deviates from what you expect to be the norm, as the experienced person undertaking the inspection, you are expected explain why and, more importantly, how this can be brought back into acceptable service parameters.

Recommendations should also be specific to the task, area and process being examined.

For example, “close all penetrations into the building” might be technically correct, but it provides little detail and guidance on how to achieve this or even which building penetrations should be fixed first to elicit the greatest impact on the pest risks on site.

“Throughout your report, it’s crucial to provide solutions when highlighting problems.”

REINFORCEMENT

Establish who is responsible for any actions and recommendations. Provide a clear and easy pathway for actions to comply with audit standards.

Summary

Much like treatment reports, everyone’s field biology report will differ depending on the auditor and their style.

Any report will need to provide a detailed inspection of the site to the client, to show an understanding of the standards the site is working with, and knowledge of the principles of pest management and the animals stated in the service specification.

But above all else, the most essential aspect of any report is to provide value to all parties.

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Take the next step

Look at the BPCA Becoming a Field Biologist course and BPCA Certificated Field Biologist exam on our training pathway today.

bpca.org.uk/training