PPC115 | Meet the member

Paul Gill charts his career in pest control over more than 25 years, from accidentally getting a job in fumigation as a teenager to launching Urban Hawks.

“I’d been going for about two months when it really took off. I got a bird mitigation job for Amazon and it was dawn until dusk, seven days a week from March until June.”

PPC We hear a lot about people ‘falling into’ pest control, but you went for a pest control job initially?

PG I got into the industry when I was 18. I was at college in the second year of a sports coaching course, but I’d become disillusioned and bored with it. I went to the JobCentre to see what was available, and there was a job posted for a trainee technician at a fumigation company.

I thought it was a pest control technician – I didn’t realise there was a difference between fumigation and pest control!

My uncle worked as a pest controller for Manchester City Council then, so I thought I’d do similar work. He’d spoken to me about his job, and it sounded quite enjoyable, so I applied. It wasn’t until I started that I realised that fumigation was a little bit different to your normal pest control.

PPC There are definitely a few differences. So, you had some knowledge from your uncle, but not necessarily about fumigation. Was that a steep learning curve in your first job?

PG Very! But it was enjoyable as well. In my mind, I would be working on a little area, probably somewhere around Manchester, going into peoples’ houses, doing ants and rats and mice.

The reality hit on the first day when we had a job somewhere in North Yorkshire to fumigate about 100 tonnes of cocoa beans. It was totally unexpected, but I really enjoyed it. I got qualified in pest control, fumigation, wildlife management and bird control, and gained quite a lot of varied experience from heat treatments to netting jobs, spiking, all that type of stuff but, after 10 years, I thought it was time to leave and work somewhere else.

I got a job with Warrington Borough Council as the Pest Control and Dog Warden Supervisor.

PPC The dog warden bit must have been completely different to what you’d done before.

PG Totally. I actually bluffed my way into that job because when they asked about how I was with dogs, I just said, ‘Oh yeah, great,’ when, in truth, I was petrified!

It was a bit of a sink-or-swim situation, but luckily, I didn’t have to handle the dogs much; I was just supervising. I did eventually get used to the dogs – to the point that I’ve had three myself since then! The first dog I had was one that was handed into the service. Molly was only a puppy, and I’ve still got her to this day. She’s nearly 15 but still going well.

PPC That’s very cute! Moving on to Urban Hawks, at what point did you decide to set up on your own?

PG It took another 10 years or so. I worked for other companies and kept telling myself I should do it. I then got moved into a sales role, which I never thought I could do but actually did really well in.

After about two years, I thought, ‘I can do all the work, I can sell the work – why am I not doing it for myself?’ So that was the final piece of the jigsaw, really. I just took the plunge. It wasn’t ideal timing. We had a 12-month-old child and then I handed in my notice a week before our wedding. As if life wasn’t stressful enough, I just decided to add to it!

I think that was probably the push I needed – I had to make it work. I did a detailed business plan, set my targets and got to work. I’d been going for about two months when it really took off. I got a bird mitigation job for Amazon and it was dawn until dusk, seven days a week from March until June.

One of my last roles as a tech was in bird control and using birds of prey. I’d had birds of prey myself, so I set up the business as Urban Hawks, doing pest control and bird management but not really looking at fumigation initially.

By the third month, I’d had several customers asking if I still did fumigation. Now, the business is about 50/50 fumigation and bird control.

PPC Were you flying solo in the early years? 

PG At first, it was just me, with the occasional sub-contractor or part-timer. After two years, I took on my first member of staff, Steve Evans, who I’d worked with in my first job.

My wife is a chartered environmental health officer, so she had a career of her own that took a lot of time and hours, but she joined the business about two years ago. She qualified in fumigation and has been instrumental in changing the way we work.

James Garrett is also on the team, along with new recruits Max and Jay.

PPC Let’s talk about your birds of prey. How many do you have at the moment?

PG We’ve got five at the moment that are owned by the company. Every member of staff is a falconer – we all do it as a hobby as well, so between us, we’ve got maybe 30 or 40 birds. That’s more than we need, and any of us can use the company birds, but we all use our own as well, so we can get straight out on jobs.

PPC Tell us about some of the bird jobs you do.

PG We do a lot of bird deterrent work across different industries. We cover everything from universities and schools to chemical factories and ports. Probably the most interesting are bird mitigation jobs on greenbelt or long unused land.

They call us in to be there from dawn until dusk with dogs and birds of prey, so it’s not a desirable site for nesting. We’re there daily, right up until the point they put a spade in the ground.

PPC And the fumigation side of the business?

PG That also took off quickly. At the same time that we got the first big bird job, we also got our first fumigation for about 4,500 tonnes of grain. I was flying solo, totally unprepared for it. It was a sudden big investment in the fumigation tarpaulins, getting all the gear and materials, and we’ve never looked back since.

The demand is there, it’s regular and it’s growing. Not that many companies do fumigation and the ones that do generally use phosphine. We got registered around three years ago for a fumigant called Profume which is only used by us and another company in Britain.

It’s like a specialism within a specialism. We’re a registered user, and we have to be part of a stewardship scheme. All our staff have to be audited and take exams every year, so that keeps us on our toes and helps with the CPD a bit.

PPC You talked about setting and meeting targets for your business. That doesn’t happen just by chance, does it? You have to put in the work.

PG Absolutely. I’d say to anyone thinking about making the leap: do a business plan. Work out your finances and the target of what you need to achieve.

You’ve got to be adaptable, take on lots of different roles – be able to sell, do the finance, the marketing, so many other things like that. Just be realistic with yourself. Get a business plan sorted, set your targets and keep it realistic; you should be able to make a go of it.

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