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Matt

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Everything posted by Matt

  1. Matt
    No Logun, no farmer would give you much more............ the reason why? It could be because you are a bricklayer doing a bit of pest control work on the side..... As I wrote earlier, if you or anyone else takes the trouble to look, there is plenty of evidence on the internet of farmers in Wales and other parts of the country paying quite a whack more than £4 per mole. I would hazard a guess that legitimate pest control businesses with legitimate business expenses have no problem justifying their fees, and customers have no problem paying those fees. Out of work brickies on the
  2. Matt
    Rubbish! Apart from the fact that the price charged should be based on the cost of doing the job plus some profit, there are plenty of Welsh farmers who are happy to pay much more than that. Just take a look around the web; plenty of comments from welsh farmers on the farming forums saying that they are paying more than that, and plenty of welsh molecatchers charging more than that. Hobbyists talking down the price of professionals doing the job to earn an honest living. Stick to bricks Logun.
  3. Matt
    The thing is, I know that there are molecatchers in the North who charge £10 per mole, and often more. How do I know that? Simple: research the web, and look at the molecatching forums. For example: http://www.lancashire-molecontrol.co.uk/Pages/PricingforFarmers.aspx Then there are companies (Suddenstrike for example) who specialise in wildlife management. Do you seriously think that they would turn out for peanuts? As for £15 per hour, it's not enough for me. Across the spectrum of pest control work I do I average 4 hours 'site time' per day. That allows for all the trav
  4. Matt
    Logun, I've been a professional pest controller and wildlife manager for 25 years. Prior to that I was a hobbyist when I was a schoolboy. During my years in pest control I've worked for the UK government, and two of the biggest pest control companies in the UK. I'm lucky enough to have contracts with a major supermarket looking after their estates and occasionally trouble shooting their farming suppliers, and also English Heritage looking after world heritage sites. I also do some field work for a university that studies rodents occasionally. These days I pick and choose what I d
  5. Matt
    Interesting. Thanks for that. Thanks for that. I didn't come clean about last year for sympathy; I thought it might explain why I quoted 2011 figures, and why I've been struggling for the last nine months. Yep, I understand and respect that. I suppose that if you are clearing big acreages on badly infested farms on the edge of the fells (from what I remember of your film), you are quite justified in starting off at a lower rate. Most of the farms I do I tend to catch 50-100 at a time. The farmers down here tend to only want their silage fields doing, so the numb
  6. Matt
    If it works for you, then so be it Moxy. I'm not suggesting for a minute that the system I use is the only way to do it, or even the best way. Out of interest, have you ever worked out what you are getting 'per mole' using your system? How does it compare on average? I've found that whatever you are offering, providing you are able and willing to justify it people will pay.
  7. Matt
    Just to add another thought to all of this.......... In 1920, a moleskin was worth the equivalent of £16.25. Mole catchers still charged farmers a token fee for each mole caught, but made most of their money from the skins. Today skins are virtually worthless. Are some farmers still expecting to pay the 'token fee'? Thoughts?.............. I know that if I could get anything over £5 for a skin, I'd be a very happy bunny, and would gladly revise my pricing structure.......
  8. Matt
    If you look at what I posted Moley, you will see that I was talking about 2011. Not that adds anything to this debate, 2012 was a pretty terrible year for me. I had a life threatening illness in February, which took me 6 months to recover from, and my wife suffered 12 strokes over a period of 5 weeks in June and July. After a long period of time off work to recover from my own illness, and then sort out the wife, I was faced with a waspless summer (like many others). In effect, it nearly broke me, but luckily, my customers are loyal and have stood by me. In 2011, I was employing
  9. Matt
    Why should the price be area dependant? Are your costs in the North lower than mine? Do farmers in the north get less for their produce than the ones in the South? No. Of course not. The problem is that people are prepared to do the work for peanuts. Lets put this into perspective. If I wanted to earn £25k a year, I could do so easily by working for someone else checking bait boxes. As it is, I've chosen to run my own business, and expect to earn a little bit more than that. Lets just break that £25k down to a daily rate. 220 days a year is the normal budgetry figure
  10. Matt
    I've heard that dozens of times. Stand up to them, and they will pay. If not, stay at home or whatever. Even farmers cant' expect people to work for a loss. The problem is that there are too many hobbyists and part timers trying their luck. If all the decent molecatchers stood their ground and insisted on a fair price then the £5 a mole merchants would be long gone. Farmers are the same all over the country. They love to get a deal, and love it more when they think that they've got one over on you. A few years ago one of my regular farming customers told me that someone had of
  11. Matt
    I thought you were a bricklayer/internet trapping guru logun? Have I missed something? Are you now a pest controller? Anyway, folks tend to try and making pricing to complicated for moles. My charges range from £10 per mole to £45 per mole, depending on the job and how far away it is. On farms, I charge a straight £10 per mole; it's not out of the way these days when you consider how much farmers spend on fertilizer diesel etc to produce silage. To risk spoiling a good crop for the sake of a few quid is pointless, and my customers tend to understand that. Less than that price woul
  12. Matt
    It's quite simple really; if you intend using a 'spring powered' trap or snare to catch anything other than small ground vermin (rats, mice and moles, then the trap has to be listed on the most recent Spring Trap Approval Order (STAO). This does not apply to cage traps. To be legal, the trap has to be 'named', so, for example, amagnum bodygripper would be legal, whereas a clone with a different makers name would not.
  13. Matt
    Yes, I know David a bit.... not that it's relevant. He and I Friends? I'm not sure. You and Colin friends? Obviously. The fact is, if the film was crap, I would say so, regardless of whether or not I had met Trapworks. If you take the time to check, at no point have I said that the film by Woodga isn't any good. The two productions are different. If I had to choose one, then I'm afraid it would be the Trapworks production; due more to the production quality than the content, but nevertheless, it would be the Trapworks film for me. I can't (and wouldn't) speak for David, bu
  14. Matt
    As usual, it's all getting a bit 'primary school playground' in here.......... "he was my mate first!" "How dare someone else make money out of Glenn?" "I've killed more rabbits than you.... nah, nahdy nah nah" The simple fact is that if Glenn didn't want people to use his ideas then he wouldn't tell people, would he? I've met GSW and Trapworks, and I've also seen them talking together and sharing ideas (mainly from Glenn, it has to be said). I'm quite sure that if Glenn didn't want Trapworks to share his ideas with a wider audience, then he would simply stop talking to hi
  15. Matt
    The simple answer to that question is both. The Woodga DVD is a classic; where you get to see snares made and used. The Trapworks DVD goes into more detail on making snares, and simple to follow instructions and guidance on how to make and use Rabbit, Fox, Squirrel and Rat snares. It has to also be said that the Trapworks film is a far better production with modern digital filming and good editing. Both show ideas and inventions developed by the snare god that is GSW. Neither film will guarantee success, but it doesn't matter if you are new to snaring or an old hand, there is
  16. Matt
    Phosphine is more toxic than cyanide, and there is no antidote. You would have a hell of a job eating enough anticoagulant rat bait to kill yourself, whereas, the residue from one Phostoxin tablet is capable of delivering a lethal dose. There was a suicide just a few weeks ago with Phostoxin. As for it's effectiveness, I've used the product for more than 25 years, and I've never found it to be of any use against moles. For rats, and when used properly rabbits, it's a very useful tool though. Whatever you think of it's use, always respect it. It's one of the few pest control p
  17. Matt
    Who? Why cheeky? Because I've seen the film and thought it was good, or because I'm not afraid to stand up to folks? If the film had been crap, I would have said so. It isn't, and that's why I'm happy to endorse it. In fact, I know of a number of people who've bought it, watched it, and thought it was well worth the money. The only bad reviews that I've seen have been from people who I'm pretty sure haven't actually watched the film.
  18. Matt
    Have all these people who are slagging off the Trapworks production actually seen the film? Somehow I doubt it. It's just the usual suspects banging on about a product that they haven't seen for themselves, and which they presume is just a re-hash. It isn't. The film goes into detail on how to make and use snares, and gives clear and concise guidance, without having to resort to endless shots of piles of dead rabbits. And before anyone suggests otherwise, one GS Waters is given lots of credit for coming up with some of the ideas. The difference between this, and some other si
  19. Matt
    so you can take them on a field and let them go for the dogs Which would be illegal.
  20. Matt
    Is the beacon light to warn people about the trap?
  21. Matt
    Go direct to GPS spayers and get a seal kit while you are at it. Calibrate any new nozzle before you use it to make sure the output is correct for the product you are applying.
  22. Matt
    When Proctor first 'improved' their mole trap they brought it along to Pestech to show everyone. I had a good look, and to be honest, the barrel is thin and the trap was incapable of having one side set off without the other going off too. Not that much of an issue if you like mucking around with pliers, but as the representative from Proctor was busy telling me that they didn't need any adjustment, it said alot for their quality. When I pointed out that they weren't very good, the rep said; "what do you expect, everyone has been playing with that trap today". He then proceeded to ge
  23. Matt
    Have you just come on here to slag off THL in order to 'big' up your facebook group Logun? It makes me smile, it really does. Only a few weeks ago, you posted this: And yet you have your own 'group' on facebook? There are plenty of good threads on here about trapping - you just have to open your eyes and go back a bit. This used to be one of the best sections of THL with good advice and interesting topics. Recently it's just been wannabe trap makers and endless pictures of dead rabbits in traps, with a few 'I've got mice/rats (whatever) followed by the inevitable 'chuck the
  24. Matt
    Nor me. I have seen 'vertical' runs, but I always assumed they were either a way of getting to a lower set of runs, or somewhere to store half eaten worms. I can't see water being that important to an animal that eats worms which are mostly water.
  25. Matt
    There will come a time when the RSPH, which is after all just an 'entry level' qualification, will be mandatory if you want insurance no matter what the job is. It's not about food sites, it's about a basic knowledge of the theory of pest control. Does it make you a pest controller? No, of course not. What it does do is give you a recognisable qualification a bit like a driving licence that allows you to continue your learning in the field. Forget all that bollocks about it costing £1,000 as well. If you want to do an intensive week long course, then that's about the cost. If all
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