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Mr Muddy

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Everything posted by Mr Muddy

  1. Mr Muddy
    Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn’t thought of using insects. I’ve googled it and the Yanks are using dermestid beetles, which we do get over here; carpet beetles, larder beetles etc. the sort of bugs people usually want sprayed. Come the spring I might try and catch some of the beetles as well as the ‘skulls’. Do the whole thing myself.
  2. Mr Muddy
    Not exactly taxidermy, but I’ve always fancied having a few skulls as ornaments: Interesting things that I’ve caught in traps; moles, mink, maybe a stoat or weasel. Does anyone know the best way to get the animal off the skull. Boil them? Put them in the ground for a bit? Any advice welcome.
  3. Mr Muddy
    I'd like to get one or two of those motion detecting cameras myself. Can anyone recommend a good one?
  4. Mr Muddy
    I’ve been told; something like a Labrador would have to eat a whole kg of difenacoum to kill it, so as long as it’s in boxes I don’t see a problem. My hat’s off to you for being cautious though. You’re the type of bloke that actually gives pest controllers a good name for a change.
  5. Mr Muddy
    It’s a real tricky one. This might sound far-fetched but maybe you could get a licence to live-catch and relocate them away from course fisheries, on the grounds that they are at risk from fishing line, etc. Could be worth a shot. Especially if you can actually find one wrapped in fishing line.
  6. Mr Muddy
    Very true Blatta, And I’ll tell you something else cowboys don’t bother with: Insurance. While I can’t envisage a scenario where an empty sack of bromabait could lead to an insurance claim, I’m sure as hell it will lead to increasing premiums. In fact, I’m not sure a lot of peoples’ insurance policies will be valid if they’re unwittingly transporting hazardous waste they aren’t declaring?
  7. Mr Muddy
    Registering as a waste carrier. This might not be such a big problem as it sounds. Registration is free if you’re just transporting your own organisation’s waste. They’re also asking for your company registration number, so I don’t know what that means for sole traders. I doubt it will even discourage cowboys. Here’s the link. www.gov.uk/waste-carrier-or-broker-registration
  8. Mr Muddy
    Am I right in thinking domestic premises are exempt? In which case farms, etc, where someone's living on-site might also be ok. Or is that wishful thinking?
  9. Mr Muddy
    I think you’ve got to be realistic on this one; there’s absolutely no way the general public will support an otter cull. It’s just not going to happen. People don’t understand how ecosystems work, they don’t want to understand, they don’t care. All they care about is which animals are cutest, and cuddly ‘ickle’ otters on T.V. are cuter than carp.
  10. Mr Muddy
    I haven’t just imagined this. There is defiantly a 100mm or 95mm rule somewhere, and now I’m thinking about, it’s defiantly something to do with otters. It might just be about crayfish traps, although maybe you’ll want to have a quick look into it if you’re after mink with fenn tunnels. Just to be on the safe side. 2nd thing: Matt said; “Trapping squirrels in large blocks of forestry it was essential to have something simple and lightweight to house the Fenns.”. Not that I’m ever likely to get involved in this type of work, but I am interested: How did you price a job like tha
  11. Mr Muddy
    I meant to say 100mm ‘maximum diameter’ ATB.
  12. Mr Muddy
    100mm is the size you’ll want mate. I think it’s actually the law, or certainly recommended. It’s something to do with by-catch, otters perhaps? not sure. I did put the design I use on here a few days ago. Here’s the link: http://www.thehuntinglife.com/forums/topic/312637-squirrel-box-plans
  13. Mr Muddy
    ‘Checkatrade’,’ ratedpeople’, ‘find a pest controller/mole catcher/wasp sprayer’, etc, etc. Do any of you use these type of sites? Which ones are any good?
  14. Mr Muddy
    This is a brilliant thread by the way. There are a lot of talented people using this site.
  15. Mr Muddy
    Took this picture this morning. I was quite surprised to see one this late/early in the year. I think this one might be a queen.
  16. Mr Muddy
    Because this is primarily a hunting forum, opinion is always going to be skewed towards Fieldcraft over technology. And, on this particular forum, so it should be, like Pete says; it’s a sad day when we are learning our own skills back from the Yanks. But taking the pest control industry as a whole; do you know the average tech is aged over 40. And why? Because it’s their second career. Why is it their second career? Often because in their first job they were replaced by a new procedure or piece of technology. So, dismissing any change as unnecessary, just because you’ve already go
  17. Mr Muddy
    Here’s an idea; Why not use an ultrasonic ‘silent dog whistle’ type call. A lot of things foxes eat, mice, voles, etc make noises far too high frequency for people to hear. You can put a trap wherever you like then, no one will hear it.
  18. Mr Muddy
    yet couldn't be bothered to research the law on trapping??? A web cam checking traps twice a day; particularly something like a squirrel trap in a customer’s loft, is a great idea. I’d also be very interested to find out if that’s actually legal. we tend to use the customer as our webcam, although we visit every 24hrs, if the customer hears the "clunk" of a door, they phone us, although on saying that, we tend to use BB traps more than anything ok, technology catches up with everything, but do we really want it, at the moment I can justify the price of say, trapping a fo
  19. Mr Muddy
    A web cam checking traps twice a day; particularly something like a squirrel trap in a customer’s loft, is a great idea. I’d also be very interested to find out if that’s actually legal.
  20. Mr Muddy
    I’ve been doing mole work for a parish, usual couple of hectares; football, cricket pitch, dog walking area. Sometimes they get a few moles, more usually there are none. The leader of the council started asking for a fixed annual contract. I had to say, “Things like moles or wasps; they’re either here or they’re not. A monitoring contract won’t make any difference. Just call me if or when you next see hills”. Thing is, I’m now pretty sure I’ve lost the client to someone who HAS offered a contract. So my question is: Has anyone worked out a viable contract for mole catching on sm
  21. Mr Muddy
    It’s not so much the ‘teaching’ people, but the ‘bullsh****ng’ people that’s wrong. You can correct me if I’m wrong here; but I’d guess it takes years, if not decades, to build up enough customers to be a mole catcher full-time. I bet they don’t admit that to the people taking the courses.
  22. Mr Muddy
    Spot on Matt. Plus, virtually every self employed pest controller also does moles, and usually wants to do more. And, honestly; If you think you can just do one £100 course then start any shiny new career, with no shortage of well paid work, then frankly, you’re an idiot.
  23. Mr Muddy
    You presumably know what you need to earn per hour, so just charge that to start with. Once you start to get an idea how many moles there are, and how long it will take to catch them on any specific site, then you can start to work out your moles-per-hour rate and then charge per mole (if you still want to). So, a good mole catcher can either charge less and get more work, or just earn more… It really is that simple. If you don’t mind me saying; this is real page one, beginner’s how to run a business stuff.
  24. Mr Muddy
    Here’s my design; It’s more multi-purpose than just squirrels, but the dimensions are sound.
  25. Mr Muddy
    Hi Mate, If your mate’s looking for a new career then good luck to him; do what SW says. If he (or anyone else) wants a stop-gap while he’s out of work; then thinking ‘Oh well, I can always do a bit of pest control’ is really not a good idea. It costs a lot of time and fair bit of money getting properly set up, and an awful lot of hard graft before you start earning it back in any quantity.
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