Winning New Types Of Work

Countryman Services was set up by Phil Rider and his wife, Dorothy, in 2006, as work from his career as a press photographer began to decline.

Countryman, based near Exeter, deals with a range of pests - from squirrels, moles, mice and rats through to hornets and wasps. It uses a variety of methods including insecticides, gas, and traps.

While much of Mr Rider's work is within a 30 mile radius of Exeter he does, on occasion, undertake work further afield - including working on behalf of the Forestry Commission to reduce the grey squirrel population in Scotland, eradicating moles in Cornwall and mice in Somerset.

Although much of his time is taken up with the pest control business, Mr Rider does still work as a photographer, with much of his press and PR work coming from contacts in Scotland.

A trip north of the border sees him loading up his car with equipment for both of his - very different - day jobs so that he can combine contracts for both in the same journey.

Mr Rider described the business as being in a state of transition, moving towards a focus on conservation and work for agricultural customers.

The business has worked with Exeter-based FARR and Bradninch-based Trump Engineering to source quad bikes on loan to allow Mr Rider to cover a larger area of land without the need for expensive and disruptive heavy machinery. "This will allow us to work within sensitive areas. We can carry what we need and cover a lot of ground without tearing up crops or grass," he said.

Mr Rider believes the quad bikes could also open up new areas including conservation work and wildlife monitoring. "We can be flexible. Rather than doing a 9am to 5pm, if it's land where the public needs access we can go in there at 5am before it opens or at 7pm after it closes," he added.

While the number of pests remains constant, Mr Rider said that the economic downturn had resulted in many people trying to fix problems themselves rather than calling in the experts.

"People are going to garden centres and buying stuff in, but they're ending up making things worse because they don't understand the difference between the different types of bait and they don't realise their legal obligations over things like picking up dead animals to stop things like secondary poisoning," he said.

Article provided by Countryman Services