Debbie Wilson, the owner of Wilson Pest Management & Training, tells Simon King about the importance of industry training and how her business supports technicians and company owners across the UK
Debbie Wilson, the owner of Leicestershire- based Wilson Pest Management & Training, started her career in the 1980s, working for hygiene services business PHS, which at the time had its own pest control division.
At PHS, she started as a surveyor and completed the in-house training to enable her to gain the knowledge to be able to sell the services PHS was offering.
She left PHS to work in the motor trade, and then the cut-throat world of advertising sales on Autotrader.
“It was very high pressured, with tight deadlines,” Debbie recalls.
At the end of 2004, Debbie realised that she had to get out of the advertising world, and in February 2005, she joined Rentokil, initially joining as a service technician.
“At the time, qualifications to be able to use rodenticides were not a thing,” Debbie says. “We had the awareness training, conducted in-house, which was fantastic, and I also did the five-day residential rodenticide course.”
Debbie then progressed to being a high dependency technician in Rentokil; in 2007, she passed the RSPH Pest Management Certificate, and two years later she passed the BPCA Diploma Part Two, which is now known as the Advanced Technician course.
She then became a field biologist and did that work until she left the business in 2013.
Her next role was at P&L Systems, which had recently acquired SX Environmental.
Debbie says: “The late Richard Lamb was the northern rep, I was in the Midlands, and Dean Levy worked down south: the three of us covered the country.
“I came from Rentokil and didn’t know many of the products, having not had access to them; I looked at the catalogue and it looked like a whole new world to me.
“In P&L, Dean would go out and do training for his customers and you would build awareness with people. At the time, they only needed awareness and a basic knowledge to then go and buy rodenticides.”
Mr Levy asked Debbie if she could do a session for him.
“I remember doing training with one company – this was the first insect course I’d done for them – and the feedback I got from the man that owned the company was fantastic,” Debbie says. “I started to help with the running of the in- house training courses – SX Environmental was a fantastic company, Richard Lunn had built up such a great reputation.”
P&L Systems then changed its name to Pelsis.
“I worked there for seven and a half years, Debbie says. “If you’re training people, you need to have at least done the job or been around the industry for a long time to pick up that information. You can’t just go and read it in a book and expect to teach people.”
She left Pelsis and worked at PestFix for 18 months.
Setting up on her own
Debbie established Wilson Pest Management & Training two and a half years ago.
“My husband suggested I start on my own. It sounded a bit daunting, but I’ve got a really good relationship with Lodi, where business development Matt Towler is one of my best friends,” Debbie says. “He said to me, ‘we’ll support you’.”
Debbie also had support from David at Rat Pak, and Alex Wade.
Through word of mouth, people found Debbie and she got phone calls from pest controllers telling her that wherever she ended up, they would come to her.
“I’ve got loyal and amazing customers that I do regular inspections for who’ve been with me for a long time,” Debbie says.
Based in Leicestershire, her work sees her travel to Hull and Grimsby, but she also has customers as far afield as Telford and Kent.
“I work closely with Lulu Gunter, the managing director at Wade Environmental,” Debbie says. “I’m a certified field biologist through BPCA, so if Wade Environmental requires an inspections by a certified field biologist, then I can help.”
Available courses
Debbie’s list of courses that she offers, as an RSPH Registered Centre, is vast.
A snapshot includes: RSPH Level 2 Safe Use of Rodenticides, RSPH Level 2 in Pest Management; RSPH Level 2 Aluminium Phosphide for Vertebrate Management and RSPH Level 3 in Pest Management.
“We’re also going to be offering the RSPH Level 2 Certificate,” she says. “We also run insect awareness courses, including Pesticides Know Your Poisons.”
Debbie adds: “We offer people the chance to do the wasp course in the morning, and the bed bug and flea course in the afternoon, to help reduce peoples travel time and expense.
“We offer our customers the opportunity to include a QA during a site inspection. A QA is there to help with information and advice if needed to ensure all involved in looking after the site are working together to maintain a high level of service.”
Among her clients are two well-known companies, Lodi and 1env Solutions.
“We also offer RSPH Health and Safety. It’s something I think that the industry could do with more,” Debbie says.
“Some people are excited about training; some people just treat it in a way that they need it. If I give people enough notice then they can usually find technicians to cover the work; they know they need training legally.
“The Safe Use of Rodenticide course has to be enjoyable, because this is the first examination- based training course many of them are going to sit, apart from going out with the technicians to see what they’re doing.
“If it’s not enjoyable, they won’t want to do training courses again; training is an itch that you know you’ve got to scratch.”
Just a call away
“Give me give a call, give us a go and tell me what you need,” Debbie says. “We can offer something that will help you for every stage of your business for your technicians. We can do field training, or if you have a technician that you want someone to go out and spend a day with out in the field, for hands-on training, we can do that.
“If you want to get all your technicians together for a morning, I’ll come along with a plate of sandwiches and we can have a chat about the industry and how things can be done to ensure we get the best out of our work for both ourselves and our customers.
“I’m there to support my customers and to be an extra technician, trainer, field biologist, sandwich maker or just a voice on the end of the phone to help with advice and information. Pest control can be a lonely job, but knowing you have someone on the other end of the phone can help to make you feel that you’re not on your own.”
Looking ahead
Debbie says that there needs to be a career path for people coming into the industry.
“The reason people come into pest control is that they either know somebody that’s doing it, or it’s in the family,” she says. “If I was at school, my career teacher sat there and said to me, what do you want to do – I would never turn around and say, I want to be a pest controller.
“I tell my candidates that they are saving people’s lives. In her spare time, Debbie and husband, Mark, are DJs on the Northern Soul and skinhead reggae scenes.
“We’re on the scooter scene as well, with Lambrettas and Vespas; Mark’s got two Lambrettas, and I’ve got a Vespa and no, I’m not a MOD thank you very much,” Debbie says.
“On a recent weekend, we ran a big reggae night/day; it started at lunchtime on Saturday, and then went all the way through till 1am on Sunday morning.
“We’re saving people’s lives on a regular basis; we just don’t tell people about it – we are a professional industry. I say to candidates don’t let anyone tell you any different; you are a professional person. “We’ll keep on doing what we’re doing.”