PelGar ensures a new era for popular training facility

Church Farm, the well-known pest management training centre located near Basingstoke in Hampshire is now being run with the backing of PelGar International. This will support the future development of the site which, to date, has been managed by Dr Steve Havers.
Steve has developed Church Farm over the last decade as Pest discovered when we visited in May 2011. It offers training both practically and in the classroom. It is somewhat unique as not only does Church Farm house brown rats but also has a colony of black rats, as well as live insect pests.

To get a proper feel for the practical situations that a pest controller would have to face, there are a series of ‘rooms’ set up to mirror commonly encountered pest treatment locations.

With the support of PelGar, Dr Havers and Alex Wade, PelGar’s technical manager, are already putting the new plans into action as Alex explains: “Firstly there will be the development of a second training room which will enable two groups to use the site concurrently.

“This will be supported by a separate common room with its own kitchen and toilet facilities. We will also be developing the insectary and will soon be able to offer over 30 species of live insects for study, as well as providing additional scenario rooms for even more comprehensive training.”

The Church Farm facilities are available for hire by other organisations. A new website and brochure showing all the site’s facilities will soon be published.

In addition, details of lectures and forthcoming courses are available from either Dr Havers or Alex.