Pest control

On behalf....
Having a conversation with someone last night about a pest problem. Have always considered getting into pest control as a money maker but other than doing possums for $$$ I have no idea about it as an industry. Experienced hunter otherwise.
Is there a need for private pest controllers? CNI?
How is it financially done, pest controllers keep the pests and make money that way or are they paid per head by land owners?
Fairly Well equipped hunter, thermal, night vision, 4wd vehicle, brilliant pest dog, leg traps and so on.

the way iv seen it done is thru applying for contracts with the regional council

they specify how/what to use (poison,traps,shooting ect)

they then put out marker tags and see how many possoms remain after the pest control is done

Its a pass fail thing and usually its paid by the hectare and if i remember correctly the person applying puts in a price and they accept the lowest ect

mostly traps and poison from what Iv seen

pest control over new planting in the forestrys/Avocado orchards is another one but you will need the licences that go along with it (like having a loaded gun in a vehicle/shooting from a moving vehicle ect)

Iv done a bit but I am always just the helper not the organiser and usually im working for free or for bullets sometimes

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Originally Posted by Bill999

the way iv seen it done is thru applying for contracts with the regional council

they specify how/what to use (poison,traps,shooting ect)

they then put out marker tags and see how many possoms remain after the pest control is done

Its a pass fail thing and usually its paid by the hectare and if i remember correctly the person applying puts in a price and they accept the lowest ect

mostly traps and poison from what Iv seen

pest control over new planting in the forestrys/Avocado orchards is another one but you will need the licences that go along with it (like having a loaded gun in a vehicle/shooting from a moving vehicle ect)

Iv done a bit but I am always just the helper not the organiser and usually im working for free or for bullets sometimes

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Thanks.
They are looking at doing more private land. Other than firearms licence and public liability would there be other certificates they would need? Won’t be using poisons at this stage.

Not that I am aware of except for where sale of carcasses to processors is involved (maf) and or disposal of carcasses.

Certificates etc required probably depends on whether they are considered a contractor or an employee.

if its private land i Imagine it gets a lot more lax but it gets a lot harder to do anything worth getting payed for

it all depends how you go about it
and what level of risk you want to assume

Unless there has just been a valuable tree crop planted out or an orchard conversion it can be hard to convince anyone to pay you.

hares can cause thousands of dollars of damage per night snipping off valuable avocado seedlings at $30+ per tree and a thousand trees per hectare. one disgruntled hare pissed that you planted a heap of trees in his back yard can get quite expensive
thats where people want the help solving problems

most of the commercial stuff is poison.
either bait station or little blue ferratox bags(cyanide)
poison license isnt hard or expensive
one day course and maybe under $200 when I done it
didnt use poison myself but was ticking off boxes incase I needed to

Id say go do a bit of work for a pest controller for 6 months and see what makes up their bread and butter income
support work like loading the cyanide + prefeed into the ferratox bags earned well when I was in my teens
$40 for a thousand and id do a thousand and a half in an hour
3 thousand $120 and id bang that out in about two hours
not bad beer money for a teen for a couple of hours after school

I know a guy who was in this situation, started looking for pest control jobs under a year ago and now has a contract to control deer and goats in 50,000ha of forestry, and has 10 staff! Look in the right places and there are opportunities.

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Originally Posted by Bill999

hares can cause thousands of dollars of damage per night snipping off valuable avocado seedlings at $30+ per tree and a thousand trees per hectare. one disgruntled hare pissed that you planted a heap of trees in his back yard can get quite expensive
thats where people want the help solving problems

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I've seen hares do well over $2000 worth of damage in a single night just on forest plantings. What they could do to new avo plantings is something I had not considered. Most grafted avos have reasonably thick trucks, are the hares snipping them off like with forest seedling damage, or are they ringbarking and destroying foliage, branches etc?


@Bill999 did you need to have a CSL to load the bags as a teenager?

exactly like what you see done to the pine seedlings mate
chopped at a 45degree angle
reeeeealy expensive hares
Iv heard single hares causing 5k+ in replacement trees with the cost of planting and wages on top of that


I had CSL and so did dad at the time so two under the same roof covered bases
not sure if I was technically operating under or whatever
it was for a family friend that was doing sometimes up to 4k a week, I just wished he could have done ten times that so id get some extra coin
everything was lock and key safely stored ect

that seems too high $$ now I cost it out to 143 avo trees maybe an exaggeration
very possible but still seems on the high side
40-50 trees is a real bad one with 5-15 bieng a "normal"

the avo trees to be released from the nursery need to be 10mm< which they arnt always but tend to be around 12mm
hares snip them with very little effort and always on a perfect 45 degree which is an easy thing to spot

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Originally Posted by muzza

Talk to Mintie - he does this for a living.

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There are a lot of commercial pest operators and P-endorsed cullers on this forum, most don't post very often, but I'm expecting some will be contacting Chelsea directly.

Mate is having a tough time controlling goats in Redwood plantation, apparently they love gums and redwoods. You need to be a killer though, he shot over 1400 goats last year and he's only part time. Check with forestry companies.

Forestry companies are hard work, they are better off getting for a established company for a start. Will make things a lot easier long term

I've been doing a fair bit of pest control for local lifestyle blocks and small farms, ever since I realised that I might need a fallback option when my job gets jab-mandated. Been doing ok so far, not enough to make it a full-time job, but decent enough to put some extra coin away.

Now though, I'm putting together a plan for a local authority that needs some goats cleaned out. Of course that means a lot more paperwork. The one thing I'm really struggling with is putting together a health and safety plan. I mean, I know how to keep myself safe, and not shoot anyone, but the council needs more than that.

Does anyone have a template I could use, or something I could plagiarise a wee bit?

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Originally Posted by Ronin007

Does anyone have a template I could use, or something I could plagiarise a wee bit?

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Must be some online on a tramping forum somewhere? Used to do the risk assessment as part of a polytechnic course 10+yrs ago. Hunting = armed tramping....

@Chelsea
This may of interest?
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/jobs/agr...7?bof=sNyFqfwb

I'd be surprised if you get any change from $1000 once all is said and done for a Controlled Substance Licence. There is the training, compliance certifier's fee, fit and proper test and licence fee for WorkSafe.

Thanks all. Have passed on the replies.

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Originally Posted by Ronin007

I've been doing a fair bit of pest control for local lifestyle blocks and small farms, ever since I realised that I might need a fallback option when my job gets jab-mandated. Been doing ok so far, not enough to make it a full-time job, but decent enough to put some extra coin away.

Now though, I'm putting together a plan for a local authority that needs some goats cleaned out. Of course that means a lot more paperwork. The one thing I'm really struggling with is putting together a health and safety plan. I mean, I know how to keep myself safe, and not shoot anyone, but the council needs more than that.

Does anyone have a template I could use, or something I could plagiarise a wee bit?

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A H&S plan needs to reflect the latest bit of legislation. In this case the H&S in the workplace Act 2015 (HSAW Act 2015). (plus there'l be other bits around Hazsubs, fuels, firearms etc).

The easiest way (other than someone throwing you a bone) is to go through the Act and everywhere it mentions something that you need to do, you need to write a statement saying that you will do it. Simple really, but lots of writing.

You are also going to find yourself, a one man band, as a PCBU, an employer and employee. Sounds shit, but thats they way stuff is these days. So your plan needs to account for all these hats you wear! Then there's working alone policies, the list goes on and on!

Consultants like to drive around in the latest generation utes, so they charge 3-5K for these templates, even if they don't fit the activity being undertaken. I know as I see a few of these. They become more a noose for the company to hang themselves with, than a useful bit of writing to help you run your business safely with:

Step 1. Familiarise yourself with the Act.

Step 2. Familiarise yourself with running a business (I know its just you, but IRD doesn't work that way )

Step 3. Write up a H&S plan (It'll run to 20 odd pages unfortunately)

Step 4. Go to work!

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Originally Posted by Ronin007

I've been doing a fair bit of pest control for local lifestyle blocks and small farms, ever since I realised that I might need a fallback option when my job gets jab-mandated. Been doing ok so far, not enough to make it a full-time job, but decent enough to put some extra coin away.

Now though, I'm putting together a plan for a local authority that needs some goats cleaned out. Of course that means a lot more paperwork. The one thing I'm really struggling with is putting together a health and safety plan. I mean, I know how to keep myself safe, and not shoot anyone, but the council needs more than that.

Does anyone have a template I could use, or something I could plagiarise a wee bit?

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Maybe I’m being a bit dumb but I’m presuming a health and safety plan would be similar to what we have for the farm. Part of my vet tech studies doing health and safety planning was very much the same as the farm.
I can go dig it out but ours is essentially a run down of all risks on the job, steps on how to prevent those risks, a booklet of risks found on the job and steps taken to remove those risks we must fill in, a register for injuries (some people like to have the slightest knock noted in the register to show its being utilised), basically all hazards and steps taken to reduce those hazards and training and licensing that has been taken for handling of substances, firearms etc. dated if possible too. Ours has a big checklist of tasks and training we have undertaken and dates of when the certifications were done. Contact lists for next of kin, local doctors/ medical Centers etc and a well stocked first aid kit and “where is this located”. Hope this helps. I could be completely off the mark for what your looking for but ours is a folder full of all of the above.

@Ronin007 and @Chelsea

https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/the-too...our-workplace/

I had a bespoke H&S system put together for my pest control business, it covers everything I needed it to and is setup to induct and cover both contractors and staff for future expansion. It was done by a HASANZ member and is exactly the sort of stuff the council and forestry etc will want to see. At about $3k it was an investment but worth it when you think about the risks involved and the sort of contracts you will want to be going for. No I won't share it.

You need decent insurance as well, I struggled a bit to find someone happy to cover the sort of work I'm doing, most of them pretty much hang up on you when you mention firearms.

Realized this morning that my reply sounded a little like I'm putting you off the idea sorry. That's not the case at all, just make sure you set yourself up properly and you will love it. There is plenty of work out there and you will fairly quickly find the groove that your business will fit into, mine ending up specializing in Pukekos of all things!

Line up a decent H&S package, get good insurance, set up a social media and online presence for a bit of marketing and make sure you get clued up on how to run a business properly financially/tax wise.

It is rewarding work and I can go weeks without being on my PC at all which was amazing after coming from a crappy corporate job!

A year ago, I gave up my $150k full-time civil engineering job with a US Tech company that developed guidance and control systems to get into the hunting and pest management industry as my own business.

What is can say from my experience is to go and work for an established business for 12 months or longer to understand and study the industry. It's a very tight industry where everyone know each other, so coming from the outside is tough.

A CSL ticket will cost you $1k and you will need to be able to display your understanding of the H&S act, be pre-qualified with a provider, carry about $5m liability insurance, or $10m for some councils and forestry companies ($2-3k per year).

There are trapping training course that qualify you for Ospri work for monitoring etc, but will cost you too. But a lack for experience will count you out of most contracts.

If only doing fur recovery or pest food recovery, you competition is everyone else that will work for free, including recreational hunters and trappers.

If truly serious about it, get money in the bank, quit any excessive spending and reduce living costs. Study the industry and work hard. It's not a way to make a heap of money in the short to medium term, but if you understand and have studied ecology well, you will get there in the end.

Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

I've got a couple of clients who do pest control work as their core business. One does well, the other less so.
The more successful one is bring in around $200k a year for the 2 man team before Expenses.

His observation is to get the work being offered by regional councils and Maori organizations. They have more money available, are willing to spend it on pest control, and pay their Bill's on time.

But to get these roles, you need all the correct paperwork and health and safety policy. They won't let just anyone loose in public areas with firearms or poisons.

For the rest of the jobs, whether it makes money comes done to your efficiency in removing pests. And making sure people value your work.

Another job that may interest somebody...
https://www.seek.com.au/job/56036106...bMail4.02-3882

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Originally Posted by alyxjame

Hey there,

It sounds like you’re well-equipped for pest control, and it could definitely be a lucrative venture given your experience. The pest control industry, particularly private operators, does have a demand, especially in rural and agricultural areas where pest populations like wild goats, feral pigs, and rabbits can be a serious issue for farmers and landowners. You’re right that there is an opportunity to make money, but how it works financially can vary.

Typically, pest controllers are paid per head or on a per-job basis by landowners or businesses who need their services. Some may charge an hourly rate, while others might offer a flat fee depending on the scope of the work. The landowner usually owns the pests once they’re captured or killed, though in some cases (like with feral animals), the controller might keep the carcasses for their own use, such as for bait or selling meat, depending on local regulations.

If you’re looking at the industry more seriously, you could also look into expanding your scope to include services like pest identification, exclusion techniques, and even legal advice on pest management. In places like Australia, there’s a growing market for professional pest control, and companies often offer packages for ongoing pest management.

In terms of starting out, you might want to check into certification or licensing requirements, as pest control is often regulated in some areas. You might also need some form of insurance, especially if you're dealing with larger, more dangerous pests.

If you're interested in getting into pest control in a more formal way, businesses like Zap Pest Control could be a good reference point to learn about the industry's structure and how they operate. It’s always helpful to know the legalities, pricing models, and customer expectations when considering venturing into this business.

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Can someone get rid of this robot/scammer
@dannyb

I do it for free on the couple of places I do

How much is the cost of one wild deer carcass, inspected, tagged now? I know the rabbit and hare is around 2 dollars each last year from pest controller, so how much now? If those meats only goes to pet food company, it `s quite waste, do`t you think?

sounds like a good problem to some haha, one mans rubbish another mans gold.

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Originally Posted by hunt-gather-provide

sounds like a good problem to some haha, one mans rubbish another mans gold.

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True. it like coffee, south Americans never thought coffee could be worth that much until European arrived. One pound of raw coffee beans is worth about 1.5 USD, but the retail price could be 20 USD or more.

"The sea will grant each man new hope"

- Christopher Columbus