Those who work in pest management and control are considered key workers in the Covid 19 pandemic. Last week, the UK Government released a list of key workers who could continue to send their children to school during the pandemic.

While the pest management sector isn’t mentioned explicitly on the list, it is an essential part of many of the other sectors that are listed.

For example:

Health and social care
How can doctors, nurses, midwives and care workers continue to protect people if hospitals and care homes are riddled with rats and mice? We have a duty to help protect the most vulnerable, and those caring for them, from potentially deadly pathogens and disease.

Education and childcare
Schools are still open in order to look after children of other key workers. Children and education staff need safe classrooms, free from infestations to operate from. If a school closes due to an infestation, who is going to look after the children of key workers?

Food and other necessary goods
From farm to fork, pest management is an essential part of protecting our food supply chain. Contamination, waste and disease need to be minimised at all costs during this pandemic. Pest management is an integral part of the supply chain.

Plus key public services, local and national Government, transport, utilities, communication and financial services all tend to have pest management contracts. If any of these key industries are affected by an infestation during the pandemic, there could be catastrophic disruption to services.

What about domestic work?
There may be a few situations where an active pest infestation in a domestic property might outweigh the risks of spreading Covid 19 if mitigation measures are put in place. We have to take into consideration the likelihood of someone coming to harm because of an infestation, especially if people are typically at home for longer periods.

Also, with people being mainly homebound for potentially months, what effect will an infestation have on their mental health?
We will only do domestic work if you can significantly mitigate the risks. A thorough risk assessment will be conducted and recorded to weigh up the risks to the client and our staff. Aderyn will ensure mitigation is put in place for any domestic work we consider essential.