Pest perspectives EP 32 - Gopher Girl- Gopher & mole control! - Pest Perspectives

Hello and welcome to Press Perspectives, the second one of

the week. Yesterday I had Graham Turner on

and that was quite a fun conversation.

But today, episode 32, I've got go for girl on.

How are you doing? Good.

How are? You good, I'm OK, thanks.

This is a this is a bit I've seen you on Facebook and I'm

sure somebody a while ago mentioned go for girl.

I'm sure it might have been. Have you ever heard of the

podcast Tales from the Crawl Space 2.0?

It's a, it's a pest control one. I'm sure it was somebody on that

podcast said you need to get go for girl on.

She's on Facebook. She's really good.

I'm sure it was somebody like that.

So I looked you at a while ago and I suddenly remembered and I

followed your page and I kept looking.

I thought. I wonder if she'll come on or

not. Yeah, it's awesome.

So many people is able to find my page and everything.

I heard it was quite easy. It was.

So this is different for everyone.

I normally have people who are in the pest control industry,

but you're not actually deemed or you're not actually a pest

controller. You're a, you're a trapper, and

you're locking. I like to trap Gophers and

moles. We get both of them around here.

So obviously a lot of the people listen to my podcast are from

England and we have no go, no go, no Gophers.

So what are Gophers? Said what?

We don't have them. We don't.

Gophers are quite a bit bigger than moles.

They're about this big, and our bowls around here are only this

big. But a mole?

Eat a Gopher. Well, but The thing is.

A mole will eat them. Gophers only eat plants and

they're herbivores, but since the moles are carnivores and eat

insects and grubs and stuff like that, if they hear a Gopher

struggling in a trap, they'll go and eat it all and leave nothing

but the skin. Well, I didn't.

I'll tell you what, I've learned something there because I I know

we don't have Gophers in our country.

I I only thought the, the insects and obviously the, the,

the, the worms, the worms hunt. I'm a bit.

I'm a bit, yeah, I'm a bit surprised about that, to be

honest. A lot bigger.

Saying that the Gophers are eating grubs and stuff like

that, but they only eat plants. And then a lot of people think

that moles are eating their roots on their plants, but what

they're actually doing is tunnelling under the roots and

causing root rock because of the tunnels under.

Root rock. That's it.

I do do moles. I'm I'm in, I'm in, I'm in the

British mole catcher register. I'm like the register of mole

catchers. But what type?

Of moles do y'all have? I should have looked that up,

really. I I will look it up for you

while I'm doing this show Narnosed.

Moles. I'll just hold on a minute.

I wasn't prepared for that. I just thought hold on.

So what damage can what damage can can Gophers cause?

They can chew through people's pecs line under their house

right now is breeding season. The moles and the Gophers are

both all breeding and they will meet like underneath people's

houses to breed and have their babies and everything and they.

Will. Cause foundation issues from the

tunnels and they'll chew through pecs, pipe and stuff like that

and caused a slab leak and then afterwards they cause washouts

too. Washouts Was was that something?

Like when the ground just starts eroding after rain, the tunnels

just kind of create like a route for the water and then it just

erodes. OK, OK.

Do they do they cause destruction like moles with like

say do they do they operate in the same same basis as they like

with moles that can with their tunnels on, on agriculture land

where they can break their legs and if they can go into the

tunnels or is that not the same with Gophers?

Yeah, it is like that with Gophers.

But Gophers, they dig about this deep under, and then the bowls

are only about that deep underground.

And the Gophers are that deep because they're eating the roots

at that level. OK, so I've looked it up.

It's the tape here. European.

Yeah, it's got big nose, basically.

That's what you said. Yeah, Yeah, it's the Talpa

European. Oh, I'm terrible.

These these Latin names. It's it's a European one,

basically. It's got, it's got a big nose.

They have the star nose that like that look like fingers on

their face. That's hard to wait a minute.

See if I can send you a picture of her.

Have you got your phone with you?

Yeah. Yeah, where are we?

We've got. Eastern this, this one here.

How this one, I've just sent it to you through your WhatsApp,

through your Facebook. I mean, which sometimes some

people have caught the albino ones, the white ones.

I've never been so lucky. I haven't.

That's to catch that one. That would be super neat.

Catch an albino. A few people in Britain have

caught the white ones, so they must they must be here.

But do you, did you see the mole?

The main is it is that what is that what you mean by the star?

We have no. And the star nosed ones are

different from those also. OK, OK.

But that's what that's what we have.

It is. But the moles actually can't

even see. Their eyes are covered with

skin. It's crazy.

How they can just? Dig right along the side of

foundation and driveways and stuff like that.

They don't even have ears. They just go off of Phil and

they can feel the vibrations from like insects and stuff from

a long ways away. And then they'll never return to

that tunnel again if you try to set traps in it.

There we go. Hang on, there we go.

I've got a comment, I think someone of your, maybe one of

your friends. You see it?

Huh. Oh yeah, someone gave me an

albino. Go Oh, so you weren't.

So you weren't lucky enough to actually catch it.

Yeah, well, no, I didn't catch it.

Someone's dog had dug up an albino Gopher.

Oh, OK. He called me and gave it to me

and we had it as a pet for a little bit, but that was she

said that she. Tried.

Oh, it was alive then it was. A little pet.

We had a little, a little tank for it, like a fish tank that we

made into what do they call those, But we put dirt, layers

of dirt in it, planted little things for it to eat.

Tried to tunnel out, did it. Well, yeah, it was.

I was hoping to be able to see tunnels and stuff but sadly you

couldn't live very long. Oh, OK, they don't do very.

Well, in captivity, I don't think.

No, it's not. It's something completely boring

to me. Go for this.

It's is it because what, what will surprise most people listen

to this podcast is you have no offseason.

Yeah, I'm able to just work year round, except for when it's like

when the ground is frozen. Oh yeah, it's.

Difficult. Really difficult.

Yeah. If it's hard for me to dig, then

it's hard for the Gophers to dig too.

Like super dry ground. Oh, yes, it's awful.

I've yeah. It when it is dry, even with

moles, it's, you know, when it's dry, it's just it's difficult.

You need, you need a, you need a balance, you know, yes, you

need, you need a balance for that.

Yeah. Rough to catch them whenever the

ground is dry. What kind of with the with the

Gophers do you use different mould?

Do you use different tracks with the Gophers to the moles is it?

Yeah, I know the same. Kind and I I use two, one for

each side of the tunnel on bowls and the Gophers.

OK, Have you ever been setting up a tunnel and you've managed

to once come through? Have you ever had that?

Yes. I have a lot of times with the

Gophers, they like to plug up their the light to where OK to

where it's dark in their tunnel. And if I'll if I open up their

tunnel and then go walk off and talk to someone and then come

back, the Gopher will be digging and trying to plug up the tunnel

to where light can't go through. Oh, OK.

And then I'm able to just grab them.

Then it's easy, OK, you've actually seen them like in the

ground, you're like, it's there. Yes and then with moles I've

seen them digging also one time my dad caught he stomped down

all the mole tunnels in a yard and he happened to see 4 moles

digging and he just grabbed them all up.

Wow. Well, alive just.

And they killed them, obviously. Yeah.

He just dispatched them. Yeah.

All right. Yeah, I've never had any never

had any experience. Saw that before.

No, that's what's. Fun is seeing them while they're

digging. Is that where you learn?

Is that how you got into all this?

Is this from your dad? Was it?

Yeah. Was he?

Was he, was he a go for catcher as well before?

Does he still do it? No.

Well, we did it for fun back when I was a kid.

We were just catching all of my uncle's Gophers.

And. Then we decided to start

trapping for people around where we lived and me and my dad and

my sister, we all went together to trap.

And then later on, like down the road, after I had a different

job and everything, I decided I wanted to go back to go for

trapping and solving business out of it.

And my dad still traps. He traps.

That's nice, nice, that's nice, but that's how that's how you

got started. Then was it like, was it like

like in your area? Is there a lot of people that do

just what you do or are they just pest control that do it or

try to or try or try to do it? Around here, there's not a whole

lot, a lot of people who trap Gophers.

There are a lot that poison them, but the people who are

against poison, a lot of times the pest control people will

just refer them to me. So it's kind of nice having like

all of the customer base that once traps out, you know?

Well, it's a more, it's a more humane way of doing it.

It's a lot safer because you in in this country you can use

aluminium phosphite. I mean, a vast majority of

people don't because you should be able to trap them easily

enough. But I'm I'm I'm quite against

using poison and moles. Yeah, me too.

Especially because it's what's popular around here is

strychnine so. Say that again.

The strychnine is what's popular around here.

This is going to get this, this bit is going to get clipped.

People are going to be looking at this shock that you can use

it. They're going to be been banned

for many, many years in this country.

In fact, if you if you had some and you're cupboard or some and

you found something, you'd get the you'd get a police vans turn

up at your house. If you told them it's it's

classed as seriously dangerous chemical that's banned, well.

I'm doing my part trying to keep people from using it.

That's good. That's really good.

That is, it's shocking. You can use it, I know.

And people wonder like why their dog just dies and there's no

explanation why. It's probably because they got a

poisoned Gopher. Could be, yeah.

Yeah, that's fair. I wasn't expecting on this

podcast to hear about that chemical.

I wasn't no. Do you have like do you have

places where get a lot of Gophers and moles all year

round? Or do you have like places where

like say commercial places or golf courses where they're on

contract with you all year? You just you do it all year

round or certain certain points, parts of the year.

They're the most active during breeding season, like it is

right now. Moles and the Gophers are all

breeding. So right now it's the best time

to catch a lot of moles or a lot of Gophers.

But throughout the year, people get like a mole, show up a lot

of times one at a time because they're very territorial and

they'll run off other moles we can use.

Yeah, see, I hear this right, And they're supposedly

territorial, but quite often I get mole jobs where I catch 234

moles. Yeah, here lately I.

Don't. I don't get it.

Breeding season, do you catch a lot of them, like just any time

of year or during their breeding season?

Mainly during the breeding season.

That's probably what it is, but often in gardens there's

probably 2. Sometimes, not always in

breeding season, but I do like it.

You say sorry I had traps in a real small backyard and I caught

3 moles and a Gopher. I was really shocked by that.

Yeah, don't you tell the customers, you just tell them

all that they like to see the the bowl to prove that you've or

I use. The system that I use to message

people and schedule and route everything, yeah, it doesn't

allow me to send pictures. So sadly I'm not able to send

them pictures through that. But if they do request a picture

then I just send them one with my phone.

But yeah. No, I just wondered if some

people wanted proof, that's all. People love seeing what's in

their yard and what did all that destruction, they enjoy seeing

it. Say it's distraught.

There's there's a bit of a contrast because in England we

like, I'm not like more more so on social media.

If you were to put you were to hold a picture of a dead mole,

you'd cause so much strife. It's unreal.

You would. Still get a lot of Flack for

stuff like that, but it also like this should work for people

and so for me it it really helps with business, but I do get a

lot of people who think that it's really just wrong, you

know, but I. Mean.

Pictures like that. I mean, if it works, I mean I

iPod post on while ago on LinkedIn because I I make a lot

of content and I was like, see, I'm in the camp of people.

I don't mean people like you because that's how you get your

work, but like pest control companies shouldn't like put

dead like rats and squirrels all over their socials all the time.

But there was a lot of people that agree, but a lot obviously

it didn't. But if it works for your

business, it's fine because in the area I'm in, if I was just,

if I, I live in Brookland in England, where let's just say a

lot of the rich, I'm not one of them.

A lot of the rich people live and more posture, right?

Ones. The and and if I was to start

putting all dead animals on guarantee, even though they know

what we do because they all know guarantee, I'd lose no end of

business over it. So we don't dare do it.

We don't. Yeah, I'm kind of surprised I've

been able to get by with it as long.

As I have, well, I think, I think I might be wrong.

I think that there might be a different culture in a lot of

America. Well, you've got a lot of

shootings is normal for people to do, whereas in England it's

not a regular thing to go out hunting and shooting.

So it it's more in the mindset of how your country is.

Nothing wrong with it. I'm not saying I think they're

more accepting of it, they are. It doesn't bother them as much.

But obviously, like you say, you're going to get people that

are going to be upset, Will you? Yeah, we try to hold on to our

rights around here. Yeah, they can be.

I'm I'm sure it'll all change pretty soon.

It won't be like that for long, I'm sure.

I'm sure you'll be fine. Do you get do you get like is it

just Facebook you do you work for or do you have a website and

Google reviews or is it just Facebook only?

Mostly Facebook is where I get all of my clientele from because

I I share my posts into different groups.

If I share a post my posts into a new group and I have like dead

Gophers in it then I do get a lot of people trying to report

me and stuff and. Trying.

A lot of hate mail and everything, but once I like

regularly post on those pages and groups they start getting a

little more used to it and they start realising who I am and how

destructive the Gophers and moles are and that trapping is

the best and humane way to get rid of them.

No, you're not. You're not wrong.

I mean, you've got a lot of the times I feel that I don't know

if you you do this or not, but educating them about the damage

that they can cause. Obviously it's different if

they're out in the wild in the forest, so no one's bothered and

they but if it's if it's if it's wrecking someone's lawn or even

in agriculture, it can, you know, a horse or.

How she could break their leg through mole tunnels?

So it's like the public health aspect as in the damage they

cause. But a lot of people don't see

that aspect and educating them a little bit can help, yes.

And people love learning about the critter that is doing all

the destruction in their yard. They like to do everything that

they can to try and prevent it, but there's not a whole lot you

can do to prevent the Gophers. Well, I don't even think there's

a lot you can do to prevent the moles.

Yeah, And then unless you know of a method to stop moles

getting your guards, and I don't know of any.

Yeah, I unless you. Recommend, you know, grub

treatments and treatment for like any kind of larvae or stuff

like that in your yard for moles.

But with Gophers, they'll eat Bermuda grass roots, you know,

and that's the most popular grass around here.

OK. I've never heard of it.

I've never heard of this treatment you're on about

before. What do you say?

Larvae. Like larvae for different bugs

and stuff. But you put it in and it puts

them off. Does it?

Well, I just recommend doing treatments like that to get rid

of any kind of lawn pests so that the.

Mould. Oh, OK.

I don't think, I don't think we'd be allowed to do that.

We're very yeah. We're very much yeah.

I've never heard of it anyway. I haven't.

Any like treatments for grubs around there?

I've never heard of any unless I unless that's if that would that

come under horticultural pest control because I, I don't know.

I don't know. I mean, I've never heard of any

pest controllers doing that kind of treatment before.

I'm going to have to look into it.

I've never heard of grub treatments.

I haven't before. Never heard of what treatments?

The the the grub treatments, Yeah, I've never, never heard of

it. They're they're the larvae stage

of June bugs. Oh, I know.

Yeah, Yeah, the grub, Yeah, I don't, I don't think we do that.

I'm going to have to look into this.

I am. I've never, never had anyone

mention this before because when a lot I've spoken to a lot of

mole captures and they've talked about the customer always

mentions how can I stop moles and they all said there isn't

any way of stopping moles. I'll have to look into that.

And no doubt, the way England is, it's probably not allowed.

But Gophers they can take underneath retaining walls.

I've seen tunnels that are like that, deep underground and

deeper. They can go clear underneath

like a 5 foot retaining wall. How far did how far sometimes do

your Gopher traps have? Do you have to really dig down

deep or? Sometimes in sand they really

like to dig deep, but sometimes they'll try to find more of a

shallow tunnel. That way I don't have to make

such a big hole. Usually the holes I make are

only this big OK. I like to be able to not have my

whole arm up in there trying to set traps.

OK, Oh, you mentioned sand. And I hate, I hate it because

sometimes it's when people have got lawns that have been

made-up, you can tell it weren't originally there and it's all

grainy and sandy mud and the the moles just slip straight past

it. Sometimes I'm like, Oh no, yeah,

get him in the end, eventually. It's just frustrating.

It is. It can't be just.

Collapse and you can't even. Yeah, it's, it's not like like

you get a lot of ground that's not been made-up, but it's got

like loads of rock and stone in it.

It that's a nightmare, that is. We don't have a lot of that

around here. I know there's some areas in the

US that do have a lot of rocks and stuff, but around here it's

not too bad. It's frankly clay and sand

that's. Good.

The majority of it's just normal mud, sand and clay.

But sometimes you know when someone's made that ground up

because not being funny in the countries are quite ruined what

I am, and rocks aren't usually in the mud.

If somebody's made that land up and it's like that was never

there and it makes it a little bit more tricky, it does.

Yeah, and around here, like people do gravel driveways and

stuff, and a Gopher has no problem digging through that

stuff. There will be mounds in people's

gravel. OK, I didn't know that.

I've learned something more as well.

They can do gravel drives. Oh, I just presumed it was just

the grass. OK.

They just push the rocks up and push it out with the mound of

dirt like it's nothing. You know, something else

interesting I see a lot is the Gophers will go underneath a

house and then they'll take a big old rock about that big and

they'll lock their tunnel with it so that water can't get

through. That that means they've got a

bit of a brain there, yeah. They're kind of smart when it

comes to. Survival.

Yeah. Actually getting a rock in there

and blocking it so water can't get I've got that is seriously

clever, yes. And then they'll have drain

tunnels that go straight down and it's crazy what they're able

to do. Do you mean like drain tunnels

that go to the drains or do you mean just a deep tunnel?

Where water will drain out. OK.

That just goes straight down. OK, yeah, that.

Yeah, that's seriously clever compared to what I thought they

were. Yeah.

Moving rocks in. Yeah.

It's interesting. That is, you know, like do you

do any, do you do any kind of farms?

Like do you do like farms where you have to go and clear the

site? Like I mean, I'm talking big

sites where you've probably got a 50 to 100 Gophers or moles.

Do you do any sites that are quite large?

Places like that will use poison A.

Lot of things will they OK. It would be pretty pricey for me

to come out and do such a big area, but I used to do a lot of

big like horse ranches and stuff like that.

It's just so time consuming though.

Yeah, because like a lot of people the way I do mould

control, but I generally don't touch the farms because that's

such big jobs and not being funny to anyone in the mole

capture in the UK. But a lot of them they charge

per mole with the farmers and like it's like I'll do, I'll do

it for £5 a mole, I'll do it for £10 a mole.

And you've got all your kick to put in the ground, don't you?

You've got to keep coming back. And you're not guaranteed 1000

moles, are you? You're not guaranteed that.

But yeah, we don't generally do it.

We went to one. It's our fault.

We didn't tell him our prices, We told him how much and he's

like, no, I was looking for £5, I was looking for five pound, 5

LB, a mole. I make no chance.

We got to put a higher price on them because they are so

territorial that a lot of times there's only one per acre.

Yeah, with Mole, but now yeah, Lerman Lerman lesson there I

did. But so when you when you started

the business, was it is it just was it go for girl from the from

the very start of your business? Well, me and my sister used to

trap Gophers together and so it was called Go for Girls.

Girls OK. And then whenever I made it a

real business and everything, I just my sister, she has her own

profession and everything. And so I just named it Go For

Girl. OK.

So when you when you started out, did you, was it how long

you've been doing the whole social media element of your

business? Was that from the start or?

No, no, I started doing that whenever I got things going

again after I had worked at a bank and then got fired.

And so I was like, well, I'm just going to go to what I know.

Trapping go friends. Exactly.

But yeah. And that's whenever I started

the social media and everything to try and drum up some

business. Yeah, because it's, I'll be

honest, it's quite, it's quite brave because a lot of people

are are scared of doing social media, especially within like

doing pests like like you are. But it's quite a brave thing

because you got to burst. It didn't get you down a bit

because you know when you get negative comments, did it get to

you at first? You got to get a little bit of a

thick skin in you and realise that they're just when when

people have got a keyboard in front of them and don't think

can they say whatever they want? The ones who do have negative

things to say, I like to educate them a little bit and then a lot

of people will agree with me because they are very damaging,

destructive little critters, so. They are so but no, I'm just

just asking because I'll be honest, a lot of pest control

people in the UK, although they've all got websites when it

comes to social media, not a lot of them do proper social posting

like like you do. Like do you know jazz?

Do you know of Jasmine Pess Pro as well?

Have you seen her stuff? Jasmine you should look up just

later on look up Jasmine Pespro. He's very much social focus to

get most of her work from her socials.

She's been on the podcast. So my biggest tip for social

media and everything is to have pictures of yourself on there.

Because a lot of times when you look at a Facebook page, you

don't know who's actually running the page and you don't

know like who you're really talking to, you know?

So I feel like the best tip I have for other people doing

social media is pictures of yourself and like being proud of

what you do and happy while you're doing what you're doing

and taking some good educational pictures and things like that.

Yeah, no, no, it's, it's a, it's a good tip for people because I

mean, up until a few years ago, I didn't put pictures myself on

Facebook, but I lost I, I had a whole, what's it called, a whole

change in mindset. I broke my knee twice, my left

knee twice. I was in one garden.

Luckily it was with my dad. Broke my knee, had to be the

hospital, broke my tibi amphibia, 3 months, three months

off the job. Well, that paid me still, so

it's fine. Luckily it weren't my dad

rehabbed and then eventually done.

I lost load of weight, put it back on got back to April 2024,

January February 2024 broke it again in the own garden.

I was like I knew I broke it the minute I went down and says it's

about the Mrs I broke it. I need I need the ambulance and

that and after that I've rehabbed.

I lost 9 stone so, Oh, you're in America, aren't you?

I'll tell you how many pounds that is.

You do it different. So 9, I'll just tell you 9 stone

in pounds. So I lost about 126 lbs.

So I'm, I'm very much into fitness and weightlifting now.

I'm still not, you know, thin, thin or perfect, but I'm it's,

I'm, I'm doing well and that, and ever since then, I've been

more social media focused. I share my my fitness journey,

my content, my, you know, pest control, business pictures, all

sorts. I'm literally on top everything

I post about all sorts I do, but I was more I was more confident,

but I get a few odd comments, but I don't care anymore.

I'm just like they're they're the insecure ones.

They're behind the keyboard with no, no pictures showing the

stupid logo or whatever they are.

That's where you got to think you've got to be thick skinned.

And I wish more people would do social media in pest control

because you can't get more. I'm not saying all of our

business we get. I do quite well on the use an

app called Next Door. Yeah.

I do. I get a lot of work on Next

Door. Quite I've built up a little

following the people that say me.

I get people that say hello. I says oh, no, you you're you're

Sean that posts on next door, aren't you?

Yeah, one of them, one of them said they all you're I've got

the next door celebrity. I said, no, I'm not.

She said, yeah, you are. I said, but yeah, next door.

So I don't pay for advertising there.

Awesome, but but this comment here, negatives are great

because you still get paid. I'll tell you one thing about

negative comments, though. I find on neck, there's a

chapter always comes on my posts about Wasnest because I post you

know what, in the summer I post Wasnest posts.

He tells me how how they're beneficial and they are.

They are beneficial WASP and they're nature's press

controllers and he's very polite and I'm very polite back and I

say it's for public health and I thank him.

But what happens is I love this bit.

When he comments, the views go up on the post because he's

commented. So I always polite and I always

thank him. I do understand they are

nature's pest controllers but when somebody's got a wasp nest

at the back door and they've got children, it's a danger to their

life. But that's why we do it.

We don't just turn up and do and kill was nest for free.

It's a public matter of public health.

But the social media element. His comment always boosts my

posts and my thanks. Martin.

Come on. Yeah.

The board that you. Put yourself out there, the more

negative stuff that you'll get. It's just how it goes.

Oh, I used to it. Now I don't mind.

I used to bother me. But now I've got past the point

where I know how to reply. A lot of people replying and you

got to reply in the right way. A lot of people get mad and then

it makes you look bad. You don't want that because you

want people to think, oh, he, he dealt with that well.

And he's not really, he's not really the killer you think he

is. You know what, you know, like

the rodents and that he's there to do a job.

It's not, it's not a thing that you know, we don't just go

around kidding these animals for no reason.

It's for public health damage, etcetera.

But that's the way I kind of take social media now.

I've learned it takes a while to get used to it, used to it,

doesn't it? It does, yes.

It does. But.

Shayla, the one who has been commenting, he has an awesome

homesteading page. It's called Fear Not Farm, so

you should look that up too. I will.

I will look that up. I will.

If you send it to me after, I'll follow the page and have a look.

I won't remember it, I won't, but I'll definitely have a look

because I'm all into looking at social posts and following

stuff. But yeah, it's, it's, it's good

to get your views on the social media aspect.

It's so do you ask for like say you the Rast night .80% of your

business is that, does that come through social and I, I presume

word of mouth is big as well for you because it is for us.

A. Big thing for me is the thing.

Good. Sign, yes.

I've put that in everyone's yards who I service.

Most of them, except for the ones that I know will yank it

up. I don't even try to put them in

their yards. But I love it whenever people

leave their sign out. For years.

I've had customers who left their sign out for four years.

That's nice. I didn't, I didn't notice.

And that's that's a business strategy, but you just ask them

if you can put it in the ground and then and then so do you do

you have loads of these on your van or you, you probably have a

pickup truck, don't you? Yeah, I'll show you.

My vehicle here, I'll show you all my signs in.

There, let's have a look then. That's nice.

That is. That's a nice pickup, that is.

Thank you. And there's all my.

See, so you got them there for when you do jobs and if you can

put them in the ground, it's, it's pretty advertising I

suppose, and customers don't mind.

No, they love their signs. They like supporting me.

That's nice. That is, you got you got a

selfie stick. No, I'm just holding it.

It's the way you hold it. I thought she's got a selfie

stick. I've got one, but I don't use it

much. But no, that's, that's good.

That is, it's a good way of advertising.

It's not something we do here, but if it if it works and if it

works, it works for you. Yeah, I I wish we could do that,

but I don't see people. Around here are always putting

their signs at every stop sign. Like every corner, there's

everywhere. Oh, around there they can.

Can the Council come out and take them down or complain

people? Will take them down but a lot of

signs people will just leave them on the corner and never

clean them. Oh, it's nice.

We've got one sign, but you know in Oakham where I live, but we

pay for it. It's like, it's like a Oakham

bypass basically. It's a road where you go in and

out of the town, but there's two.

But it is for the Oakham, Oakham in bloom.

So basically the people that do all the flowers etcetera in the

area. So it's like £500 a year for two

boards and and they're a charity basically.

So all the money they make goes into bedding plants etcetera.

So it's more like a charity, but thousands of people see that

sign a day. Now I'm not saying it working

all the time, but it's there for sometimes it's subliminal, ain't

it? I've got Gophers.

I've seen that sign somewhere, I can't remember where.

And I bet it's like, her name's Gopher girl.

I'll look her up. I bet that's what happens

sometimes. They're like, I know what a.

Gopher girl they. Look it up.

Yeah, but no, it's a good way of advertising if you're allowed

to. But yeah, I wish that was a

thing here that would be allowed.

But that's a great method that is.

Yep. And then my vehicle, I mean,

it's a moving advertisement. People are like.

Go. That's Go.

For girl, they always wave at me.

It's good. You ever get paper gun?

Can I have a selfie with you or not?

That's weird. A lot of times people will come

up to me and be like, hey, you're the Gopher girl and

everything, and I'll ask them if they want to take a selfie.

But a lot of times people don't. A.

Lot of times when they see me in public and everything they

aren't sure if I'll remember them or not and so they usually

don't even mention that I that they know who I am and stuff.

No, it's fair because like, like you obviously go to like I do.

You go to a lot of people and they go when you get a job off

them again. I'm so and so you came to my

house, you know, three years ago.

I remember houses, but usually when you, I said to them, when I

turn up at the door, I usually remember the face straight away

or two as I pull it into drive. I remember this place.

Yes, but the old. The old thing you're

remembering. But when they're on the phone,

they instantly think I'm Mr. Brown.

You came to my hand and they think you'll forget them.

I'll just go. Yeah.

I'll remember when I get there. I will.

Oh, yeah. How are?

You doing and then I. Love.

Yeah. But then then you can remember

because it is hard. Because you see that many people

over the years, don't you? It is don't really remember

because it's nice to remember. But on the phone it's a little

bit difficult. You've got to get the date.

I do. I have a lot of customers that I

I can recognise them anywhere. If I see them, if I've seen them

in a different state, I know who they are.

I have a lot of customers that I do remember, but too many to

remember all of them. Oh yeah, exactly.

I had one recently. I was like, I was sat in the

gym. I was like, I know you.

He said you did all rats in here.

I said you did. That's that's it.

That's where you're from, Manton.

I said, yeah, that's it. I was like a few of them in

there that I've done work for and say hello and not to them.

I do, but but yeah. So you don't really rely on

Google reviews then to help? Or is that just not not really?

I do try to keep up with my Google and everything, but I

need a lot of Google expertise. It's not, to be honest, it's not

easy. We're on Google, My Biz, Google,

whatever they called it. Now we use Google Guaranteed as

well. I don't know if that's over

there. It's where you can pay.

And you know, like you have ad clicks, don't you?

It's not an ad click. They have to ring you on the

number and you've got to answer the phone in order to be

charged. So it goes when it rings, it

goes, it goes Google. It says Google first on the

phone. It goes Google, you know, it's,

you know, it's off there. You do.

But we we get a lot, we get a lot of work off that we do.

But I am pushing for Google reviews.

I'm at 60, no, 76 at the minute. Oh, yeah.

It's not, it's not easy to get them.

I've not, I've not been trying. I've been.

Yeah. They they cut a loan off me last

year. You see?

No, no. Why?

Offer like so much off of their payment and I get one.

You can't do that. You know, You know the Google

rule, you know the rules. Oh, no, not do it that way.

No, I know you don't. But but a lot of the time,

recently I've managed to get quite a few.

You're not going to get them all, but I get some of them.

But I'm persistent. I give it at least twice, give

another week and send it again, see if we get one.

But it does help our business. But you seem like you've got

them all. Although I do social.

It's a mixture of mixture of different methods to get

working. It is but, but yeah.

A lot of times I tell people make sure that you tell your

neighbours and everything and and that works out really well

and people post about it in their neighbourhood groups and

stuff. That's that's powerful.

That's that. Listen people, even these texts

will help you in business a lot. Of times whenever I catch a

bunch of Gophers, I say want to take a picture of me and they'll

take a picture of me with my Gophers and send it to their

neighbours or anybody that they know of who has Gophers.

That works out really well. Yeah, put a note on your receipt

asking for one. Oh.

Yeah, I should do that. I.

Should start putting it's not easy asking for them, but it

sounds like you've got a good pace of a base of people that

are happy with your business. You've always got to make sure

you know they're happy. So before you ask for a Google

review, but it sounds like you've got a good mixture of

advertising and social because social is free.

It's free. And then he said, have you ever

heard of Gary Vee? He does a lot of social media.

He goes people should you people use social media?

It's it's free. It's free forever.

The F people need to use it more.

It's free. Yeah, and the.

Work is good too as. Long as you have good pictures

and good educational content. Yeah, it does.

I mean, I, my wife makes me a graphics of like mole and

educational, all sorts of educational things on canvas

professional. You can make Flyers and all

sorts. And I put them on a lot of

groups. I go, please share this

educational leaflet and start open pest control with my logo

on it. And I think, I think that might

work as well. I don't know, but it goes down

well I think as well. Get a bunch of key chains made.

I have a cousin who makes all kinds of like custom stuff for

me. She had a Facebook page called

Junk Drawer Art and she, she makes a lot of key chains for me

that I just give to people. And that's really nice because

it's like a business card, but it's more, it's funner, you

know? Oh.

It definitely is. Our biggest thing.

What we do is, I won't call it fun, but every customer gets a

free pen. We've got a pen with a phone

number on. But yeah, we always give out

free pens because it don't cost that much.

We buy them in 500 or 1000 batches now we and then they've

got the pen. Might lose your paperwork, but

they'll always keep your pen. Usually they will.

They will, really. Well, if it's a good pen, people

keep them forever. They do because our pens the

company keeps getting us to try and you know the more expensive

for them like no the customers like these ones.

So we're sticking with them. They might as well stick with

what people like. Yeah, it's just some, some good

tips there on how to get some more business.

But if you're in America, try these yard signs if you they

work, if in the UK, let me know how you get on.

We're trying that because because it's like, you know that

you know how the people door knock in America for pest

control, That's not a thing here.

If you knocked on people, if you knocked on people's doors here,

they they would think that you'd think they're dirty or got

rodents and be highly offended and you might get to smack on

the nose. So what about like if do people

ever knock on their neighbours? Doors.

Yeah, yeah. I just, I just be nice.

No, all I meant was in terms of selling pest control services.

I know in America they have door knocking teams that knock the

whole area. Essentially in behind

neighbourhoods. I mean, they do knock doors

here, but not pest control. Like, you know, do you want your

wingers doing, Do you want the gravel drives doing things like

that? But pest control, you probably

get a slap. You don't dare do that.

But no businesses do door knock for services like that.

But we've got laws where it's not illegal to cold call, but if

you're asked to leave, you must leave, as in not not do it again

because you can't get like arrested.

If you keep harassment, you can like, keep knocking.

But I don't answer the door a lot of the time.

I can see who it is, just don't answer it.

A lot of times whenever we have door knockers, we'll just chat

with them for a long time and we're like, no, we don't want to

use your service after we talk their ear off.

Well, yeah, you must. Yeah, well, they learn a lesson

there. A lot of them ain't pest

controllers, so they don't know what they're selling a lot.

I've heard a lot of them just if you get the wrong door knockers,

apparently they can actually oversell the service and the

service gets sold and the comp they've over promised just to

get that signature. Yeah, I'm only going off what

I've heard on podcasts. They're not all like that.

They're not. Yeah, it definitely is.

So it. Yeah, I'm.

I'm glad to hear you find it interesting to hear about how we

do things over here. Like, you know, like things

like, you know, if you've got ants outside and like you've got

bugs outside in America, you can just spray your house, can't

you? Yeah.

Is that right? Can't do that here.

You've got to actually have a problem to get something done.

Yeah, you've got to. You've got to prove you've got.

You've got to physically look and have ants to do something.

You have. You've got to have a problem.

You can't just. That type of control that that

that they have on y'all I. Would.

Like that? We're not.

There's not many chemicals we're allowed to spray out, spray

outside, around buildings and hard.

Nearly nothing. A lot of it is inside.

We do. It's different.

I thought I'd bench with it because it's, it's very

different to what, to what you you're used to in America.

It is. But I always find it fascinating

talking to people from different, different countries

to see how different, different things work.

And it's, it's been fun. It has, yeah.

It's been awesome. It was really good talking to

you. Is there anything else you

wanted to mention about going for some moles or anything like

that? Any funny stories you've got or?

I have all kinds of stories, but I can't think of any off the top

of my. No, you're right.

But yeah, it's been, it's been, it's been interesting to be

honest. It's been good to have somebody

on that is an actually pest control that because I've, I've

got some mole captures coming on, but they're from the UK you

see. So they're actually see, most of

our molecatchers are all qualified pest controllers, not

just solely moles only and Gophers.

I need to watch that one. I need to set up a reminder.

What day are you having that? I'm just trying to, I'll give

you a message and I've I've got that many on.

I say that who am I? I've got someone coming on.

That's my mate Andrew. He, he's actually got a shop

where he sells mole traps. He sells, he's got a shop, he

just sells mole gear. But he's, he's coming on and no

doubt he will, he will be talking about mole catching

because he does it in the field. He's got trailers, he goes and

does all the farms. And yeah, I'll get, I'll message

you the date of that one. But you can always listen to it

on Spotify or Apple after. You don't have to watch it live

because you're probably working. Usually you are, but yeah, it'd

be on the scene. All right.

Well, that is awesome. I'm glad you had me on your

podcast. It was.

Fun. It was fun.

But yeah, do you want to? Is there anything you'd like

tell you? What have you got anyone you'd

like to see on this podcast on Don't Have to Say Anyone if they

want? To think on that one and I'll

mention you. Yeah, no problem.

I'll give message to you. But yeah, do you want to, do you

want to promote? Go for go.

Well, why? Why you won't ever say that it's

been promoting the entire time in the background.

Yeah. Yeah.

You can, you can promote yourself if you want, if you

want to do that or yeah. Go for girl.

There you go. Go for girl.

That's it. There you go.

But yeah, yeah, it's been a, it's been a fun one.

It's been different because, you know, I'm so used to people

being highly qualified in pest control.

It's nice to speak once to someone just just trapping and

sticks to the good humane way of trapping, not involving poison.

Yes. And just sticking with one

thing. Everybody else does multiple

different animals and I just stick with Gophers and bulls.

It's good, it's called specialising in, in, in a, in a

specialist area and that's, that's what you've done and you,

you're in an area where you're able to do it all year round

apart from certain bits you've said where the ground gets hard.

But for the vast majority, you can carry on all year round,

which is something unheard of in this country.

If we just went for mole control, we'd be out of

business. We would be not enough.

Although we got a lot of work last year for mole control.

It boosted the business control. I joined that mole group.

I got a lot of work through that website and it boosted the

business. But it would not be enough to

keep the business alive by itself.

It wasn't. It boosted the business a bit.

It did, but yeah, all right, honestly, thanks for coming on

and giving up your time Yeah of. Course it was fun.

But yeah, no thank you and I hope you have a good rest of

your day. I'll let you know when it's up

on Spotify. To be fair, I'll do it after

I'll upload it. I'll, I'll let you know, but

I'll you'll see some clips drop and I'll tag you and stuff if

you want. I can even if you want the

clips, I can send them to your e-mail so you can download them

and put them on your socials if you want.

I do not mind that. Would be awesome.

I'd love, I can do that, but it's like an AI, It clips it

automatically. So it picks certain points, but

guarantee it will, it will pick that strictly and I'll guarantee

it. I'll bet you it'll pick that.

But yeah, but thank you for coming on.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Appreciate that. Have a good rest of your day.

Are you back off out or is that your day done?

What is that your day done now or are you going back out to

work? My husband did the rest of my

jobs for the day. Well, that was nice.

Say thanks to him from there. I.

Will. All right then.

Thank you. Thank you.

Have a good day. Have a good day.

Speak to you soon. Bye.

Bye.

Tonight's Episode