Charging for rabbit pest control???
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Topic: Charging for rabbit pest control???
Posted By: RangerPete
Subject: Charging for rabbit pest control???
Date Posted: 27 May 2023 at 8:10pm
Hi guys,
Ive been doing a bit of pest control on a few permissions I have around here, but so far I’ve been doing it for free.
Been wondering about if it’s viable to charge for pest control (rabbits and possums).
My question is: if you were going to charge people for doing pest control on their property, how would you charge?
Do you charge per rabbit shot, or per rabbit recovered?
Do you charge a flat rate per visit to their property?
Expenses incurred are things like running costs of a vehicle, tins of pellets, time/skilled labour, equipment costs etc…
How would you charge for your services?
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Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.
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Replies:
Posted By: nunga
Date Posted: 27 May 2023 at 10:29pm
Best to talk with the owner. When ive done pest control for birds at the supermarkets i charged per hour and they just wanted to see the results. But everyone is different just work with the owners and im sure you will be fine
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2nd place HP springer - WFTF World Championships 2014
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Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 27 Jul 2023 at 8:49am
I'd suggest that the possum control should help pay for itself. It's about 90 bucks a kg for hand plucked possum fur at moment.
Think the statistics on rabbits is 9 rabbits eat as much as one sheep.
It may be a working point for you.
I'd go for the free to the first 5 ppl and get refrance of them. Way more valuable than a few bucks to get on larger sections you could charge for.
Then I would ring a few pest control places ask what they would charge to shoot around horses with an air rifle (don't want poison or traps around horses, anything bigger might scare them) use that as a base guide line and go from there.
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Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2023 at 12:51am
So three weeks ago I quit my job to become a full time pest controller, focusing on rabbit control around here.
Bit of a leap of faith, but sometimes you just got to do it.
I’ve been setting up a company and building a website and getting insurance quotes and printing flyers and and and…
I’ve been “practicing” rabbit control for the last 6 months, and have shot about 450 rabbits in that time, but been doing it all for free so far. I’ve gotten used to shooting between 8 and 30 rabbits a night.
Had my first paying client tonight, and wow was it a tough night!
The client has a small property and has seen 3 or 4 rabbits in his yard, and wants them gone, but only wanted to pay for an hour of pest control.
I sat quietly in the garden for an hour and saw nothing but blackbirds.
Saw one rabbit, on the other side of the fence, don’t have permission to shoot in the neighbors property, so can’t do anything about that.
An hour passed and the only thing I saw on the property was a stray cat.
Saw a hedgehog, in the neighbors property. Client dosent like hedgehogs, but again nothing I can do about it.
Saw another cat at the other end of the property.
Another hour passed and no rabbits anywhere to be seen. Only thing Ive seen on the clients property so far is two cats.
I was about to call it for the night and not bill the client for anything, because I hadn’t shot anything in two hours, because I had’nt seen anything to shoot in two hours 😡, when a tiny little bunny hopped through the fence and came to a stop in the middle of the lawn.
I shot that little ****er stone dead before it took another hop!
Stright after the tiny bunny I picked up a big hedgehog with the thermal, on the other side of the property.
I headed over there and dispatched it too.
By that time I was 2 and a half hours in and decided that was enough. Went to go knock on the door and present my meger offerings.
Wow, what a tough night.
Was definatly a learning curve tonight. Learnt two things.
1- small property’s with only a few rabbits are going to be tough. Very much hit and miss.
2- if I didn’t like cats before I really don’t like them now. If a cat walks through an area, you’re not going to see a rabbit there for an hour.
We live and learn.
And tomorrow I’ll create and send off my first invoice 👍🏻
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Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.
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Posted By: kruzaroad
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2023 at 6:16am
Good on you for doing it.
Maybe you could buy a bag of rabbit pellets and for the small jobs prebate the area your going to shoot.
Similarly you might sujest the owner, prebait for best results.
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Posted By: Pauly5
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2023 at 8:11am
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Tough. Maybe have a base fee that gets you there, that they agree to pay regardless of results. That way you cover your costs. Just think that you have driven there using your gas and time at their request, IT HAS COST YOU MONEY TO BE THERE! Then add on for number of rabbits shot. Let them know you have insurance and procedures to do the job professionally and safely, so the base fee pays for that too. If you don't charge for that, you are paying for them and if they don't like it, they should do it themselves.
After each job you should also back price, or calculate costs of what you actually did to see if you are charging enough. This is important, because then you feel justified in charging what you do, because you need to make the numbers work.
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Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2023 at 9:01am
Thanks guys, both good suggestions 👍🏻
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Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.
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Posted By: Pauly5
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2023 at 9:14am
And not to get too technical, but if you had a brief terms of trade showing they agree to pay the minimum fee that could help.
As Judge Judy would say, if you order the steak, and eat the steak, even if you didn't like it, you gotta pay for it.
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Posted By: RangerPete
Date Posted: 17 Sep 2023 at 9:48pm
😂
I have a basic agreement which asks if they would like a once off cull or a regular pest control plan,
And also what they want their maximum time/spend to be.
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Walk quietly, but carry a big stick.
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