We recently solved a long term problem for the North West Ambulance Service in their Control Centre.

Staff had been complaining of "bites" in the work environment.

The previous (Multi National) pest control company had treated the work environment with insecticide on a regular basis for years without identifying what the actual problem was (was it fleas for example and if it was were they actually in the workplace or were they being brought in ?)

We decided to not treat with insecticides (this is a 24 hr a day operation after all - which poses the question "how can you treat with people present in the risk area ?") but to install several mains powered flea traps which would not only trap fleas but any other insects that were present.

We installed the traps, turned on the power and left the traps to do their job.

After a week we returned to the site and removed the sticky pads from the traps and replaced thenm with new ones. After another week we did the same and sent all of the "trapping pads" off to our industrial biologist to positively identify what had been caught.

Did we trap fleas ? No - we didn't................that's a strange one as the previous company had been treating for "Fleas" for years.

So what did we trap ? Very interesting this - we caught several "Biting Midges" (Culicoides obsoletus) - and knowing their lifecycle we tracked them down to standing water and grassland outside the control centre. The windows were open every time we went into this area so the solution seemed straight forward - proof the method of entry with fly screens.

The installation was tricky but with some ingenious thinking on the part of our screen manufacturer/installer we got round it.

Result - happy customer

Result - no more flying insects in the Control Room and no more complaints

Result - no use of insecticide