Working day

Jenny with Maddy, one of her four energetic dogs.

Jenny Humphrey is director at DRE Pest Control, a family business based in Swavesey. She spends most of her working week ensuring the residents, farms and businesses of Cambridgeshire are free from pests. She is also treasurer of the British Pest Control Association.

7.30am Monday morning and the start of another busy week in the world of pest control. Cram one of my four lovable but very energetic dogs, Maddy, and all my paperwork for the day into the van. Ensure my 15-year-old son Dan is up in time to catch the bus to school and grab my coffee to go.

8am Following what feels like the slowest tractor in Cambridge, Im on my way to our Swavesey office to meet with my team and to be briefed on the previous weeks activities. Jobs that came in over the weekend are allocated to the staff and the vans are stocked ready for the week ahead, before my team disappear into the Cambridgeshire countryside.

9am I pop by mums, where over my second cup of coffee of the morning, we discuss the short-term strategy for the business, review a final design for a local advertising campaign were planning to run, and tweak the content on our new website to reflect the campaign. We have a general gossip and I catch up on mums recent holiday to California with my two teenagers.

Just before leaving, Mum asks me to pass her a dustbin bag from the cupboard by the back door, from which a mouse springs out, hitting me directly in the chest a great start to the morning.

9.30am Time to hit the road again and from the comfort of my mobile office I plan the rest of my week, catch up on any emails and phone calls, then set off to make my first consultation of the day.

10am Arrive at one of our clients, a college kitchen in Cambridge, for a routine check of their bait boxes and discover that rats have taken some of the bait ah ha, I say, a little too loudly, what are you doing in here? After informing the catering manager and positioning some extra bait stations, we arrange a revisit for the following week. Back in the van I pick up a call from a school with a wasps nest. Im keen to get there responsibly quickly. Fortunately the nest is to the rear of the building, so I deal with it without having to come back out of school hours.

Noon Wasps nest dealt with, I realise its lunchtime. I grab 40 minutes to myself and take Maddy for a much-needed walk shes usually pretty desperate by now, bless her. I write a do to do list for my PA, jot down a few notes for the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) meeting on Wednesday and make a mental note to watch tonights BBC Panorama documentary addressing the effect of local authority cuts to public pest control services; not quite sure what to expect, but we shall see.

During the day I receive a number a calls from property management companies, farmers and residents with a range of pest problems. After reassuring them, I arrange for one of my team to visit them within 48 hours.

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