Sector

20 December 2017

PPC Live: Meet the speaker - Gary Williams

Urban Wildlife's Director of Wildlife, Gary Williams, will be leading a seminar at PPC Live called Actions vs impacts – a pest controller’s quandary. We catch up with him to see what we should expect. 

Gary Williams

As a young boy, I had a fascination with wildlife, a passion that I especially enjoyed with my best friend... my grandfather. I enjoyed nothing more than spending hours down the woods listening, learning about and observing the wildlife around me. My grandad’s stories made everything I saw and learnt more special and intriguing, enhancing my need to learn more!

Working with wildlife 

My early career began with employment at a major pest control company where I learnt the trade of a pest controller and specialised in fumigation techniques, but something was missing…

Eventually, I realised that I didn’t want to “kill” all the time and decided that there had to be other ways in order to achieve harmony.

After running my own pest control company for many years I wanted to change focus and concentrate on wildlife problems, in particular, wildlife issues in urban situations and how wildlife can be affected by pest control techniques.

Who are Urban Wildlife

Today, Urban Wildlife enjoys being one of the UK’s leading companies offering non-lethal and bespoke methods of ecological and wildlife management in urban areas.

We strongly believe that as professionals we have an obligation to provide the best information and advice to the general public, local councils, authorities, wildlife crime officers and the like.

By ensuring that we consistently deliver objectivity when assessing client requirements, deliver professional competence on all levels and only provide lawful services and solutions, we can ensure integrity is maintained.

Actions vs impacts tak

What we'll be talking about

As pest controllers, we know that some of the products we use can be harmful to our wildlife, but do we always take time to consider the overall impacts of the wider area?

It isn’t necessary to have an in-depth knowledge of wildlife to know whether your treatment plan is suitable for the site, but a general knowledge of potentially present wildlife, indicators and habitat is undoubtedly beneficial.

Focusing largely on common urban species, our presentation aims to give a broad overview of some of the wildlife that you may encounter throughout your work as a pest controller in various environments, indicators to identify them, their protected status and what potential penalties and fines may be attributed if errors are made.

With the addition of some visual aids as examples, we hope to provide an insightful taster into how pest control and wildlife can successfully intertwine; Education IS the key to effective species management. 


Professional pest control together. PPC Live is the sister show to PestEx, and is BPCA's exhibition and conference designed for UK pest control technicians, managers and company owners. This event will be held on Wednesday 14 March 2018 at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, Worcestershire.

Register now

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