I always remember when I first came across the word ‘payola’ it was a quote on the back of an Elton John album which described him as … ‘a short fat musician who had got to where he was without the aid of payola’ – I looked up what it meant. ‘Payola’ a bribe given to secure a special treatment especially to a disc jockey to promote a commercial product.

So what this means is that the records that we hear on the radio aren’t necessarily the most ‘popular’ or most ‘requested’  – they are simply benefitting from a bribe paid to have them on the radio. Hence all the Simon Cowell protégés get an immediate boost to their chances of success…

Google works in very much the same way.

I had always assumed that when you put search engine criteria into the box – you would be getting the ‘best’ or ‘most successful’ or at least the ‘industry number one’….nope…not true…all you are getting is…. the person who has paid to be number one on Google.

This is pretty arbitrary way of selecting something …and of course we are being manipulated to choose a certain product…to the benefit…of Google*.

(*Don’t be fooled here…Google isn’t trying to help any of us in any way at all – they are only interested in PROFIT…)

Maybe with certain products this could be a good way of selecting something…? Having said that I can’t think what product would benefit from this approach…other than one that couldn’t stand on its own merits??

As a gesture of confidence in our own abilities we have drastically reduced our spending on Google – just to see what happens? Will we lose business, will we fall by the wayside…well currently the big news is…nothing has changed. Same number of quality phone calls, same number of quality enquiries, same number of conversions, same turnover and….no time wasters.

We keep track (we are incredibly anal) of every phone call, e-mail, direct website follow up…and nothing has changed…. other than our ranking on Google (…which has fallen considerably)…and we have saved about £5K…a month.

This leads me to the conclusion that much of the Google phenomenon is based on ones ‘EGO’. If one has a massive EGO and you want to sit at number 1 on the sponsored links page….then by all means pay thousands of pounds to Google to do so.

If however you happen to be the best at what you do – then people will tend to find this out by word of mouth and reputation. Ok we don’t get 20 calls a day from Mrs Smith at 23 Acacia Avenue with a dodgy looking plant (…and by the way have I told you my dogs diabetic)…but what we have done is save thousands of pounds on a marketing strategy that doesn’t work…and in the process have…. ‘stuck it to the man’….

Personally I’d rather have a smaller ego and a fatter wallet.
Mike C

When I first set up in business I used to travel all over the country presenting my portfolio of works and trying to get business from wherever I could. I stayed in some fairly grotty places – the one I remember most was a Hotel in Scotland where my bedroom pillow was immediately next to the toilet bowl…stains included…..uuurgh nasty.

Whilst staying in what I considered to be one of my ‘better’ choices I noticed a catalogue advertising the ‘best hotels’ ….and I thought …BINGO…here is the answer to my dilemma – a list of all the best hotels in one book…BRILLIANT…. I bought a copy. I then drove home happy with my new purchase and thinking that all the guess work of picking where to stay was no longer an issue…

On arriving back at home in Glossop I proudly showed my wife the book – Mrs Clough was impressed and then said – …. ‘let’s have a look at what there is near us…?’ – she flicked through the book and stopped at a wonderful looking Hotel advertised with some fantastic looking pictures….

…..BUT HANG ON A MINUTE….that’s the grotty Hotel that’s just around the corner from our house, just by the council yard…????

…but it looks nothing like the pictures in the sales catalogue – the details say … ‘great restaurant’ and ‘luxurious rooms’ which we know to be complete bollocks. It doesn’t have a restaurant and the rooms are pokey and hot …how can my ‘Best Hotels’ book be so wrong….????? The photographs must have been taken by someone laying on the ground pointing the camera away from the Council yard and then ‘photo-shopping’ some trees on to hide the septic tank and the dead horse.

Getting to the bottom of this strange contradiction was one of the greatest lessons in my life…

I had naively assumed that the ‘Best Hotels’ in the ‘Best Hotels Guide’… were ranked on some system that graded out the crap and left in only the ‘best of the best’ so that when you chose a hotel from this guide – you knew that you were getting quality.

Well I was wrong.

What you get with this hotel guide is ….hotels that have paid to be in the guide.

What you get from restaurant guides is ….restaurants that have paid to be in the guide.

What you get from magazines about cars/books/clothes/food anything you care to mention is ….cars/books/clothes/food anything you care to mention….that have paid to be in the magazine

It’s as simple as… you pays your money… you are a ‘Best Hotel/Restaurant/car/clothes/food’…and ….given that the wages of the people that write the books/magazines are paid by the payment of these subscriptions…do you really think they will be kicked out for being crap…highly unlikely.

Soooooooo dear reader…what point am I making here…

Well, very much the point that just because you are in a book or organisation it doesn’t mean that you are any good at what you do. If an organisation/magazine/guide is looking to make money and is looking actively for new members then their selection system is already flawed – they NEED new members to feed the salaries and the admin and the offices and phones and website ….therefore they aren’t going to turn people away just because they are a bit below parr.

I have recently lost work to the ‘other’ trade body within the Invasive Non Native Species market. The home owner had been told that he must use the ‘other’ trade body – he had no idea why, he just had to use somebody who was in the ‘other’ trade body.

Surely to god – somebody should ask the question – what am I actually getting when I use this ‘other’ trade body….?

Would you rather use a Trade Body that went into the market to find another income stream for its damp proof members who were struggling during the economic downturn…

…or would you rather use a Trade Body that vets its members and has no requirement to make a profit.

If an INNSA member breaches our Code of Practice they are removed from the website and have their membership revoked.

So Japanese Knotweed Solutions Ltd, Trading for 13 years, some 10,000 plus projects successfully completed, 2890 maintenance sites still under our care….have lost out to Bollocking Damp Proof services of Bradford who haven’t got a clue what Japanese Knotweed is…they just happen to be a paid up member of the bollocking ‘other’ trade body that happens to have a mate in the mortgage providing body…

Duuuuuuh

I’m working on it.

Mike C

Don’t you just love word’s? ….a subtle change of change of one word in a contract and you can change the whole meaning of what’s being offered…my wife changed ‘love honour and obey’ to ‘abuse and do what I want’…

So what’s the difference between a guarantee (formal assurance that a product or service will meet certain standards) and a warranty ( a promise that certain actions will take place)? Same thing? Or is it something more subtle that’s going on here?

If a Japanese Knotweed contractor says… ‘we offer an insurance backed guarantee’ …what is it they are actually guaranteeing? Is the inference that they are ‘guaranteeing’ that you will never get any knotweed re-growth? Are they suggesting that you will get a big pay out from an insurance company if you get any signs of new plants? …I would suggest that that’s the thought that they are trying to ‘implant*’ in your head.

If someone is trying to say they ‘guarantee’ you won’t get any re-growth…that’s a pretty big statement to make…given that the bulk of the plant is beneath the ground and you can’t see what it is you are dealing with.

Some of the more experienced Japanese knotweed contractors (or the ‘10+ crew’ as I like to call them – indicating ten years or more dealing with this troublesome plant) – can look at a stand of Knotweed and pretty much know how long it’s been there and how much rhizome and root system lies beneath the ground. It’s not an exact science but years of experience will give you a pretty accurate idea of what’s likely to be happening beneath the soil surface.

Some of the less experience contractors (or ‘Proper C*** A***’ members as I like to call them) haven’t got a clue that Japanese Knotweed has a root and rhizome system and probably couldn’t tell you the difference between a ‘root’ and a ‘rhizome’ if you beat them round the head with one…

So ‘guaranteeing’ that you have removed ALL of the plant material or chemically treated ALL of the plant growth is a pretty big statement to make – or… a ‘lie’.

What you can do, is provide a ‘warranty’, this means is that you will go back and check… you will go back and check for 5 years/10 years/20 years or whatever your little heart (or mortgage provider) wishes.

What the provision of a warranty suggests is a continued relationship with the site in that somebody will be re-visiting and checking for signs of new growth.

We at JKSL ‘guarantee’ that we will come back and monitor your site under our ‘warranty’ conditions. Maybe a subtle play on words you might suggest – but all of the team are advised never to guarantee that Japanese Knotweed won’t ever re-appear. We can be pretty damn sure we have done everything possible to mitigate against re-growth… but we can’t 100% guarantee that some tiny piece has slipped through the ‘net’.

We are the ONLY company currently operating in the UK  to have two FULL TIME teams doing NOTHING BUT re-visits… we have over 2980 sites being managed under warranty – these vary from Mr and Mrs Smith* at 14 Acacia avenue (made up name due to data protection)to a stretch of a river in Ireland that is 28 miles long…

So when we say that we can ‘guarantee your site being visited under warranty’ we mean what we say…

Mike C

PS if your chosen contractor is offering a ‘5 million pound insurance backed guarantee that covers damage to hard surfaces’ – they ARE lying. They refer to Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance which will NOT cover you for any accidental re-growth on site. PI covers professional advice – not ground works – and would only pay out if ‘advice given were proven to be negligent’. No definition of re-growth could be deemed negligent advice – thus you won’t be getting your 5 million quid … sorry … it’s a con.

*Implant  – subtle play on words

When I was a young man everything seemed very black and white, decisions were easier to make and the world seemed full of opportunity for a quick thinking entrepreneur like me.

I used to look around at the old farts who had power and think….paah if I were in that position I would rule the world… I was critical, arrogant and a bit of an arsehole. I never had any friends (didn’t see the point) and spent all my time working out how to make my next million.

Fast forward 35 years or so and I’m just beginning to see the error of my ways…

Life is not black and white; it’s actually multiple shades of grey (perhaps not 50 though?) and looking back on some of the decisions I made I do cringe at the reasoning behind them.

It should be noted that I never thought I would live past 40…. so most of my financial planning was based on exiting this world in a blaze of glory at age 39 probably doing 100mph… sideways… on one of my favourite roads in a modified performance car that my wife would have hated. So now I find myself at age 53 driving that little bit slower, going into corners carefully hitting the apex at the right point …and accelerating out with the car fully balanced.

I am also beginning to see that I haven’t prioritised the right things in life? Maybe family and friends should have been a bigger part of my life?…maybe having the next car that goes 0.5 of a second faster than the last one shouldn’t have been such a priority?…

I have always tried to do things just that little but differently but now I’m trying not just to be different but to maybe… make a difference?

Up until recently I would never have entertained the thought that any of my competitors would have anything worthwhile to offer to the world – I simply thought Japanese Knotweed Solutions were the best company out there and that everyone should never use anybody else. I have this year however realised that there ARE other companies out there who have valid strategies and there ARE people who do have valid arguments and valid points to make about invasive non-native species….

An example of my past behaviour would be when I first learned of the bio-control strategies being suggested to tackle Japanese Knotweed by Dick Shaw at CABI. My immediate reaction was that this would be the next biological disaster along the lines of cane toads in New Zealand or rabbits in Australia….how could anyone be so stupid! I was vocal and wrote a blog about the potential problems before carrying out any research or follow up (because …I…was the ‘expert’ in Japanese Knotweed)…

However…once I had listened to Dick Shaw and bothered to understand what was being suggested I realised how dumb I had been …and how the Aphalara psyllid could actually help with our current management techniques and how we could all benefit from a successful introduction of this bio-control strategy.

This episode led to a bit of an awakening within me which in turn led to the setting up of the Invasive Non-Native Specialists Association (www.innsa.org) where ‘like-minded’ companies can offer their services to clients. Clients don’t want to use just one company all the time, they want to use a variety of companies and ensure that they are getting the best advice at competitive rates. The idea behind INNSA was to be able to offer a Trade Body that had the highest of standards and the best quality of service with comparable strategies with no ‘smoke and mirrors’.

Invasive Non-Native Species management is a new industry with new standards and new techniques. Over the last few years the levels of service provided have risen as the more experienced companies have refined their strategies and new methods have been tried and proven. This has very much been a learning curve and has seen a plethora of companies come into the field and try to steal work with false promises and dodgy practice.

I have very much seen this as my opportunity to change the market and bring something to the table that will outlive my personal ambitions and provide a reference point for techniques and a somewhere for clients and interested parties to get clear advice with regards invasive species management. These problem species will always be with us – and it is how we manage these invasions that will dictate what sort of environment our children will live in.

It’s not about gaining a new income stream for some dodgy damp proofing company – it’s about our environment, it’s about retaining our native species and it’s about getting the management of invasive non-native species carried out correctly by competent experienced operatives

People often ask why I spend time advertising and speaking about my competitors when I get no financial return from INNSA  – my answer would be that perhaps I’m trying to see beyond my insignificant life and to see something bigger over the horizon….and maybe a horizon not filled with invasive species?

So…I’m older, I’m wiser…and I’m trying to be a better person.

What next…maybe a Prius?

Every once in a while we get to see other contractors prices – and I cannot lie – it’s interesting. Nobody ever teaches a course in…. ‘How to price a Knotweed removal job’…so seeing how somebody else builds up a quote is always going to be interesting. How do they set out the programme of works, are they doing anything we aren’t…and of course…what are their prices!

Really there shouldn’t be that much difference between any two quotes for comparable works – the main difference should be geographic (how near they are to the site) and then it’s down to how much profit each individual company needs to make. The smaller the company the lower their overheads and the cheaper their price – but then there is also a greater risk that the smaller company will not survive – and in the world of invasive species management it is the re-visits that are critical

As many of you who read this blog will know – I have a bit of a ‘bee in my bonnet’ about clients just giving our quotations to our competitors and asking them to beat our price….so if you are a fellow INNSA contractor you know that if I’m given one of your quotes – the first person I will call is you.

If however you are a member of another trade body then you won’t get that level of courtesy.

Wealth warning 1

We were recently contacted by a Scottish developer who had received a quotation from local company (…local…yet had taken over six weeks to get back to him). The site had been visited by a surveyor who was able to give a quote for chemical treatment – but.. ‘wasn’t qualified’ to discuss any other alternate options.

When asked to provide a price for removal of material from site the client was told that ‘another’ person would have to visit site to provide this service. Six weeks later another surveyor from the same company arrived and quoted removal costs of £500,000.00 – not £510K or 498K ….but exactly £500,000.000

JKSL quoted £24,546.23

Each and every one of our surveyors are fully versant with all options for dealing with your invasive weed problems. They are also fully up to speed with legislation and ‘other’ invasive species.

Wealth warning 2

We have been treating an area of Japanese Knotweed on a new development in Glasgow – certain areas were excavated and removed – other areas were being treated with a glyphosate programme with repeat visits.

The plot of land adjacent to the land we are treating has been developed for housing with over 100 new houses having been built.

One of the first houses to be sold were ‘advised’ that they ‘were required’ to have an insurance backed warranty to cover any works needed to remediate problems associated with the nearby Japanese Knotweed.

They were pointed towards a local company who quoted them £4800.00 plus VAT for an insurance backed warranty – when asked what they would be doing for this figure they were told … ‘we don’t need to do anything – Japanese Knotweed Solutions provide the best service in the market’…they didn’t even visit the site before giving the quote and had no history of the project other than the fact that JKSL were dealing with the problem.

Wtf is going on here?

Somebody somewhere is in bed with somebody who is making a pretty penny for doing absolutely nothing….and getting paid on the back of the quality of our service.

Wealth warning 3

We were asked to look at a project in Leeds recently where an elderly couple had been quoted £38,000.00 to remove Japanese Knotweed

It wasn’t Japanese Knotweed – it was sycamore.

Wealth warning 4

A new housing development of over 400 houses had a minor infestation of Japanese knotweed on one small area in the corner of the development. Excavation and removal of this small area was going to cost just over £6800.00 plus VAT.

They were told that EVERY house on the development would ‘HAVE’ to ‘have an insurance backed warranty’ at a cost of £3500.00 per property

Do the maths £1.400,000.00

Totally unnecessary and totally scare mongering for business…

What I must admit I end up wondering….is….am I missing a ‘trick’ here??????….maybe the Scottish company that quotes.. ‘£half a million’ – occasionally actually get people saying yes – and it wouldn’t take many… ‘£half a mill’…. jobs to allow you to retire…? Maybe the company trying to sell insurance backed warranties for every house in the world is actually having some success and is now selling policies from a hut on a beach in the Maldives?

I’m also thinking – if these sites are ones that I’ve come across…what about the ones that I haven’t come across????

It stands to reason that not every knotweed project in the UK is going to land on my desk – so it also stands to reason that somewhere somebody is being completely ripped off by an unscrupulous contractor….

One way of avoiding the cowboys is to pick an INNSA registered company, another way is just to ask me!

Please though, look after your wealth and don’t be fleeced by an un-‘Wise’ choice of contractor.

Mike C

It has been proven in Australia that the invasive cane toads are taking a more direct approach to conquering the continent.

Rick Shine of the University of Sydney and his colleagues have managed to analyse 10 years of tracking data as the cane toads invaded the Northern territories.

The data showed that the first toads to arrive travelled in straight lines covering the ground quicker. The slower toads hopped randomly all over the place and got there three years later. The team then bred the speedy toads together* (nb* it was a quick process as they got straight down to it) and showed that the progeny of these faster toads followed more direct paths than the offspring of the slower parents.

Shine suggests that this inheritable trait could explain the accelerated invasion….

So if toads can have traits that enable them to invade quicker and more efficiently… are the various Japanese knotweeds at large in the UK showing variable speeds of ‘invasiveness*’ …?

Well the first thing to say is that the toads have sexually reproduced with a variable DNA base meaning that successive generations could breed in a particular benefit – whereas Japanese Knotweed has all been cloned from the original plant brought over to Kew in 1850 by Phillipp Von Siebold. Cloning means that each successive generation will have identical characteristics to its parent meaning that there would be no selection, improvement or variation in character.

What can be suggested by the data available is that Japanese Knotweed is moving its way further Northward in the UK and that it continues to grow both later in the season and start to produce buds earlier each year. This could be a symptom of milder winters, earlier Spring or even global warming?…

Watching Countryfile on TV a couple of weeks ago I noticed an article on ground dwelling bees which had become newly resident on the South coast – these bees had come over from Europe and were now making their way Northward.

What should be noted with all these cases is the adaptability of invasive non-native species. It bodes caution and awareness in all of us that if we see something ‘unusual’ then we should check and identify what it is you have seen – whether it be a plant or an animal.

….and watch out for those toads – they’re coming straight at you!

Mike C

*Invasiveness – NOT A REAL WORD!

Have you ever sworn at a waiter whilst complaining about the food in a restaurant? Do you get impatient when waiting to check in/check out of the hotel? Do you get agitated if someone cuts past you on the motorway when its goes from two lanes into one…or are you the type who just calmly accepts life’s little challenges and doesn’t rise to any of these issues?

My brother and I are totally different he’s calm and collected, he analyses everything and takes ages to decide on anything. Dave’s been looking to get a new kitchen for years and goes into the minutiae of every part of the potential purchase – often taking so long that the manufacturers of the item he wanted have ceased trading and retired…

I tend to be a bit more emotive in my decision making process – if it feels right I just buy it and get on with things. I used to say that I used my… ‘gut feeling’ …when making decisions until someone told me that ‘gut’ stands for ‘gave up thinking’…!

In the past my brother and I have fallen out over our different approaches to life and my testosterone levels have dictated that we end up not speaking for weeks/months. In my head I used to just be convinced that I was right and he was wrong…simple.

However, over the years I’ve seen my brother flourish with his approach and have been trying to adopt his calm and relaxed demeanour into my life. So now when my wife keeps me waiting to pick her up whilst she has one more coffee with her sister…it’s not a problem. When my car is being serviced and it’s not ready when they said it would be…it’s not a problem. People now push past me in queues at the supermarket and if I let a car in front of me whilst driving, I now find another twenty following suit and ignoring me…

So… either my testosterone has sunk to an all-time low or I’m mellowing…

But which approach is best when managing Japanese Knotweed?…

Our clients tend to fall into the categories I’ve described above – client number one is very relaxed and wants a longer term management strategy putting into place where over a number of years the infestation is gradually depleted and eventually eradicated. Client number two has an instant knee jerk reaction and wants every trace of knotweed removed from his site instantly…

There is mileage in each of these approaches and it very much depends on the end use of the site and the timings of the building or development works planned.

Personally I’ve always been a ‘get in and clear it’ type of guy…this is nothing to do with my ‘gut’ feelings, but more to do with my experience of what can happen to sprayed and treated areas of sites that aren’t managed correctly. If some unknowing machine operator drives through an area of Japanese Knotweed that is undergoing treatment and spreads the viable rhizome all over your development site – your costs can increase massively. So whilst the longer term approach may appear cheaper on paper, you must add back in to your equation the possible risks associated with having a still viable knotweed stand on your land.

It’s all down to ‘risk management’ at the end of the day – every site is different.

We will always discuss your site requirements and will always tailor our strategies to fit both your budget and your development programme – and we will always advise you of the risks to enable you to make the best and most cost effective decisions.

So no matter which character type you fit into, we will ensure that you get the best results.

Mike C – the ‘C‘ stands for ‘calm’

I’m always interested in finding out who actually introduced our various invasive non-native species to the United Kingdom? It is often difficult to put a specific name against a particular plant and say – ‘so and so’ was the person responsible for the introduction of ‘x’ plant on ‘insert date’. The name most associated with Japanese Knotweed would be Phillip F Von Siebold who reputedly sent samples of Fallopia Japonica to the Royal Horticultural Society at Kew in 1849 – starting an invasion that is still causing problems today.

More often these invasions take place gradually over a number of years – perhaps an accidental introduction then a gradual slow incremental spread – followed by a huge growth phase. Often these plants aren’t particularly on anybody’s ‘radar’ and it is only when someone takes notice that a problem is recognised. Himalayan balsam for example was first discovered in the wild in 1855 yet it took till 2006 for the first paper showing its negative impacts.

The example of the ruddy duck in Europe is a good example of what happens without early detection and response. First introduced to Britain from America it was allowed to escape and establish a breeding population as it was believed to have little local impact. With interbreeding and competition however it has become the biggest threat to the white headed duck in Spain. Failure to act and the consequences led to huge expenses being incurred with costs in excess of £5 million being spent in Britain alone where it had become widespread.

Many of our problem plant species in the UK were introduced by the Victorian gardeners who were intent on creating fantastic gardens full of exotic species from around the world.

King Louis XIV was known for his interest in botany, his legacy included more than thirteen hundred new species. Among this huge list was Rhododendron  ponticum first seen near the Turkish town of Pontus. This evergreen shrub appears to have been first brought to Britain from south western Spain in 1763 and was welcomed into all the best gardens.

The Victorian gardeners liberally planted R.ponticum as a rootstock on which to graft less vigorous and more exotic Rhododendron species. Rootstock suckered and spread and the prolific tiny seeds it produced helped it travel the length and breadth of Britain along railway embankments and taking up residence in woodlands.

There were originally two limiting factors in the spread of this evergreen invader;

It could not abide lime rich soils

It could not survive very cold winters
Whilst it still does not pose a problem in areas of calcareous soils …it has now naturalised up into the far north of Britain and has evolved a cold tolerance. Recent research has discovered that populations of R.ponticum in eastern Scotland contain genes from more cold tolerant species, Rhododendron catawbiense- this species was introduced from North America and can tolerate temperatures much colder than anything ever recorded in Britain.

Somewhere along the line R. ponticum evidently hybradized with R. catawbiense and has acquired genes from this source.This points to a further problem with invasive non-native species in their ability to become genetically modified.

Bad enough that invasions can happen and can be very serious – but even worse still, when genes move between species allowing plants to invade new habitats in which previously they were unable to survive.

This makes ‘naming’ the culprit who introduced a problem plant even more difficult as multiple factors have been involved…perhaps I could become an alien plant detective….???

Mike C

Ref Jonathon Silverton – Demons in Eden / ref The Royal Society of Edinburgh Discussion Forum Dr Niall Moore / Prof Chris Thomas

When I have read about genetically modified (GM) plants I have been under the misconception that these were simply plants given a boost to speed up growth and increase crop production. I then filed the thought of GM crops under a label of …’there must be a catch’. I didn’t really think through what was actually being offered.

The more sceptical amongst us worry more about the details of GM food;

Potential threats to human health from consuming food from GM crops

Possibilities that GM crops could have adverse environmental effects including the risk that some might become invasive weeds

Contamination of non-GM by genes carried in pollen or seeds
One area that I have never understood is the confusion in where the risk lies? Is it in the GM technology itself or from the genes that the technology has been used to transfer?

Supporters of the GM debate tend to argue that the methods used are simply a better way of achieving what plant breeders have been doing for millennia – and just speeding up what has naturally happened in nature throughout the history of life.

At a conference in Atlanta Toby Bradshaw a plant biotechnologist stated … ‘it’s a myth to think that humans invented the transfer of genes into plants. It has been done for millions and millions of years by soil bacteria, and it is possible to convince those bacteria to transfer any bit of DNA that you would like moved into a plant.’ Earlier in the year a group calling itself the ‘Earth Liberation Front’ had burned Bradshaw’s lab to the ground citing the fact that his work … ‘unleashes mutant genes into the environment…’

However the genes that the scientists trick the soil bacteria into transferring are not the genes that these bacteria naturally transfer – even if the process is natural, the product is not.

Proponents of GM focus on the safety of the tools for the gene transfer – and tend to consider that the problems are only associated with particular genes – ie it’s not the GM tool – but what you do with it that matters. Those against GM ignore this distinction taking the stance that exotic genes couldn’t be transferred and become a problem without the GM technology.

Conventional plant breeding can produce odd products – but these hazards receive no attention because they never get to the market place.

One of the earliest ‘rumours’ around GM crops was the suspicion that they had a resistance to antibiotics. The gene was there as a by-product of the genetic engineering process – not because it served any useful function. The idea persisted that the GM food might contain something that might inactivate antibiotics – and the fear that this could spread from GM crops caused understandable alarm.

Current fears concern genes for herbicide tolerance and a gene that produces a toxin that kills caterpillars. Obviously farmers are in a continual battle against weeds and insect pests – any advantageous method that reduces damage done by these two scourges would help them…if…they can still sell the crop. The ‘if’ is crucial – if consumers are suspicious of GM crops then supermarket chains and food producers will simply refuse to buy the crops.

From the farmer’s viewpoint, a perfect herbicide is one that will kill problem weeds without doing any damage to the crop. The big herbicide manufacturers like Monsanto have produced GM crop varieties that are tolerant of their proprietary brand herbicides – thus by sowing these GM seeds and applying the proprietary herbicide… a farmer can in theory grow a weed free crop.

But what happens if these plants cross pollinate with other species producing plants that are tolerant of herbicides ….

No competent plant scientist would ever claim to be ignorant of the possibilities when adjacent herbicide tolerant plants that are insect pollinated are put into the general cycle of food production. Herbicide tolerance could well spread form these fields into the wild causing irreversible harm …

Imagine a herbicide tolerant, fertile Japanese Knotweed plant and you have a major issue on your hands …with very few weapons to tackle it with.

Mike C

Ref: ‘Demons in Eden’ Jonathon Silverman

Is it just me or are we all too busy to ever actually have the time to enjoy what we are doing at any particular moment? We are so busy moving on to the next thing that we are doing, that we lose track of the simpler pleasure of enjoying the moment that you are actually ‘in’…

This isn’t just in our private lives but this has also become a problem in the businesses that we run. We chase all over the country for the next project that we are going to do, we push for the order, we push to get on site, we push to get the job done, we push to get the invoice out …then we push for payment…whilst all the time looking for the next project that we are going to get involved with.

Note : When I say ‘we’ here I don’t mean Japanese Knotweed Solutions Ltd – I mean ‘we’ as in all of us!

But why is this? Wouldn’t we all be better off slowing down a bit? Make sure the job is done correctly? …maybe have some time to ensure the job ends with a quality finish and an aftercare package in place?

What is it that prevents this approach…?

It’s a simple answer – in this very complex world that we live in – it’s all down to MONEY.

Mobile phones have a lot to answer for, e-mails, social networking sites, Skype – all great inventions – but what they actually achieved is a climate of quick responses, quick turn around and very little time to think and plan ahead.

Maybe the ‘economic downturn’ has an equal amount of the blame – many people I know have stated that over the last couple of years they have been working twice as hard – just to achieve the same income level as they had in previous years. We are all concerned that with the banks squeezing every penny, we have to bill more, we have to turn over more and we can never relax for a minute…once you relax, you’re dead. Margins have come down, profit has become a dirty word …therefore you have to turn over more, just to be able to reach the same profit levels that you did when turning over half what you do now…

I started to think about this last week when looking at our management figures for the month. I then looked at what we billed in a typical week and it set me to thinking that our weekly turnover is now greater than what my entire first year in business was…

But… am I any happier?…am I any wealthier?…am I more stressed?

The answer would be a resounding ‘NO’ to the first two questions and a ‘YES’ to the third.

So maybe we need to ALL slow down, let’s ALL put our prices up…let’s ALL do fewer jobs…

Any jobs that we do – let’s do them really well and make some money ENJOYING what we do…let’s look up and smell the roses, let’s stop and enjoy the view, lets finish early on a Friday and go fishing, let’s enjoy being in a Great country…

We are all only here once…so let’s enjoy it a bit more whilst were here?

Anyway – must go – 68 emails have come in whilst I’ve been writing this and my mobile just hasn’t stopped ringing.

Mike C

Built in obsolescence’, is this a phrase that you want to hear about something you’ve recently bought….I think not.

I was talking recently with my youngest daughter about ‘craftsmen’ – those purveyors of quality within whatever field or product it is that they produce. One of Meg’s heroes from the world of prosthetic make-up had recently passed away and she said .. ‘you know what dad, there will never be another Dick Smith…the world no longer produces people like that …’

I’ve been thinking a lot about what she said and I’m beginning to wonder if she’s right?

I like my cars, I do a lot of miles (35,000 plus per annum), I change cars every two years – so I consider myself a fairly good judge of where cars have gone over the last twenty years, and my considered opinion that the majority of vehicles are NOT as well made as they once were. My first Porsche was built like a brick shit house – it was solid, the doors shut with a real clunk and you knew you were in a quality vehicle. My most recent Porsche had door trim falling off within a month and the rear hydraulic hinges on the boot were rusty within six months…not what you expect on a ‘premium’ vehicle.

There are reasons for this – (or are they ‘excuses’ ) – cars need to be lighter, cars need to be more easily re-cycled, cars need to be more fuel efficient, cars need to collapse in an accident …blah, blah,blah…what we end up with is something that feels cheap and crappy. What I actually want from a car is something that feels well-made and is something that I can cherish and look after ….and enjoy the experience of driving.

I like my gadgets as well, i-phone 5 ‘S’ currently my favoured model (I have two, one in black and one in white) – wonderful technology, incredibly quick and incredibly useful…but two years into ownership and the on/off button has stopped working…and it keeps losing power for no obvious reason….and low and behold just as this starts to happen…the new i-phone 6 raises its head…

Perhaps this inherent ’built in obsolescence’ is a symptom of a society which doesn’t appreciate quality? We want things cheap and we want them now…

Cars have to go faster and faster and be more and more fuel efficient whilst prices come down and quality theoretically goes up…

I’m sure you are all wondering how I can get this back to the world of invasive weed management. Well where I’m going with this is that Japanese Knotweed Solutions Ltd are at the quality end of the scale – we came into this field with the express intention of making a difference, not just making a quick profit.

‘Other’ companies have looked to ‘expand their portfolio’ to ‘create new income streams’ to increase ‘revenue’ during the ‘economic downturn’ ….

It is possible to do a quick treatment of invasive species that looks pretty damn dramatic. You can hit the surface growth of any plant and make it look dead, all browned off and looking very poorly. But what about the beneath ground growth?… what about the seed bank?… what about other species?… what’s going to grow where you have killed an invasive species?…

These are not questions a damp proof company are going to be able to answer…or even think about to be honest – all they are after is a bit of extra dosh to help them through the recession.

So who would you prefer working on your invasive weed problems? Someone who is looking to ‘increase revenue’ ….or somebody who genuinely has a passion for resolving problems with invasive species?

Pick a craftsman not a cowboy.

Mike C

I’m weird, I know this, many of you that know me – know this too. I do many weird things and have an overriding hate of cheap crap and tacky stuff. I hate cheap unpalatable food – I’d rather not eat than eat rubbish (…and haven’t had a McDonalds or Burger King meal for over 20 years). If someone tries to sell me something and uses the phrase ‘you can save ‘x’ amount’ or ‘this is a bargain’ – I immediately switch off and don’t want it.

I hate sales, I hate end of season bargains and I’ve never bought anything that was ‘last year’s model’…

I therefore struggle with working with the type of person that looks for a bargain or a cheap offer – I know I’m going to dislike them before we’ve even started a working relationship. I have a way of detecting ‘assholes’ – if I arrive at a meeting in my car and the client says ‘I must be paying you too much’ or ‘I’ve paid for that car’ …what I should do instead of smiling politely and laughing is tell them to go f**k themselves and just get back in my car. It’s the same with people that go through the bill in a restaurant arguing that they only had ‘one poppadum’ or that they ‘didn’t have a starter’ …cheapskates …should all be shot…

So why is it that people always want to have the cheapest price? What do they think they are gaining? I’ve got to be honest with the majority of my clients using me on a repeat basis – I’m not going to over-charge them, and I certainly won’t be ‘ripping’ anybody off – yet they just won’t believe me – they have to get three or more prices before they can give me an instruction.

Is this really cost effective?

When I get work done on my house I never ask for three prices – ever.

I get a recommendation from someone I know then I ask for the builder/plumber/electrician to give me a price for the works and providing the price is ‘reasonable’ then he gets the job. But…I hear you ask …how do you know what’s ‘reasonable’…

Well…you look at the day rate for what he is doing, you look at the materials costs, the you look at what profit he is making and decide whether you would be happy to get paid what he gets paid…least ways that’s what I do. Most of the time you will get a little variation in what people charge as a day rate but most people are ‘reasonable’.

What magical formulae do clients think that people are going to produce to make them do a job cheaper then the next contractor? Either the materials that they provider are shoddy and sub-standard or the labour rate is based on fewer days? There is no other way to save money on a job. Yes you can work harder, more efficiently, maybe some companies own machinery, others rent or hire it in – but there isn’t a huge difference. Maybe company one is nearer to you therefore they might save a few quid on travelling costs…but in the scheme of things its pennies.

Wouldn’t you prefer to work with a company that you know and trust rather than going with a cheaper alternative that you know nothing about? ….

So let’s just cut all this nonsense, just come to Japanese Knotweed Solutions, you know we are the best…and stop being a cheapskate…

Mike C