Sale of Mitie tops news stories list in 2018

The most popular article by quite some distance on the Pest website in 2018 was the story that we broke in October 2018 that Rentokil was buying Mitie Pest Control. In a repeat of 2017, the acquisition activities of Rentokil continue to fascinate pest professionals.
Within the article on the original story announcing the Mitie sale (which was updated with the CMA referral news) we referred to the purchase, in January 2017, of Cannon by Rentokil and this prompted a high proportion of readers to go on to re-read this older article meaning it took second place in the popularity stakes having been the most read in 2017.

Another older article took third place – Choosing the best rat and mouse traps was published in September 2017. Clearly this a topic which interests our readers although, we also suspect that Google searches may have directed a number of amateurs searching for advice on trap selection, to our article.

As editors we were delighted to see that the majority of web stories making the top 20 were those where we had researched the topics and/or added our interpretation to breaking news, rather than simply reproducing press releases from the companies concerned.

Looking back over the ten years that Pest has published online, it is interesting to note that the top topics today
are generally of a more serious nature – whilst this is partly because the more frivolous items now find a home on social media it is also, we believe, a reflection of the professionalisation of our industry over that period.

Here’s the full top 20 list so if you missed any of these, now’s your chance to catch up!