The destruction invasion animals can cause in a short period of time is costly and emotionally draining for producers.
Recent wet weather has led to reports of feral pest numbers growing in Queensland and aerial shooter Adam Quinn has been hearing from producers first hand just how much damage they are causing to crops, livestock and land.
"One feral pig can cause a couple of hundred dollars worth of damage to a farm in one night," he said.
"So when you have one hundred pigs hit a property for a week, there is a massive amount of damage they can do.
"Farmers are telling us we have taken out in one day what would have taken them 12 to 18 months using traditional ground management, so they feel we have made a massive dent in their problems and you can see the relief on their face when they realise the return can be quite significant."
Mr Quinn is the owner operator of Queensland-based organisation Greyman Ops, and provides specialised and professional humane pest destruction and removal services nationally.
His family-run business offers urban pest control for issues with birds and vermin, but it's his aerial shooting program that is in demand with producers and landowners looking to reduce numbers of invasive animals over vast areas quickly.
"We generally get more results in a shorter period of time," he said.
"You can cover a much larger and wider area using aerial and we can find things in long grass, crops and through trees we can use thermal cameras, we can go places with either our unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or helicopter that is otherwise difficult to access.
"We incorporate the drone to locate them and then use the helicopter for removal of them."
And it is the use of drones that is helping reduce the cost of the aerial pest control programs Mr Quinn said.
Using qualified drone pilots in his team allows feral pigs, wild dogs, deer and camels to be located without utilising money and time having aircraft completing the survey work.
"Depending on what type of helicopter you are running you can be looking at a cost of $800 to $2500 an hour in a shooting program," he said.
"Some of the fly-time is trying to find the targets, but we can use the drones and find out where they are and go in either by foot, vehicle or helicopter to dispatch the problems in a more effective way.
"This makes it more affordable especially for those small operations or when we are working for coordinated regional approaches, which is half a dozen landowners in an area, and instead of it costing $12,000 a day to run a program it might cost $6000."
While most of his clients are private landowners, with some that form the coordinated regional approach groups, Mr Quinn also works for corporate and large-scale farming operations and collaborates with other pest control management operations that use trapping or baiting.
He said he was always investigating ways of working to keep costs down and the use of drones was a big part of keeping the service more affordable.
"We do survey work before we do the actual flying work to make sure we are going to get an outcome," he said.
"So it is unusual that we will invest the time, energy and funding to go on a program and not have worthwhile results."
Mr Quinn has been in the industry for a decade and after a career swap from the corporate world moved into the pest management business after discovering a need for his specialised skills and services.
This eventually led into aerial dispatching.
"I had a business in the corporate world, I worked in banking and finance," he said.
"But I had an interest in helping farmers and landowners in pest removal so I started that off recreationally and combined the firearms and pest control and it grew from there.
"Having a strong background in firearms training in Australia and other countries it blended itself really well because we had customers asking us for pest eradication on a larger scale whether that be wild dogs, pigs deer or larger animals."
Mr Quinn said the business was highly regulated and safety was always a priority for his team.
He also said resourcing the equipment was a time consuming and often challenging process with ammunition costly and often in short supply.
"CASA regulates the carrying and discharge of firearms in and from aircraft, so we can work out of helicopters or aircraft for things like camels out west," he said.
"And then in Queensland we have the firearms registration which are understandable very strict, so carrying semiautomatic shotguns and rifles in helicopters or aircraft involves next level requirements.
"It takes a long time to get those licences and permits but they are the tool we need to do the job effectively and then you have all the equipment.
"Getting magazines from overseas you need an attorney general permit, which it partly related to the department of defence, it can take 18 months to get a permit to get high capacity magazines from the United States."
