Here’s the scene: During a routine traffic stop, police pull over a car. After checking the driver’s ID, they ask what he does for a living. “I’m a hitman,” he replies. The officers’ alarm quickly fades when they realize he means that he works in pest control.
The anecdote raises several questions. What does the man’s answer reveal about his own – and society’s – attitude toward exterminating rats? How do other people in the profession construct a narrative around their work – and use it to define who they are? What exactly is “dirty work,” and what makes a job dirty in the first place?
“How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead.”
The line comes from one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays. In Hamlet, the title character cries out before stabbing the spy Polonius, who is hiding behind a curtain. The choice of a rat as a metaphor is hardly accidental. In European culture, rats have long ranked among the most despised of creatures. Cast as vermin, they have symbolized demons, the devil, rape, destruction, disease, plague, the Black Death, famine, decay, and death itself.
So how much respect have the people who exterminate them received? According to Dr. Jarzębowska’s research, not all that much. Why? Could the disgust associated with rats somehow rub off on the people whose job is to get rid of them?
Dr. Jarzębowska points to three main forms of stigma traditionally associated with what sociologists call “dirty work.” The first is physical stigma: direct contact with things considered unclean. The second is social stigma: contact with stigmatized people or groups. The third is moral stigma, attached to occupations considered immoral. Some researchers also identify a fourth category: emotional stigma. Interviews with pest control technicians reveal how their profession intersects with all of these forms of stigma.
The pattern
“Until someone has a problem, they say, ‘Yuck.’ But once it happens to them, they say, ‘Jesus, how wonderful that people like you exist!’” This comment from one study participant captures the ambivalence surrounding pest control. The cultural association with disgust goes hand in hand with appreciation when the profession becomes useful – or even indispensable.
“Someone has a problem. We show up and solve it. It’s a win-win. I also believe in karma, to some extent. I leave a little positive energy behind,” another respondent said.
“Respect is a key element in building a positive identity narrative for this professional group,” says Dr. Jarzębowska. “The interviews suggest that the rhetoric shaping the identity of rat exterminators is largely built around it – particularly the tension between disapproval and respect from outsiders.”
Survival strategies
The idea of “karma,” however, takes on another meaning in some accounts. “I’ve seen too many animals die. I tell myself it’s a form of defense, so we have the right to do it. But I also try to make up for it. For example, I haven’t eaten meat in years. I kill here, but I earn points there,” one respondent explained.
At the same time, pest control technicians often use another strategy: they downplay or obscure the act of killing animals itself while emphasizing the social value of what they do.
“The construction of professional identity is clearly tied to how outsiders respond to the exterminator’s work,” Dr. Jarzębowska explains. “Respondents emphasize the social value of what they do, while pointing out that other people often fail to recognize that value. In most accounts, rat extermination is portrayed as a problem with no real solution. These narratives reveal the dynamic nature of exterminators’ professional identities, shaped in response to the social and ethical controversies surrounding pest control.”
The text was originally published in Polish on the Serwis Naukowy UW website on September 12, 2025.
