Preventing Rats Becoming Your Neighbours

Like most things preventing rats from establishing a home and leading to an outright rat infestation is the best pest control method. Once rats infest and are settled in, not only is disposing of the rats a worry but the habitat they have built (holes, pathways, burrows) are an inviting home for the next passing pest.

3 steps to prevention:

• Limit Access – rats only need a hole the size of a 10p coin to squeeze their greasy bodies through
• Limit Food Supply – fix water leaks and clear up food spillages
• Restrict Areas of Habitation – check areas which are not frequently used, when storing items or firewood, frequently visit the area (rats like quiet areas to nest and breed)

How to Spot a Rat Infestation

There are two types of rats founds in the UK, the brown rat (common rat) and black rat, both of which frequently grow up to 500grams in weight! Rats are most active at night and tend to like small dark places to use as highways to get to all their feeding zones. Rats are active throughout the year but in many cases you are more likely to find rats infesting your house during the winter when natural food sources are scarce and wet weather or snow forces them into a cosy shelter.

Most spot a rat infestation when it’s too late to try any DIY techniques such as buying a spring rat trap, more vigorous planned methods are often required from a specialist pest control expert.

To spot a rat, look out for:

• Rat dropping around where your pets eat
• Rat droppings in your bins (inside and out)
• Gnaw marks on doors/frames, beams and wires
• Sawdust/tiny bits of wood on carpets
• Droppings or small hairs in food cupboards
• Any evidence of holes in your flower bed or beneath a shed
• Damage to plants and garden items
• Urine stains and odors
• Greasy marks spotted about (rats have grease on their fur to help squeeze through small holes)
• Your pet cat/dog bringing in dead rats
• Footprints, rats foot prints are about 2cm long and 0.5cm wide
• Noises coming from the walls and attic just after dusk
• Finding remains of nest like structures in firewood stacks and storage areas
• Signs of eaten fruit that has fallen from a fruit tree in the garden
• Movements of something running seen in the corner of your eye
• Rats in seen in the street outside
• Dead rats seen in your street or garden

Rat Infestation Treatment

So now you have established there is a rat problem, but what should you do? Leave it as perhaps the rats may move on? Buy some springs traps? Or call in pest control? Well there is no harm done in setting a trap with a bit of bait but realistically if you have a noticed a rat problem (especially if it is inside a building) the problem is likely to be deep rooted and requires a professional pest control service. Often rat infestations are so vast due to rat breeding cycles that extensive methods of pest control are vital to succeed in beating the rat problem. Sussex EPS have years of experience in tackling rat infestation across Brighton & Hove and further afield in Sussex. Your rat infestation maybe bad but we have probably seen worse and we have tried and tested every single method of rat prevention and disposal known to the pest control industry. We can create the right pest control plan to combat your rat problem effectively and advise you how to prevent any future occurrences.

Although the above story is about Australia, we should note that the Wasps in question are European Wasps and note that they are so dangerous if roused and in swarming mood.

You can find out how to spot a Wasp Nest near you by checking out some of our Wasp Problem and Wasp Nests removal information around this website.

Please take some time to get as much information about the yellow and black pests as you can. You can use the following links to to get started:
Information about Wasp Problems in Brighton.
Wasp Problems In Brighton

Information on How to control wasps.
Pest Control Techniques For Removing Wasps

Downloadable pdf with information on wasp control and ways to spot a wasp problem
6 Ways To Spot A Wasp Problem

The discomfort caused could be the smell of their waste, that when left unattended could induce nausea for people in their homes, other diseases connected with rats might even become fatal in severe cases. In a news story concerning the dangers of rat infestation, it was stated that there are several illnesses that people could get due to rat droppings as well as scattered waste that could get mixed with food on the kitchen work surfaces or shelves at the supermarket.

A little bit of history about rats. In China, they consider a white rat to be good luck. It has also been found that rats did not originate in America or Europe but were introduced accidentally by the trading ships traveling around the world. In Japan they believe that rats will bring abundant rice to the world. I wonder if that will be still believed at the present time especially because of the hazards that  rat infestation brings.

So, what should be done about the booming population of rats?

In England the rat population is causing some alarm to local people around Lewes and Brighton. People are aware that rats thrive in the sewer and are aware of the health hazards rats could bring to the human population.

Rats are from the rodent family (the word originated from Latin, rodere) which means eat away or gnaw. Rats often chew on hard things because their teeth keep growing and they need to keep those growing teeth sharp. Rats are able to chew on mild steel and concrete.

There are different diseases that this innocent looking pest could bring. Some of the diseases are Weils disease, Salmonella and Murine Typhus. You would know if you have been infected with Weils disease when you have 5 days of fever, muscular pains and fever and later symptoms may include nose bleeding, sore eyes and jaundice. If the person does not have this symptoms treated, will be fatal.

The other disease is salmonella and in relation to rats this is caused when food is contaminated with the urine of a rat. When there is a large amount that has been ingested this could then cause a person to be very ill and would need to be treated at the hospital.

Murine typhus is usually carried by fleas that infest rats. Lots of people are not aware that they might be infected already by this disease. Some symptoms that should be known are: chills, cough, headache or nausea.

With all of this information people can be more aware of their food hygiene. Always be careful not to eat or drink something that has not been covered or left out overnight. Knowing some of the symptoms it is better to be safe than sorry by consulting a doctor.

There are different ways to eradicate rats from your home. Some suggest the use of chemicals that could be mixed with some leftovers for the rat to eat or drink. Then there is also the old traditional mouse trap that might be a better way because when the rat is trapped you don’t have the chance of accidentally touching a part of it which could expose you to any of the diseases we have mentioned. Studies of rats have found that they can not recognize bitter tastes which is why we are able to use poisons ion them effectively.

Here’s some photographic evidence:

A Wasp's nest

Another look at the wasp's nest

A Hornet's Nest

So how do you know you’ve got  a wasp problem and not a hornet one?

Unless you’re a wasp expert, a hornet and a wasp will look pretty much the same. They both have the same shape, they both have the same distinct warning colours. And they both can sting.

This makes it very difficult for the untrained eye to tell the difference. You can, however, spot the difference between a wasp and a hornet by looking at some other factors: nesting and behaviour.

Nesting

While a wasp will choose some where like a roof-space or a garden shed to build its nest, a hornet will normally build its football shaped nest in a tree.

Behaviour

Wasps are typically more aggressive than hornets. Wasps have no problems flying around your summer picnic looking for food, where as a hornet would stick to forraging for plant nectar and other insects in plant beds and bushes.

This doesn’t mean a hornet is a friendly, cuddly version of a wasp. Both will sting and use aggression if it feels threatened. You can learn more about wasp stings here.

So continue on our quest to be your source of information about all things wasp, here are some more facts about the wasp that you might like to know:

1. - Wasps can have a useful purpose. They can help pollunate our native plants and flowers.
2. - The first instance of a fatal wasp sting was in 3000 bc. The victim was King Menes of Egypt!
3. - Vinegar will most likely aggrevate a wasp sting.
4. - Eleven species of Wasp are found in Europe. But most of the problems are caused by two: The Common Wasp and the German Wasp.
5. - From when the Queen wasp selects her nest site, the first generation of worker wasps emerge
6. - The first few generations of wasps in a nest are all female. The male wasps emerge later in the season

Are there any facts you can add to the list?

Or do you have any interesting wasp stories to share? Leave your comments below and we’ll add them to the blog in the next post.

Please leave your stories about wasps in the comments. If you want to send us a story and a photo of your wasps and wasp nests, mention it in the comment and we’ll get in touch with you.

To help you understand why Wasps are a pest in Brighton, Hove and Sussex every year, here is an image of the wasp’s life cycle.

The Wasp Life Cycle

Also, to control a wasp problem, you’ll often need chemicals and insecticides. And to use these requires training and sometimes qualifications.

So what ever you do, don’t remove the wasp’s nest yourself.

How a professional pest company would go about removing a wasp’s nest

Ideally, nests should be treated early in the morning or late in the evening when wasp activity is at a minimum and the nest is likely to contain most of the wasp population. The application of an insecticidal dust in and around the entrance of the nest with a Gaspot, or a dust applicator is effective treatment and returning workers will carry dust further into the nest. They are convenient, ready to use insecticides that are white and odourless, ideal for removing and controlling wasps where people work and live.

Alternatively, a labeled water dispersible powder or liquid insecticide can be applied with a pnuematic sprayer fitted with a pinstream nozzle. Their residual activities can extend to many weeks in dry conditions and the product will not taint even the most sensitive of surfaces.

When applying liquid insecticides, the nest entrance should be soaked first, along with the area immediately around it followed by application ino the nest. Appropriate personal protection equipment should be worn and people kept away during the insecticidal application.

A one handed aerosol wasp nest destroyer, with a far-reaching accurate jet is available for removing wasp nests from areas that are hard to access, such as roof-spaces or when a ladder is needed.