This is the most important time of the year for the Queen Wasp and Bumble Bees. The weather in the next 12 weeks will decide on the population levels of these insects in the Summer ahead. This factor can make or break pest control companies as the financial implications are enormous. The life cycles of …
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Sewer Valves, Wasps & Bees: One of the questions we get asked at PEST UK concerning rat infestations in houses is: Where are they getting in? How do I stop them in the future? If the house is part of a terrace or a block then this makes finding the entry point(s) difficult. Rats may …
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Ants, Pests & Flooding: Most of the pests we deal with are not affected by the recent flooding. The main pests that we deal with at PEST UK that will be effected are will be rats and mice. They can swim ad flooding may encourage them to move into buildings and as long as the …
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Hibernating Wasps & Bees: Soon PEST UK will be selling more pest control products to the public. We don’t really like to do this as we believe that, in most cases it is better that pest control is left to professionally trained people. The reason for this is that we see many so many DIY …
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Wasps & Hibernation: Mel (she is our only lady pest control technician) got us to write to one of her customers, she had told them verbally and written on the pest control report (that we leave with every contract customer) but she was so concerned about this issue that she wanted a letter as well. …
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Bees & Wasps in Lofts: On Saturday I saw a Queen Bumble Bee flying about at Tilehurst Station. This is very early even for Bumble Bees and not good news for Bumble Bees unless the weather stays mild and the rain stops! The daly emergence from hibernate is often triggered by lid weather. Temperature is …
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Bed Bugs & Squirrels: Hello to Customers Past and Presentand Future! The winter season at Pest UK is traditionally quieter than the rest of the year, however we have found ourselves very busy dealing with rats and squirrels which try to come inside houses at this time of year. The only way to get …
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Bed Bugs & Multiple Occupancy Premises: I have just booked up a Bed Bug job for a multiple occupancy house in Reading, Berkshire. There are five occupied bed sit type rooms. We have treated this house several times for Bed Bugs before, twice in November 2011, twice in February 2013 and once in September 2013. …
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Bed Bugs, Who Pays? Should Landlords Pay? Some Landlords will pay for Bed Bug treatments especially if the tenants have just moved in but many won’t using the excuse that the new tenants might have bought the Bed Bug infestation with them. Either way it is difficult to prove. We have just had a case …
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Rabbit Gassing & Wasps: Yesterday we did a quote for Rabbit Gassing. Fifteen years ago a high percentage of our time in the Winter and Spring was spent gassing rabbits. Not any more this work has become quite rare. I don’t really understand this, there seem to be as may rabbits around although this does …
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Bees, Wasps & Hornets: It won’t be long before we start getting calls about bees and wasps. This normally starts with customers saying that they have got hornets when in fact they usually turn out to be Queen wasps emerging from hibernation. Their function is to find a nest site, build a nest, lay eggs, …
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German, Australian & American Cockroaches: I was lucky to be on holiday in Tenerife over Christmas but was unlucky enough to be met with a cockroach infestation in my accommodation – German, Australian and American species. The larger Australian and American variety were less of a problem and were probably casual intruders from outside areas. …
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Harlequin Ladybirds & Cluster Flies: At PEST UK we have experienced more calls concerning Harlequin ladybirds in the past 8-9 years. This is because mainly due to their hibernation habits. This species tends to be more numerous than the native ladybird and hibernated in greater numbers similar to Cluster Flies. We used to get calls …
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Bed Bugs: Success at PEST UK: Bed Bugs are one of, if not the the most difficult insect pest to treat. There are many ways to treat them but in our experience at PEST UK only insecticide treatments work. The reason for this is residuality. The other two methods of treatment involve the use of …
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Student Accommodation and Bed Bugs Bed bugs are on the increase, and students need to know how best to protect their student houses and halls against them. As students settle into the new academic year, it is useful to know what bedbugs are, and what you can do about them What you need to know …
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Wasps & Nature: The question is often asked – What good do wasps do? Wasps are one of the most hated creatures in the animal kingdom along with rats, snakes and spiders. They do do a lot of good in the Spring and early to mid Summer as the workers are feeding the grubs (which …
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Queen Wasps & Hibernation: The Queen wasps have already been produced by the wasp nests. The Queens, which are retile females and the Drones, which are males are the last wasps to be be produced by a wasp nest as it starts its decline. The number of wasp nest this year from PEST UK’s point …
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Update on Wasp Trap Trial, Squirrels & Wasp Nest Removal: The weather is set to get warmer nest week (w/c 23/9/13) which may alter the catches on the different types of wasp and fly traps I have on a trial. After the run away success of the bag type disposable wasp trap earlier on in …
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Treating Wasps without Insecticides: At PEST UK we some times get asked to treat or remove a wasp nest without using insecticides. People (quite rightly so) are very suspicious of insecticides. An example of this is an insecticide used in the 1970’s and early 1980‘s in the UK called Chlordane. This was a potent insecticide …
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Types of Wasp & Fly Traps: I have been running a test using different types of wasp traps and a fly trap. Initially the disposable Wasp Bag far outperformed the other types of traps, it even caught more flies than the Disposable Fly Bag trap which is designed to catch flies. As the weather has …
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Bed Bug Problems in Basingstoke, Reading, Newbury, Guildford and Farnham: Bed bugs seem to be a serious problem for a lot of people right now. At PEST UK we have seen a steady increase in bed bug infestations since 2003. Prior to that the bed bug population was on the decline, partly due to the …
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Wasp Traps & Feeding Habits: August to October (maybe early November) are the months where wasp trapping is most beneficial. Wasps are far more of a nuisance during late summer and autumn than at any other time of the year – more people are likely to be stung during this period! There are several reasons …
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Wasp Nests July: This time of year is the most important for pest control companies. The reason is that July is the month when they earn the most money. Some years the turnover at PEST UK in July has been 4 times greater than the lowest earning month (this is usually December).The pest that brings …
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What Good do Wasps do? This is a question that a surprisingly high number of people ask when we are treating wasp nests. All insects perform some function and wasps are no different – yes they can be an aggressive nuisance insect that stings and can be a potential hazard (many people die from wasp …
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Bedbugs Getting Rid of: Bedbugs – What to Look For Bed bugs can be mistaken for other pests in the home. They are an oval shape but they are also flattened out. In size, the adult bed bug is about 3/16 to 1/5 of an inch long. When they have just had a meal, bedbugs …
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Flies & EFK’s: Flies are not simple pests to deal with. For a start the control will depend on the type of flies. Many flies are not attracted to the Electronic Fly Killers or EFK’s. These machines are are favourite of the food & pest control industries. Food premises like them in many cases because …
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Wasp Nests In Berks, Oxon, Hants, Surrey & Bucks: At PEST UK we are now experiencing the types of calls we normally would receive in early May. A lot of calls for wasps but once the technician attends these are usually found to be bees. We have had small wasp nests but these are rare …
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Calls for Wasp Nests, Bees and Ants: At PEST UK we are getting many calls in our area (Berkshire, South Oxfordshire, Surrey, South Buckinghamshire and North Hampshire) for people saying they have a wasp nest. At this time of the year this is rarely the case. If they have any wasp(s) it will be a …
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Bed Bugs in England: Bed Bugs are a pest that 10 years ago were rare in our service area (Berkshire, North Hampshire, South Oxfordshire, South Buckinghamshire & Surrey), so rare that we would only carry out 1 or 2 jobs a year, recent years have produced between 200 to 300 bed bug jobs per year. …
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Bees & Wasps: This week has seen the start of the Bees & Wasps season. I treated 2 Bees nests on the roofs of buildings using a roof ladder in both Reading and Farnham. Due to the locations of the nests they could not be removed and were destroyed. At PEST UK we always try …
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