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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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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Rats, Chickens & Rabbits: Melissa Aino (our only lady pest control technician) was called out to a rat job. She has taken photo’s while she is there. She is currently carrying out a riddance program and once successful the customer is going to have an annual pest control contract. The pictures show that this site …
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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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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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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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Bird Proofing, Moles & Grass Snakes: Well its been a busy few weeks at PestUK, but I have managed to find the time this weekend to update the blog. The grass snake eggs I found have all now hatched and been put back into the wild in a more suitable location. And the hamster …
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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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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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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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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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Ants Nests: Ants in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey, Middlesex, South Buckinghamshire & West London are suffering as are other insects due to the extended cold weather and the late start of Spring. Hibernating insects still use up energy whilst hibernating are are prone to evaporation (depending on humidity). Now warmer weather has finally arrived the …
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Cluster Flies: At last the weather has got slightly warmer. This brings insects out of hibernation. One of the first to make a difference to a pest control company are Cluster Flies. These flies gather in cavities to hibernate for the Winter. They are not feeding or breeding but are only interested in hibernating. As …
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Cockroaches, treatment options: Cockroaches are less of a problem or pest control companies regarding treatment. This is because 15 years ago the only way to deal with cockroach infestations was with a residual insecticide spray. This would work but only if the surfaces were clean, grease & dust free. As cockroaches like to live inside …
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Wasp Jobs Income from wasp nest removals are a large percentage of all pest control companies (and Local Authorities) earnings. Last year (2012) was a disastrous year for pest control companies due to the absence of wasp nests. In July 2011 we were booking between 60 -90 jobs per day, by July 2012 this had …
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Wasp Nests: A few years ago I had an unusual wasp job. The wasp nest was built in a car. There is nothing unusual about this (I have done nests in boats, cars, televisions, toilets etc) the unusual factor is that the owner of the car commuted to work on a daily basis. Normally if …
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Bedbugs in a cinema? We all know about bedbugs, and we know they live in less than hygienic mattresses and beds, but most of us think we’re pretty safe from them. Well maybe not. This article suggests that bedbugs are much more fertile than previously thought and they don’t confine themselves to beds only! Enjoy …
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