Rats, Fleas, Cluster Flies & Bed Bugs

In Bed Bugs, Flies, Rats & Mice

Rats, Fleas, Cluster Flies & Bed Bugs:

Rat Food!

Past few weeks have been more of the same with the exception that there seem to be some Cluster fly jobs coming through. This is earlier than last year. I have just taken a call from a regular customer who had Cluster Flies last year in mid February but now has a problem (9th January). The recent flooding has increased the number of rat jobs that were on a slight decrease after the flood of jobs caused by the cold weather in early December. We have some decent size pigeon netting and spiking jobs coming up shortly. The general demand over the holiday period was very low. PEST UK was shut for longer than usual over this period due to holidays. We normally only close Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Years Day but this year we also closed Sunday 23/12/12 and Sunday 30/12/12.

Paul went to service a contract we have at a block of flats in Slough and found the bin area overflowing with rubbish (see photo’s). Rat control is not just about putting poison down. The food source has to be addressed & as in this case the rats food source is plentiful so they will not be at all interested in eating poison bait. Even if some do they will not consume enough or feed on the poison with enough frequency to make any difference.

Had another strange job today was a lady whose daughter had a kitten that had lived at her boy friend’s house. The kitten died & the lady was getting bitten by some thing. This is quite common, all cats at some time in their lives support some fleas but if they are treated & the house hoovered on a regular basis, the fleas won’t bother humans (they often prefer women & children to men). So this seemed a straight forward case, until I asked more questions. The lady was getting bitten at night (indicating bed bugs), had bites not only on the lower legs (this indicates fleas) but on her arms & torso (Bed bugs) also the daughter & boyfriend were not getting bitten at the boyfriends house where the kitten had lived. No fleas or bed bugs have been seen. Treatment is being held off for now, I have advised to look for more evidence such as adult fleas or ‘spotting’. Spotting is small drops of partly digested blood secreted by the Bed Bugs after feeding.

To book a pest control treatment or free advice then please call us at PEST UK: 0330 100 2811 (local rate) or 0800 026 0308 (free from land lines & some mobiles).
BPCA about Rats
BPCA – Fleas information
Cluster flies from the BPCA
Bed Bugs – the BPCA