Pest Control in Reading

About Pest UK

• pubs, restaurants and hotels
• school, college and university buildings
• farms and stables
• offices
• factories
• housing estates and apartment buildings
• shops

Pest problems we deal with

Mice and rats are prolific breeders year-round. The seek food and shelter in homes, restaurants, shops and offices, getting inside via the tiniest cracks or holes. Drains provide a perfect living environment for rats and they climb up through the pipes to enter a building.

Flies and cockroaches enter homes and business premises during the spring and summer in search of food. They are prolific breeders so an invasion of a couple of these pests soon becomes a huge infestation.

Bed bugs are very difficult to get rid of. People bring them into homes, offices and public places on their clothes or in their luggage. They can also be hidden in furnishings and clothing imported from abroad.

Fleas are brought inside by cats and dogs, and occasionally by humans on their clothes. They live in carpets and only move from the carpet to feed on animals or humans, leaving an itchy bite.

The larvae of clothes moths and carpet moths are massively destructive. A female moth lays up to 50 eggs which become larvae after a few days. They feed on wool and silk carpets, curtains, rugs and clothes. They are a problem year-round as centrally heated homes keep them active during the winter.

Birds such as gulls, pigeons and house martins roost and nest on buildings. They cause damage to roofs, solar panels and air conditioning units. Nesting materials block guttering and chimneys. They produce large amounts of droppings that smell unpleasant and are unsightly, carry diseases and corrode metals, stone and brick.

Solar panel proofing is a long-term solution to prevent pigeons roosting and nesting under the panels, preventing them causing damage that reduces their effectiveness.

Rodent proofing prevents rats, mice, squirrels, glis glis accessing a building. Ultimately it saves costs by stopping repeated call outs to pest control technicians to get rid of infestations.

Squirrels and glis glis find their way into loft spaces and cause lots of noise and damage by tearing up insulation and gnawing timber, pipes and wiring.

Wasps and honey bees often nest in chimneys, roof spaces and other cavities within buildings. Colonies can consist of thousands which are very noisy and if they’re disturbed they will sting.

Ants usually live in nests in the ground. They only invade properties in search of food, but they mostly travel in large numbers. Prevention is the best cure but because they can access a property via a tiny crack it is difficult to find how they’ve gained access.

Foxes are noisy and scream loudly at night, mark their territory with unpleasant scents and droppings, attack pets, dig up gardens and scavenge in bins. They carry disease such as mange which can be picked up by dogs and toxoplasmosis that causes blindness in children.

Ladybirds collect in huge numbers in the autumn to hibernate. They are a nuisance as there are so many of them and they secrete a yellow chemical which can stain walls, furniture and window frames

Rabbits cause damage to lawns and plants. It is a legal obligation that every occupier of land takes responsibility to prevent rabbits from causing damage.

Molehills usually appear in early winter and spring. This is when moles dig temporary shallow tunnels just below the surface of lawns and flowerbeds whilst searching for earthworms. They push up displaced soil in vertical tunnels which form the molehills.

About Reading

Reading is the largest town in Berkshire and is situated on the Thames and the river Kennet. Reading’s history dates back to the 8th century. The ruins of Reading Abbey can still be seen today which is within Forbury Gardens and attracts tourists throughout the world. Reading was severely impacted by the Civil war as there was a siege which effected trade. The first evidence for Reading as a settlement dates back to the 8th Century. By 1525, Reading was the largest town in Berkshire and was the 10th largest town in England, when measured in taxable wealth. By 1611 the population had expanded to over 5000.
In the 18th Century the beginning of major iron works and brewing trade in the town were evident. By the 19th Century the town had grown rapidly as a manufacturing centre. It has been ranked as the UK’s top economic area. The 19th century saw the arrival of the railway which benefitted the towns brewing, baking and seed growing businesses. Little damage was done to the town during either world wars except for a single plane in February 1943 attacked the town leaving 41 dead and over 100 injured.

Modern Reading is a commercial centre for information technology companies as well as Insurance. Major companies such as ING Direct, Oracle, Microsoft and Hibu have their headquarters in Reading. There are three main business parks within Reading, Thames Valley Park, Green Park Business Park and Arlington Business Park. The town has expanded to include Caversham and in the 70’s the largest housing estate was built (Lower Earley). The local government of Reading does not actually control all the people of Reading as large areas of Earley, Woodley, Charvil, Twyford, Hurst, Purley, Calcot, Theale and Tilehurst are controlled by Wokingham Borough and West Berkshire Councils.

Reading is one of the UK’s top ten retail destinations with top brands and a shopping mall, The Oracle, a large indoor shopping and leisure mall on the bank of the River Kennet. The area was formerly the site of a 17th Century workhouse with the same name. The mall consists of 90 shops, including department stores for Debenhams and House of Fraser. There are also 22 restaurants, cafes and bars by the riverside as well as a 11 screen cinema.

The Hexagon is a multi purpose venue in Reading centre which hosts comedians, conventions, plays and musical acts. Built in 1977 by Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall, who also built the adjacent Civic Centre, the venue has been used for, among others, snooker matches, boxing, classical music and stand up comedy.

The museum of Reading opened in 1883 and is situated within the former Town Hall building. The principal displays within the museum are- a gallery of Readings origin as a saxon settlement from the 6th century to today, the Bayeaux Gallery contains the UK’s only copy of the Bayeaux Tapestry, made in 1885, as well as information on the Saxon migration and Viking raids of the local area.

The town has a University which is ranked in the top 1% of universities in the world. Reading hosts the Reading music festival annually which was attended by 90,000 people in 2013 and has been running since 1961.

For more information about Reading see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading