Rat and Mice Problems in London

In early November, London sees a large increase in mice and rats problems, as the cooler weather drives these furry bundles into your home or business premises.  These unwelcome guests are certainly not welcome additions to most peoples’ lives, and apart from causing serious distress and major risk of food contamination, their constant gnawing can result to serious damage to the wiring and other fixtures and fittings.  It is not uncommon for a whole house to require rewiring as a result of rat damage, which is a very expensive undertaking, especially when you phone your insurers to discover that these furry bundles are classified as “Acts of God” and are excluded under most insurance policies.  I assume that insurers believe that vermin are a maintenance issue and so lack of maintenance (i.e. pest control)  is the cause of your woes, rather than some unfortunate and unusual event.  It would appear that in the world of “insurance exclusions” rats are just causing normal wear and tear.   It’s all in the small print darling!

So whilst we cannot rewrite your insurance policy, we can provide some professional advice and treatments to severely reduce your mice or rat problem.  We cannot stop these ubiquitious critters living in your area of London (if we could do that, then we really would be rich – not to mention famous),  but we can help stop them entering your home, by taking a close look at any proofing issues that your home may have.  i.e. that tiny hole behind your kitchen skirting boards is just the spot that we will plug up to stop future access.  But of course, for those beasties who have already taken up residence inside your home, a more intensive programme of proprietary baiting (i.e. we make fresh moist baits – so much more appealing that those dusty old grains) is usually required to eradicate them.

To make the whole process of booking appointments hassle free, we will even provide you with a timed appointment that suits your lifestyle (i.e. our technician will liase directly with you) So no “all day” or “morning/afternoon” appointments here!  We like to treat our customers the way we like to be treated – with a genuine smile and a good dose of professional service.

We also love hearing from you about any unusual pest problems that you may be experiencing, as this is where we get to play detective (assuming our very own in-house specialist entomologist does not have an immediate answer).  So please just send us your insects, in a protective sealed container, and we will even identify them for free!

We wish you a very happy “pest free” autumn.

If you would like some advice to discuss some problem you have, please contact us straight away or phone 0800 9752736

Love from your Terminex Team

1st November 2011

Terminex recently performed work at a multiple flat property, which due to severe rat damage (wiring damaged and pipework) , required the entire ground floor to be taken up, causing the kitchen and bathroom to be removed to gain access. This was an extremely expensive problem as “acts of god” (i.e. those hungry rats) are not covered by most home insurance policies. So with a £50,000 plus bill to repair the wiring, pipework and replace the kitchen and bathroom, there are now a lot of very upset flat owners -  as each flat owner has to contribute towards the repairs, even though only the ground floor flat has suffered damage.

The cause of this problem was rats entering the property via an uncapped open drain, which was underground under the main house, and which rats had entered from the main outside sewer. Once inside the open drain, they only had to burrow to the surface and find themselves under the ground floor of these poor people’s house.  If you have seen the “Incredible Mr Fox” and think that he was clever, then think again; your urban rat is just as cunning and equally clever at finding its way into your home, especially if someone has failed to cap old drain pipes.

So be warned, if you are doing any renovations that involve drains, please make sure you check with your builder to ensure that they have capped all old drains.  This is particularly a problem if your new kitchen extension is built over former external land, which formerly contained main drains.  Often your council’s building control department will require you to rebuild new drains outside the boundary of your property, but when doing this, be certain that all old drains (that are under your new extension) are capped to prevent rats gaining access.

Please contact us if you would like us to provide any advice on risks from rats when planning your new extension, as we can save you thousands of pounds in possible future damage if you take some simple precautions before you start building.  Builders do not often build properties to reduce the risk of rat and mice infestation, but it is important to consider these risks in the planning stage, not after your beautiful new kitchen is built and you discover a major problem.

Best Wishes with your home renovations.

Love from your Terminex Team x

Wasp Nest Removal, Wasp Nests, Wasp Infestation, Wasp Problem, Pest Control in London

15th October 2011

Wasps are more aggressive in late summer/early autumn – as they become drunk on rotten fermenting fruit…

Wasps are usually only a summer problem.  However due to the recent warm weather this autumn, the wasps have stayed active for much longer than normal.

Wasps usually stay around until late October/early November if their nest is in a warm location (e.g. a loft).  If their nests are outside, however, they are less likely to survive the first frost, will be killed off by the cold weather.

But be careful, although the weather may be cold, wasps can still survive indoors for many months.  So although you do not see many wasps flying around outside, that does not mean that they have disappeared. They are just very inactive – unless accidentally disturbed.  So be careful when entering a dark loft space, just in case there is an inactive wasps nest there, as it may not be as inactive as you would like.

At the end of the summer, a wasp nest produces new Queens and new drones (male) which will mate off.  After mating, the drone, whose sole purpose is to fertilise the Queen, will die off;  whereas the Queen will usually fly off and find a new nest site for the following year, and will hibernate there over the winter months. Occasionally the Queen may  hibernate near the site of the original nest.

Wherever the Queen hibernates, she remains inactive and it is not until the start of Spring, that the Queen starts making a new nest.  Wasps never re-use an old nest, but they may build a new nest adjacent to an old one. At the start of Spring, the Queen lays her first batch of eggs, which she feeds.  When the eggs hatch, they form the first of the worker (sterile female) wasps, which will fly off in
search of food to feed the next batch of eggs.  The Queen continues to lay eggs throughout the summer, so that the nest gets bigger and bigger. The nest does not stop growing (laying eggs and producing new workers) until late summer, when the new Queens and drones are produced.  When these new Queens fly away, the social structure of the nest declines, leading the remaining worker wasps to become more aggressive.  So you will often find stray wasps flying around in late summer acting more aggressively than normal.

So what happens to the old nest.  If kept warm, the remaining wasps will continue to forage for food, often finding old rotting fruit (e.g. fallen fruit from fruit trees) which can cause the wasps to become dozey, as they become slightly drunk from the rotten fermented fruit.

Wasps are starting to become more of a problem as the warm weather continues and nests are increasing quickly. Our staff at Terminex can quickly and efficiently deal with this problem for you.

Textile / Clothes Moth have been very prevalent this year.  During 2011 we have dealt with more moth infestations this year than in any previous year.

If you find moths, please call us to arrange a free survey and quotation.

Enjoy a Pest Free October.

Love from your Terminex Team x