WELCOME TO OUR HINTS AND TIPS AREA.
This is your page of the web site.
Here we try to keep you informed about which pests are currently causing problems and try to answer some of the questions we are asked.
It has been brought to our attention this morning (3 July 2008) by one customer who has just phoned his local council, that there is a 3 week backlog to treat a wasp nest. Not only that, he has also discovered that they are charging more then we charge locally.
His nest has been treated and he saved himself £12, another happy customer.
Solitary Bees, Honey Bees, Wasps and Hornets.
This warm weather has now brought out a number of Bees and Queen wasps are starting to look for nest sites for this year.
Many calls this first week in May has been for a variety of problems, so we will try and explain about Bees, wasps and Hornets.
It has been brought to our attention that customers are being caught out and are being charged more then they were quoted over the telephone by some companies for work.
This is usually because customers can not tell the difference between Bees and wasps.
Even we get the customer who will claim they have a wasp nest, when in fact what they are experiencing is a swarm of bees, yet they insist it is wasps.
Solitary Bees.
As the name suggests, solitary bees are, solitary. Although many may be seen in one area of a property or even using a single hole in a wall, each one lives its life alone.
Commonly called mortar bees by customers, there are in fact a wide variety of different types of solitary bees.
Many customers think their house is going to fall down because of these bees, NOT SO, it will fall down because the mortar has become soft and the bees are a good
indication of this. In fact, repointing the wall is the most appropriate way of stopping these bees and your house from possibly falling down.......
Solitary Bees are a beneficial insect, when they become noticeable to customers it is because they are going about their business of building their nest and are filling it with pollen. The solitary bees then lay their eggs in this food source and seal up the holes with dirt or clay, then in a few weeks, the adult solitary bees fly off, their job done for the year and next year their young will hatch and the whole process starts again.
Some customers are afraid that solitary bees will sting them but the sting of solitary bees is so small it can not pierce the skin.
So to sum up, these bees are harmless, only a problem for a few weeks before they are gone, do not sting and are very beneficial for pollinating plants.
Wasps.
Queen wasps have now emerged from hibernation and are looking for sites to build their nests for this year.
At the end of each year, wasps nests produce hundreds, even thousands of Queens, this is how they survive as a species each winter.
Queen wasps are noticeable because they are much larger then normal worker wasps.
At this time of year they fly around properties looking for a nice warm site to start building their nest and customers may see many of them showing an interest in their property.
This does not mean you have a nest and as to whether or not you get a wasp nest really is down to pot luck.
Of the many Queen wasps that survive the winter, many will die from predation or just by getting killed but those that survive, will then go on to start to build a new nest for this year.
The Queen wasp builds a nest about the size of a golf ball, she then lays her first batch of eggs, she then spends the next several weeks fetching food for the grubs that have hatched. If the queen wasp is killed or dies at this time, the nest will also die off as she is the only one fetching food and is the only one who can lay eggs.
Once the first brood has pupated and hatched as adult wasps, the Queen remains in the nest and these first wasps then do the fetching and carrying of food to the nest.
The Queen then becomes an egg laying factory and slowly the nest starts to grow in size and numbers.
Most wasp nests become noticeable around mid July time when the number of wasps in the nest has reached a level where their constant coming and going is noticeable.
Honey Bees and swarms of Bees
Honey Bees are the only Bees or wasps that actually swarm, that is to say move on mass to a new location.
Honey Bees are getting ready to swarm now as several customers we have visited have had scout bees taking a look at their property to see if there is a suitable nest site. They come in to rooms through windows, down chimneys or through air vents and can not get back out, so start to fill the room.
A swarm of bees can be anything from 2000-10,000 all turning up at once, most customers describe the sound like a helicopter trying to land on their house and the sky is full of bees like a big black cloud.
So why do honey bees swarm?
It is like a pressure relief valve, it allows a new nest to be formed and gives the old nest room to grow.
Prior to swarming, the hive will send out thousands of scout bees, whose job it is, is to locate a new nest site for a new queen. Thousands of bees will go out looking in all directions and when they find what they think is a suitable site, they return to the hive and give directions to the site with what is known as the "bee dance". This tells the other bees what direction to fly in and how far they should go.
Then, even more bees turn up and inspect the site, if they find it suitable, they too will report back. So you see a gradual increase in activity in the number of bees.
If they decide that the site is right, then they will swarm to this new site.
This can be anywhere, in a tree, a hole in the wall and some of the stranger places we have had to deal with them are;
Post boxes, underground telephone junction box and last year in the boot of a car.........
Most customers find they like old blocked off chimneys. This is because when you seal up a fireplace, you remove the up draught which would normally put them off.
You have created a hive on top of your house as far as the bees are concerned and they will use it.
Many people think that bees are protected, they are not and never have been despite what local councils have been advising people.
Some of the customers we have met over the years who have listened to this poor advice, have ended up with major problems, which have cost them lots to put right.
There is a right and a wrong way of dealing with honey bees. Many people locally seemed to have been getting the job done incorrectly, which then leaves them with an even bigger problem and in the long run, costs far more then having them done correctly.
A new swarm that has just arrived can be dealt with quickly and very simply and cheaply. Methods used are either to send insecticide smoke up from the bottom or to drop powder down from the top. As simple as that.
The problems start with swarms that have been there more than a few weeks. They will have started building a nest and be filling the comb with honey.
It is not enough then just to treat the bees. If you do and honey is in the nest, then this will attract other bees and wasps from other nests and as there are none of the resident bees left to guard it, they will rob out the honey.
This honey is now coated with insecticide and if taken back to hives may kill the hives off or contaminate the honey with insecticide.
It becomes a requirement then when dealing with this type of problem to either remove the honey or to seal up the entrances to prevent other bees from robbing it.
Hornets.
Now a lot of customers do confuse queen wasps with hornets because of their size.
Queen hornets tend to start latter then the queen wasps in the year to start building their nests.
Hornets are brown/beige in colour, whereas queen wasps are black and yellow.
Unlike wasps, hornets will and do use the same nest year after year. Once a wasp nest is dead, it is never used again.
Hornets are not as common as people think they are, nor are they as aggressive as some species of wasps.
It is the shear size of hornets that frightens customers.
Unlike wasps, hornets will fly day and night, wasps go in to their nests at night.
In the summer months this can cause a lot of problems for customers at night.
There will be a hornets nest locally and they will go and hunt their prey in a near by wood or orchard. As they fly past customers properties at night, they get attracted to the property because the customer leaves the lights on. This especially happens when the customer is getting ready to go to bed at night. In the summer we like to leave the windows open at night and the hornets, attracted by the lights, fly in.
Problem is the hornets nest may be several miles from the customers property, in a tree in a field or someone else's property, which means treating the nest is not an option.
One tip if this happens to you is when you go to bed at night and put the lights on, close the windows. This will stop hornets getting in to your bedroom and when you are ready to go to sleep, turn the lights off and open the windows again.
Another problem with hornets tends to be with outside security lights. the light gets tripped by the hornets or even bats, the bright light then attracts the hornets which fly around them, keeping them lit.
Because a lot of people fit these lights to their house, it can attract a lot of hornets to the property. If possible consider fitting the lights away from the property and shine them back at the property, that way if this does happen, at least you will not have lots of irate hornets flying just outside your bedroom.
ANTS AND CONTROLLING ANTS.
Ants are waking up and starting to forage.
There are a number of different types of ants that can infest properties but locally the biggest problem is caused by the black ant or garden ant.
Ants get in to food, especially sweet sticky substances like jam and once the ants have found a good food source, they will lay a scent trail which other ants follow to the
food, this is why you will see trails of ants making their way through your kitchen.
Many customers wait until later in the year before they phone in requesting treatments, this is usually because they have flying ants in their property.
These flying ants are in fact the new Queen ants and the much smaller flying ants are the male ants. Once they mate, the wings drop off the Queen ant and she looks for a
hole or crack to start building her nest for next year.
Waiting until this happens, just means that next year you may have more than one ants nest in your house.
The best thing you can do if the ants start to swarm in your property is to use a vacuum to suck up the ants before they have a chance to fly off and start building for
next year.
CONTROLLING ANTS.
There are two types of problems that cause ants in a property.
There are the nests that are outside and foraging ants have found away into the property.
Then there are ants that live inside the property.
Effective control of ants will depend on where the nest is located and finding the area where the nest is, is important.
Spraying the property outside to control the ants with a band spray of insecticide will stop ants coming in but if the ants nest is inside, then band spraying may stop the ants going outside, so making your problem worse.
Ant baits can destroy a nest and can be a good aid to controlling ants nests but they can take weeks to work but if you are finding ants in your house, they are worth trying. Just follow the instructions on the
packaging.
If the problem is getting worse rather then better after a few weeks, then you need help sorting them out.
Many customers we meet each year have tried controlling their ant problem with shop bought powder. Problem with these products is that they lack the abillity to be blown down in to the tunnels and the nest. They usually just cap off the holes and the ants just dig a new exit hole a few feet away.
The best way of controlling ants is to find the nest.
If the nest can be found and targetted, then controlling ants is a simple job, not requiring gallons of insecticide.
MOLES, MOLE CATCHERS AND MOLE TRAPPING
A lot of calls are now for moles in gardens and paddocks at this time of the year.
Mole trapping is viewed by many in the industry as one of the hardest skills to learn, it is not, just takes a lot of practice.
Trapping moles was one of the first skills I learnt as a child, over 30 years ago and not much has changed since then.
It is the mole breeding season so trapping any problem moles now is far better then trying to trap whole families of moles in June.
The only two legal methods now for controlling moles are;
A TRAPS.
B GAS.
Of the two methods now available for controlling moles, trapping is the most effective, as at the end of the treatment you have the mole to prove it.
Problem for domestic properties is that not all of the moles tunnel system may be in your garden, which means that if gas is used, you can not guarentee that it will work.
Many customers think that by buying a few mole traps of their own they will get rid of their mole. Not the case, in many cases they do more harm then good.
We have over 30 years experience in trapping moles, although viewed by many in the industry, as one of the hardest skills to learn, with 30 years of practice, it is not that hard.......
BEWARE
All good mole catchers or trappers will only ask to be paid for their work AFTER they have caught your mole, NOT BEFORE.
FAQ
Q/ WHY SHOULD WE CHOOSE YOUR SERVICE OVER OTHER LOCAL COMPANIES?
A/ We have earnt ourselves a reputation for putting right what so many others in the industry are getting wrong.
Many of you only discover after-the-fact that there are those in the industry who are better sales men then pest controllers.
Many of you are sold unnecessary treatments or add on services that you really do not need.
Many of our new customers, especially businesses and commercial properties are learning that despite employing various services over many years, even the most basic of proofing which would have prevented further infestations has not been given.
It is easy to see which companies supply such services because you the customer find that you constantly, year after year become infested, this is also true of many domestics.
Customers are pleasantly surprised when we turn up and take the time to explain to them why it is they find themselves needing our help in the first place and what needs to be done to resolve their problem for once and all.
HERE IS JUST ONE EXAMPLE
We recently carried out an inspection on a property for the County council, despite them employing what they think are professionals, we pointed out that we could find at least 7 entrance points in to the building which would let in mice.
Care to take a guess what pests were infesting the building?
MICE
Q/ I HAVE HEARD IT IS EXPENSIVE TO USE PRIVATE COMPANIES TO DEAL WITH MY PEST PROBLEM?
A/ It can be if you the customer get the wrong type of company to deal with your problem. Despite all the good work of a wide variety of organisations who are there to help protect you the customer, it is amazing at how many do not follow the simple advice given by them to help protect you. Even very simple advice like "make sure that any contractor you employ is a member of a trade association" is ignored.
Some companies offer a per visit treatment for rats and mice for instance at X£`s per visit, be wary of this, it might sound cheap but you normally end up paying more because they give you more visits then you need. Some take 4 visits to do what most of us will do for just 2 visits, so it actually costs you twice as much.
Q/ I SEE YOU OPERATE A SYSTEM CALLED INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT, WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
A/ Locally, we are earning ourselves a reputation of putting right what so many other pest controllers are getting wrong. Where many will just come along to your property and deal with your problem, we take the time to establish why you have your problem and help our customers address these also so that they do not get reinfested, this is what IPM is all about.
Integrated pest management involves looking at the whole problem of why customers are infested and addressing these causes, which then prevents further infestations.
Each year, thousands of customers choose to use a service, which over the last 30 years has been proven to fail, that is why the rat population is continuing to grow each year.
Many of you use this service year after year, at best it is described as lip service, this is where a technician calls, confirms you have rats or mice and places poison down, if you are lucky they may call back to check it. It gets rid of the rats or mice that are there at the time but does not stop the problem returning. We know this, because for over 17 years we tried it out but we learnt it is not the best solution to the ever increasing rat and mouse problem.
The industry is now being made to look at this system, as it provides the best long term solution to your problems and does not rely on long term use of posions, which is safer for you the customer and for the environment.
A measure of the type of service you receive for your rat or mouse infestation can be measured by how long you remain rat and mouse free. Customers do fall in to the trap of thinking that because someone got rid of their rats or mice last year, now they are reinfested again, they will use that company again!!!!! WHY?
This can go on for years in some cases we see, yet the customer fails to realise that if the company was working in their interest they would be advising them on how NOT to become reinfested again and provided you the customers take that advice, you should not have any more rat or mouse problems.
WE ARE OFFERING A LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE AND A SERVICE THAT MANY LOCAL BUSINESSES AND DOMESTIC PROPERTIES HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED.
Q/ WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTROLLING RATS AND MICE?
A/ YOU THE CUSTOMER ARE.
Under the PREVENTION OF DAMAGE BY PEST ACT 1949, all owners or occupiers are responsible for keeping their land free of rats and mice.
Q/ WHAT IS WEILS DISEASE AND HOW DANGEROUS IS IT?
A/ Weils (pronouced "viles") disease or leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that is spread in the urine of infected animals.
It can be fatal if not treated and can cause kidney damage, meningitis and liver failure and so can and does cause long term ill health problems.
It can be contracted in a number of ways, through cuts in the skin and even swallowing contaminated water.
In our time working for a local authority, we have seen a number of customers who have contracted this disease and even known pets to contract it.
It is estimated that 50% of the rat population may be carriers of this disease and it does not affect them.
Q/ WHY DO I KEEP ON GETTING A PROBLEM WITH RATS AT MY PROPERTY?
A/ Although the rat population is on the increase, if you get rats at your property, you are in the minority of the population as there are more properties that do not get a problem.
The single biggest cause for customers who keep getting rat infestations in their properties year after year, is because you use the wrong type of service.
Many services offered by councils and other companies do not address the most important questions, "WHY" and "HOW". The service they provide is designed to remove the problem that exist's when treatment is carried out but leaves you vunerable to further infestations. Customers WRONGLY then think that when they are infested again next year, that the previous service was good, so they use it again and again and again, year after year after year.
At least 95% of the rat jobs we deal with, we are able to inform the customer as to why and how they have become infested and with sound advice, they are able to proof their properties and find they no longer become infested.
Q/ I HAVE FOUND AN OLD WASP NEST IN MY LOFT AND NOT WANTING THEM TO USE IT AGAIN, SHOULD I REMOVE IT?
A/ Wasp nest's are only ever used for one season. Once dead, they are never used again.
Q/ WHAT IS A WASP NEST MADE FROM?
A/ A wasp nest is made from chewed up wood.
If you have wooden fence panels which are not treated in your garden or wooden furniture, take a look in the summer and see if you can see little straight lines of bare new wood appearing, they will look fresher then the surrounding wood. This is where the wasps have stripped off a fine layer of wood to make thier nest.
Q/ IS IT ADVISABLE TO REMOVE AN OLD WASP NEST?
A/ If the nest is not hanging above a water tank in your loft, then leaving it will not be a problem. In fact leaving old wasp nests in place works in your favour, it blocks off that site, so preventing other wasps nests from being built there in following years. Remove the wasp nest and you open up the site and next year a new wasp nest can be built there.
Q/ I HAVE MOLES IN MY GARDEN, I HAVE TRIED TRAPS AND CAN NOT CATCH THEM.
A/ Trapping moles is viewed by the industry as one of the hardest skills to learn. It takes years of practice to be come good at it, so just buying a trap from a garden center and sticking it in the ground is not always going to work.
Many customers think just because they have "HAD A GO" with a trap, some spending months trying to trap their mole, that the rest of us are not going to trap their mole. Yet we show them it is not that hard.
In fact over the last 5 years or so, we have identified that some moles in certain areas are becoming trap shy because so many people think that buying a trap is the answer to their problem. Like all animals, they have the ability to learn, so you will only get a few shots at trapping them before they become aware of what is happening. So getting it right first time is important. They then avoid the traps and it takes a lot of skill to catch these moles.
So before you waste your money on buying traps, try speaking to a mole trapper first and get advice, if not you will find it takes us longer than normal to trap them and just ends up costing you more than it should.
Q/ I KEEP GETTING RATS IN MY COMPOST BIN, WHY? AND HOW CAN I STOP IT?
A/ It is normally because customers put food waste on compost bins that attracts the rats in the first place. Using a bin rather than just piling the waste up is better but it is also a good idea before you start using the bin to put a section of fine mesh chicken wire on the floor first. Make it larger than the bin base, place the bin on top of the wire and then draw the remaining chicken wire up around the sides of the bin. Secure with wire, this will then stop rats digging up in to the compost bin.
We have recently had a local radio station contact us about this very subject and wanted to know if councils advising you the local public, to put your kitchen waste on to compost heaps has added to the increase in the rat population.
OF COURSE IT HAS
Your adverage garden does not contain enough natural food to sustain a rat population, it only becomes possible for rats to live in your garden if they can find enough food. Compost bins are now the second biggest cause of rats in domestic gardens.
Q/ DO YOU CARRYOUT THE TREATMENT OF..........?
A/ We are a pest control company so dealing with pest's is our business.
After spending over 17 years working for a council in a rural area, where many of our customers were from the farming community, we would be expected to remove thousands of rats from a farm as quickly and as safely as possible. This would take on average just 2-3 weeks, so dealing with a few rats or mice in a house, office or shop is not that difficult.
Here is a list of some of the common pest's we deal with;
ANTS, BEES, BEDBUGS, BIRDS, COCKROACHES, CARPET BEETLES, FLEAS, FLIES, HORNETS, MICE, MINK, MITES, MOLES, MOTHS, RABBITS, RATS, SQUIRRELS, WASPS.
Just to name a few.
Q/ WHAT AREA DO YOU COVER?
A/ We operate in a 20 mile radius of the City of Worcester but have been known to travel much further to help customers solve their problems.
We work in the following towns and the local areas that surround them;
Bromsgrove
Droitwich
Malvern
Kidderminster
Pershore
Evesham
Upton upon Severn
Stourport
Martley
Clifton on Teme
Hallow
Callowend
Severn Stoke
Kempsey
Norton
HAVE YOUR SAY
Some of us fight for your rights as customers, to be supplied with good honest pest control. If you would like to complain, seek advice or inform others of the type of service you have received from the industry, then please join us on this forum;
http://www.pestcontrolportal.com/snitz/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=1
Just copy and paste the above url into your address bar.
Pop along and have your say.............
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ITS ALL UP THERE ^
