WELCOME TO OUR HINTS AND TIPS AREA.
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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.
PRICE LIST
Seeing some of the first words that customers who phone enquiring about our services do seem to be “how much is it going to cost me” or “what price do you charge”, here is a list of what our charges are for 2012.
Prices start from:
WASP NEST TREATMENT
Malvern £45
Worcester £45
Droitwich £45
As 60-70% of customers we meet have more than 1 nest, each additional nest, provided we have access to it, is charged an extra £5 if treated whilst we are there.
SWARM OF BEES (dependent on access and legal requirements on treating established swarms)
Malvern £60
Worcester £60
Droitwich £60
If an established swarm, the law on how they may be dealt with changes from how we can treat a new swarm.
RATS AND MICE
A standard treatment is 3 visits.
Malvern £50
Worcester £50
Droitwich £50
Some customers do not want treatment they are just fed up of paying year after year for treatments, they just want help so they are not infested again. As one of the most experienced persons in the industry in establishing causes of infestations, we charge £35 per hour for surveys.
FLEAS
Malvern £15 per room
Worcester £15 per room
Droitwich £15 per room
Example – a two up two down would be 4 main rooms plus stairs and landings and bathroom. We would class this as 5 rooms in total so cost is £75
CLUSTER FLIES
Main loft area
Malvern £60
Worcester £60
Droitwich £60
Extra loft spaces are charged at £15
ANTS
Malvern £50
Worcester £50
Droitwich £50
MOLES
Prices start from as little as
Malvern £50
Worcester £50
Droitwich £50
This is for domestic properties
If you wish to learn how to trap moles we are happy to teach customers how. We cram over 30 years’ experience in to an hour. For this we charge £75
Free quotes for larger gardens, paddocks or fields.
SQUIRRELS
We trap squirrels NOT poison them like some as poison does not always work and when it does it can leave you with major problems.
Malvern £20 per visit
Worcester £20 per visit
Droitwich £20 per visit
A treatment may be between 3-5 visits.
CARPET BEETLE/MOTH
Malvern £50-£100 dependent on number of rooms infested
Worcester £50-£100 dependent on number of rooms infested
Droitwich £50-£100 dependent on number of rooms infested
Other pests and technical advice then please phone for quote.
WASPS, BEES, MORTAR BEES, SOLITARY BEES.
WASPS
Wasp nests are getting noticable now, most are getting on for the size of a football and as the number of wasps in the nest increases they are now becoming easy to spot.
Wasp nests have been active for at least the last 4 months already, so by the time you the customers notice them they will have been there months, seems they are not a problem untill they are noticed but as soon as they are, this is when customers panic. As long as you do not go interfering with them and poke them with a stick or worse, think it will be a good idea and seal up the entrance hole (every year customers try this and every year it fails to do anything but make the problem worse).
And it is this "panic" by customers, that see so many end up paying extortionate sums of money for treatments. It was one of the reasons we started up in business 15 years ago because of the number of complaints we recieved at the council we worked at from customers being over charged, infact, we have been charging less then customers have been paying their own local councils but it only now that councils have stopped providing this type of service that customers are now discovering this.
Locally, we would expect you the customers not to have to pay more then £50 to get a professional to treat your wasp nest.
WE CHARGE ONLY £45 TO TREAT A WASP NEST LOCALLY THAT IS IN THE WORCESTER, MALVERN AND DROITWICH LOCAL AREAS.
And if we do not get it right the first time, we do not expect you the customer to have to pay to have it retreated
we retreat wasp nests free of charge, that way it is our intrest to get it right first time.
Many customers find that they have more then one wasp nest, last year one property we dealt with had 28 wasp nests!! and this year the most at one property has been 7.
Now we charge just an extra £5 to treat further nests at your property and this is the trap a lot of customers fall in to when phoning around for quotes, they get quoted a stupidly low price for the first nest but fail to ask how much it will be if they have more then one wasp nest and this is were they get caught out in many cases we come across.
An extra £10-£20 per wasp nest soon mounts up so do be warned a cheap quote does not mean a cheap treatment.
HONEY BEES
For some strange reason, many customers think that honey bees are protected!!!
As an industry, we should act responcibly and where ever possible help to protect honey bees, unfortunately for many customers there is little option but to treat their problem with bees, rather then leave them.
The law allows for the treatment of honey bees as long as it is done responcibly.
We do have a list of local bee keepers who are happy to come and collect swarms that are accessable and every year we do pass on swarms rather then treat them.
MOLES 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, in fact we have recently taught one customer the basics of mole trapping despite the fact that she has been trying for several years and failing to catch. A quick 20 minute crash course in the does and donts, how to make moles come to the traps rather then chasing them around the field and within 24 hours she is catching her own moles and is over the moon.
We have over 30 years experience of catching moles.
Some customers are reporting that after using other services, they are being asked for the money up front before the work is done.
They then discover that these individuals and companies are far more expensive and not as good as they think they are at the work. The only way you the customers get your monies worth out of this type of service, is if the person doing the work is no good at it and it takes them two to three times as many visits to do the job.
Professional mole catchers do not ask for payment up front.
FAQ
Q/ MANY WEBSITES ON THE WEB NOW SELL PRODUCTS FOR DEALING WITH A WHOLE RANGE OF PEST PROBLEMS, WHY DO YOU NOT DO THIS ALSO?
A/ Simple answer to this is that much of what is sold over the web, even if its stops your problem for now, fails to address why you are infested in the first place. If you as customers understood why it is you are infested, then you would not need to buy these products in the first place.
They boost the profits of those that sell them but they do not address the reasons why you get the problem in the first place.
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.
IF RATS AND MICE CAN NOT GET IN TO YOUR PROPERTY THEN THEY CAN NOT DAMAGE IT OR PUT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AT RISK
WORD OF WARNING FOR FOOD PREMISES
A new document has been provided by the organisation that over see`s local authorities, this document is called PEST CONTROL PROCEDURES IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY
It is a very good document and will over then next few years set out the basic standard that food premises should be looking at for pest control.
Here is a snipet taken from this document;
Environmental management and pesticide reduction There should be an increased reliance on environmental management and inspection of the site to reduce the attraction to pests.
Pest management programmes should aim to reduce the use of pesticides, particularly outdoors, by enhanced prevention programmes based on proofing and hygiene.
For example, reliance on toxic rodent baits outdoors as a permanent indicator of rat activity is no longer acceptable. Knowledge of the site, its history and potential for infestation through regular and thorough inspections will replace perimeter baiting as the first line of defence.
We ourselves contributed to the lighting of premises section of this document as it was an area that in the consultation process had not been included.
Yet how food premises fit lighting and illuminate their premises will contribute greatly to the problem of flies and other flying insect pests that enter.
This is IPM........and we have been saying this for over 15 years.
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 is passed on through the rats urine and it can be contracted in a number of ways, through cuts in the skin and even swallowing contaminated water.
As weils disease is a notifiable disease, as the local authority pest control officer, we would be sent to the premise or property to deal with the rodent infestation that was in the area.
So, 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.
Q/ IT HAS COST ME A FORTUNE TO HAVE REWIRING DONE BECAUSE RODENTS HAVE GNAWED THE ELECTRICAL WIRING, WHY DO THEY DO THIS?
A/ This is because rodents front teeth continually grow throughout their lifetime.
The word rodent comes from the latin rodere (to gnaw), in order to keep their teeth sharp and prevent them from growing too long, rodents have to gnaw on things.
In a loft, your electrical cables do become a target for this activity.
This can pose a fire risk.
This is why we warn customers that to rely on just using rodenticides to control your problem only after they have entered your property is a dangerous game to play. It can take days for rodenticides to work, it takes seconds for a rodent to chew a cable.
Q/ I HAVE BEEN PUTTING RAT POISON DOWN FOR DAYS/WEEKS IT KEEPS GOING BUT THEY DO NOT STOP, WHY?
A/ There can be many reasons for this but so of the most commonest causes are:
NOT ENOUGH BAIT IS BEING USED.
It can take anywhere from 2-4 ounces (50-100grms) just to remove one rat, this is because although the rat may well have ingested enough of the active ingredient, it will manage to eat more of the bait over the next few days before it will take full effect.
WRONG TYPE OF BAIT BEING USED.
Much of the bait sold to members of the public comes either on whole wheat or as a pellet form, because these particles are large, rats will carry them off and store them for later comsuption, it is called translocation.
This can be dangerous because the rats can drop the poison anywhere, in the garden, worse,in someone elses garden or in another part of the house. All of which we have seen happen.
It also means that a single rat can move large quantities of the product, giving the impression that more rats are actually there.
FAILURE TO PREVENT OTHER RATS FROM ENTERING THE PROPERTY
This is why DIY can be a waste of time and money for many customers. Unless you can identify how rats are entering your property, you just keep getting them, year after year.
Some customers we meet are effectively trying to empty the local sewer system of rats in ones and two`s via their loft.
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/ 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 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.
A lot of customers be they large companies or domestic wrongly think just because they have not heard of us before or because we are a small local company, that we can not help them with their problem.
So lets give you a bit of our history.
After spending 17 years working for a local authority as a pest control officer we have already done the volume of work most pest control technicians working in the private sector will possily do in their entire adult working life and we have done this large volume of work free of the commercial pressures placed on technicians to make as much money as poossible out of you the customers. Thats why we can solve problems in just a few weeks that technicians from other companies large or small take months or in alot of cases we deal with not at all.
Add to that, the fact that we have also spent the last 15 years working in the private sector simply because so many customers we came across whilst working for the local authority who were employing private companies were either being charged large sums of money for what can only be described as bad pest control. Their services were not designed to protect you the customers from the dangers associated from constantly being infested by vermin but as we have said many times bad pest control, pays far more then good pest control.
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ITS ALL UP THERE ^
