Tag: infestations

Expert reveals crucial garden advice for winter amid infestation risk

As food waste often increases over Christmas, the risk of infestations rises.

To help homeowners, Angelika Zaber, a Lawn Care Specialist and Gardening Expert for Online Turf, has provided expert insight and essential tips for preventing infestations, and how gardens are a key entry point for rodents this winter:

“The best way to keep your rodents from entering your property is to keep them from entering your garden. There are many ways in which this can be done, but for best results, a hybrid approach of mixing different methods together is best.  

“Rodents are looking for gardens that they deem to be a food source. If you’ve got a compost pile or unsecured bins, they’re going to want to keep coming back because they know they can get a steady supply of food easily.

“To avoid this, invest in secure, lockable bin lids, don’t leave any rubbish out overnight, and invest in a compost bin so the pile is sealed and can’t be accessed.

“Even if a rodent can smell it, if they can’t access it, it will deter them from returning. However, the bin itself must be made from good-quality materials, and should be placed on a solid base, such as concrete, to block burrowing rats.

“You should also seal your garden as best as you can. To do this, invest in high, smooth fences with no gaps in between and install netted mesh on the ground so that it’s harder for them to get in. If you have quite an open garden and can’t seal entry points, there are a few humane ways to try and deter them from entering.

“Strong scents like garlic or mint are unpleasant for rodents. You can use these to make a mixture by adding some plants into a spray bottle, filling it with water and letting it sit for a while, then spray any entry points in your garden.” 

Top 10 Most Rat-Infested Cities in the UK Revealed

Lockdown has created an ideal habit for the rat – with careless waste habits, vacant shops, and quiet streets – leading to a breeding frenzy in some of our favourite UK Cities.

“They say you are only ever 6ft away from a rat – and in some cities this is quite possibly true!”, says Jenny Rathbone from UK Pest Control company Pest.co.uk

The survey of 3,400 callouts in October across the UK by Pest.co.uk reveals the cities where you are most likely to spot a rat.

Birmingham tops the list of “Rattiest” places in the UK with more rat infestations than anywhere else, and this is common – where you see one rat, you usually see more.

“Rats can breed like mad, so we get localised infestations, where a breeding pair can create six litters of 6-12 pups a year, creating more breeding pairs and so on – hence why you need to get these problems under control fast”, explains Rathbone.

The cities with the most rat infestation callouts in October were:

  1. Birmingham – 353
  2. Newcastle – 305
  3. Leeds – 266
  4. Liverpool – 251
  5. City of London – 190
  6. Manchester – 187
  7. Sheffield – 155
  8. Cardiff – 139
  9. Bristol – 131
  10. Edinburgh – 120

“Rats are loving life at the moment, they are being left to breed in vacant shops with abandoned bins – the technicians out on the road have seen nothing like this before”, explains Jenny Rathbone from UK Pest Control company Pest.co.uk

Rats do not need much to get by – mainly food and shelter. The damage they can cause to buildings when left unchecked can be severe and in the worst cases can lead to fire and flood.

The worry is that with a cold winter and more lockdowns that we will be creating a “perfect storm” of rodent infestations across the UK

Jenny concluded: “It’s really important not to leave food scraps around, even compost bins have been known to attract rats in large numbers, a tidy and clean environment helps reduce these problems massively – however if you love rats, head to Birmingham!”