My parents live in a small close of 10 detached bungalows.

In the summer my parents, and 2 of the others, had a couple infestations of mice and then rats. The local pest control man dealt with the critters, and they’ve had all the holes they could find blocked.

Seems that the cold weather has brought the furry critters back again at my parents and next door – they are checking with other neighbours tonight. Pest control man has been back, but I was wondering if there is any point when repeat infestations of several properties becomes an issue the council get involved in?

This is the third time in 6 months, and the pest control guy will soon be ordering a Porsche….

Are they paying the pest man?? My parents just ring the council and they send the pest people out free.

What you need is a gun that fires honey badgers

I’ve been told that they “had” to get the pest control guy out – cul de sac full of people in their 70s and 80s, not sure what the true situation is with the council, hence I’m asking.

Oh, and they don’t like cats. But I think they may hate rats more….

Some people are hard to please.

The only real long term solution is for your parents neighbours (either individually or collectively) to adopt a cat…unless their neighbours have a passion for breeding ferrets

maccruiskeen – Member
What you need is a gun that fires honey badgers

[MrT mode] I ain’t getting in no gun fool [/MrT mode]

On a more serious note, where do they enter/nest in the house? We had a problem last winter (our first in an old stone house in the countryside, and one which had a previous owner with cats), but since putting one of those ultrasonic repellent things in the loft we’ve not had one.

Sounds like the pest control bloke is failing to truly identify the source of the infestation and just dealing with the problems in different properties. If there is a serious rat problem in an defined area there will be a burrow or nesting site fairly close by. As somebody who works in pest control I would recommend that your parents find a pest controller who is willing to carry out a proper survey of the whole development and try to track the activity back to the source. If he isn’t prepared to get muddy and crawl through hedges and old sewers he isn’t doing his job properly.

Does the development back onto any older properties or an industrial estate or even a patch of waste ground? Sometimes a pest controller has to venture onto other properties and ask difficult questions of other land owners in order to figure out where a problem is coming from.

Sometimes a longer term management arrangement needs to be entered into in order to reduce the incidence of rodents entering sensitive areas and buildings but the industry is slowly moving away from just constantly placing bait out in the hope of killing rodents. Perhaps your parents and their neighbours could enter into a collective arrangement to fund a comprehensive short term treatment programme to cut the rat numbers right back; if they are calling out the pest controller separately he may not be seeing the bigger picture.

You may find the local council no longer provides free or subsidised pest control services; many don’t these days. The BPCA will be able to recommend a local independent pest controller that they have audited. If they are in North or Mid Devon they can always give me a call 😉

Happy to give advice if its needed, but not tonight, its late and I’ve got an early morning appointment in a loft trying to catch rats. Its a glamorous life…

The people in the close need to get some pussy

Our gaffe has a cellar with a coal chute and numerous ventilation grates which are impossible to seal

Despite being mouse heaven we have never ever seen evidence of the little fellas on account of the 2 self centred psychos we share the place with, until recently we have never been been ‘gifted’ a corpse, the local vermin intrinsically know not to bother sniffing around here

Thanks big Dave.

Need to find the real cause. When we had rats the problem was a neighbours drain. When building her extension the builders failed to block up a disused branch in the sewer. Since fixing that we had a couple of sightings but a bit of poison took care of them and no sightings for over a year now. Loads a cats around, they did nothing other than crap on the lawn.

We had a rat problem in the summer, I identified a couple of potential sources. The surface water drains, which I fitted with non return valves. Burrows in the garden which I flooded, baited and filled in and decking. I fitted wire mesh in every opening of the decking.

I have no more rats, but now mice!