Verminater PEST Control

01/08/2024

Aggressive wasps a plenty..............

Calls for the treatment of wasp nests are flooding in although they are very patchy with some areas having more then other areas we cover.
Already this season we have come across some very aggressive nests and usually these turn out to be the German wasp.
When treating a nest no one knows how they will react until you treat it and by then it could be too late..... Which is why it concerns us to see posts on Facebook where people advise others to treat their own wasp nest rather then get a professional in.
Over the years I have had many a run in with this species of wasp and their ferocity of attack can still surprise even today, the whole nest will empty out in just seconds and attack everything in sight.
They have attacked me, the ladder, the van, street lights, birds sitting on the roof and even passerby's on the other side of the street.
So how can you tell if they are German wasps?
Simple you look between their eyes...........
Each species of wasp has a different marking on its forehead between their eyes. The German wasp has three dots in a triangle whereas a common wasp has an anchor shape....
I doubt that many people will want to get that close to tell the difference.

20/07/2024

Oooops...........

Despite the weather, wasp nests are beginning to get big enough for customers to start to notice.
We have already had to deal with a nest that has broken through a bedroom ceiling this week and today we were called to deal with a wasp nest in a garden shed in Droitwich which actually turned out to be on the back of the door.
This customer certainly got the shock of her life when she opened the door but thankfully she was not stung but they got quite annoyed when I opened the door.

07/07/2024

YOU CAN NOT SAY WE DO NOT TRY TO WARN PEOPLE, BUT.........

This week in one of our news feeds appeared an article concerning an outbreak of a very serious infection of bee hives in an area of the country.
American foulbrood is a devastating bacterial infection that can destroy bee hives, there is no cure for this infection and if not noticed early enough can lead to more hives being infected. The current control method in this country is to destroy all infected bees, hives and equipment BY FIRE.........
When we see a localized outbreak of such a rare infection of so many hives in such a small area we do wonder if the cause of such an outbreak is caused by the death of a local wild nest which may have become infected with American foulbrood, the nest has died off from the infection and bees from multiple hives have been stealing the honey and taking it and the infection back to their hives. If so, then if bees from other wild nests have been robbing the honey, these other wild nests will succumb to the infection and these nests will also be robbed of honey thus spreading the infection even further afield and claim more hives and so on and so on.
Just these 30 hives that have had to be destroyed is around 1 million bees and if this does not stop the spread, many more will have to be destroyed..........

American foulbrood infects young bees and the only way to stop the spread is by burning the hive.

29/06/2024

WE HAVE DONE THE MATHS...........

Firstly can I say a big thank you to those of you who still support us and especially to those who recommend us on Facebook when people ask for recommendations to deal with their pest problems, it means a lot to us.

So what has been happening since we last posted?

Over the last month or so here in Facebook land, we have been following a number of posts that have been appearing about bees and mainly those that concern honey bees and many have not ended well!
Most of these posts ended up being deleted because people have been standing up against the people who cause the problems at properties with honey bees.

So out of professional interest I have been trying to establish the size of the problem due to so many people wrongly giving out advice on Facebook about what to do and the "all bees are protected" which they are not...........

So I have been looking at the figures that we can rely on to establish how many honey bees we may have in this country and reading up on information supplied by organization's and associations and the answer is NO ONE REALLY KNOWS.
The reason for this appears to be that we do not truly know how many hives are kept in this country or how many people actually keep them. Add to this we have no idea of how many wild nests have got established when these hives have been allowed to swarm.
So what do we actually know about the number of honey bees in this country?
Well we can work out the MINIMUM number of bees based on the current available information and that is;
we know that the National bee unit set up a register of beekeepers and the number of hives they own a few years ago. They claim that approximately 25,000 beekeepers registered and that in total they registered 252,577 hives.
We know on average that a hive will hold at least 35,000 to 45,000 at their height in the summer.
So we have 252,577 registered hives holding an average of say 40,000 bees gives us a grand total of = 10103080000 (that is over 10 billion) and that is a minimum, the true figure of honey bees in this country will be far more then that.

06/05/2024

BIRDS NESTING IN ROOF.........

Over the last few weeks I have received a number of calls from people who have discovered that they have birds nesting in their roofs.
ALL WILD BIRDS, THEIR NESTS, EGGS AND CHICKS ARE PROTECTED DURING THE NESTING SEASON............

Here is what the RSPB has to say on this subject;
Wild bird protections in brief;
"Under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, it is considered breaking the law if a person…

Intentionally kills, injures or takes wild birds.

Intentionally takes, damages or destroy a wild bird’s nest while it’s being used or built.

Intentionally takes or destroys a wild bird’s egg.

Possesses, controls or transports live or dead wild birds, or parts of them, or their eggs.

Sells wild birds or puts them on display for sale.

Uses prohibited methods to kill or take wild birds.

Intentionally or recklessly disturbs any wild bird listed on Schedule 1 while it is nest building, or at a nest containing eggs or young, or disturbs the dependent young of such a bird.

The consequences for the above, even in the event of harm to a single bird, nest or egg, is an unlimited fine, up to six months in jail or both. Suffice to say, it is certainly not a risk worth taking."

SO WHILST THE BIRDS ARE ACTUALLY NESTING IT IS AN OFFENCE TO TRY AND STOP THEM.

You would need to wait until the birds have finished nesting before you can take action to prevent them returning again next year.

For more information please visit the RSPB website

Find out what you should do if you suspect you have birds nesting in your home or in your roof.

23/04/2024

QUEEN WASP`S ARE WAKING UP AND BEES ARE SWARMING.... MUST BE SPRING TIME.

Today we saw our first Queen wasp of the year at a customers property, she was flying around looking for a suitable site to start building her nest for this year.
Now we are seeing a bit of sun shine all manner of hibernating insects are waking up.
Also reports of honey bees starting to swarm are already being reported so spring is truly here......

13/03/2024

EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY SHOULD READ THIS.....

As of next year how the industry treats any rat problems at your properties will have to change, certain products will be banned from being used outside away from buildings.
Here is a snippet from information that is slowly being released to the industry:

“A primary factor leading to this is the stubbornly static incidence of rodenticide residues in around 80 per cent of barn owls, the HSE-nominated sentinel species for annual surveillance,” he explains. “This change will enable a single clear message about SGAR (second generation anticoagulant rodenticide) use: None of these products can be applied away from buildings.”

Sales of products containing bromadiolone and difenacoum for use in open areas and at waste dumps will cease on 4 July 2024. These products purchased on or before that date will be authorised for use in open areas and waste dumps until 31 December 2024. After that, it will be illegal to use any SGAR product to treat a rodent infestation not associated with a building."

Over the last month or so we have been looking at one of the suggested alternative non-anticoagulant products which we are being advised to use in these situations and what we are discovering does not look good.
We have been reading the reports on studies done on this product in the USA and just as importantly we are currently reading reports from organizations from within the veterinarian community in the USA.
It appears that there is no one such antidote to this product because of it`s mode of action. It can affect the liver, the kidneys, the heart or even the blood circulatory system or multiple organs all at once. So to treat non target species or pets who have directly consumed this product will have to be on a case by case cure rather then an injection with a single antidote.
This is a path the industry is going down from which, I personally fear, there will be no return.
So treating your rats will from next year get that much harder at some properties........

10/02/2024

Hope everyone is OK it has been sometime since my last post so when this article popped up in my news feed I thought I would share it with you.
Personally I never bother to read these sort of posts, what interests me more are the comments made by people which appear on them. It shows what the industry is up against, at a time when we are loosing products that are deemed to be unsafe to non target species which are being poisoned when they consume rodents that have consumed these products, on articles like this one, we can actually see people openly admitting they are the cause of your problem and your neighbours problem because they do not control the rodents on their properties.
I can remember in a distant past when local authorities did what the law required of them to control rats and mice in their districts. In the 1950`s 60`s and 70`s councils did not provide treatments they did what the law required of them and that was to serve legal notices on people they found to be infested requiring them to get rid of the rats and mice and take the action necessary to prevent their return or face a fine of up to £1000 and the cost of controlling their infestation.
At a time where we are seeing an increase in infestations and a tightening and restrictions on what the industry can and can not do, something has to change and the only people with the legal power to do anything about it, refuses to do so............

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21/12/2023

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE....

10/11/2023

CAN YOU GUESSE WHY?

Over the last few weeks wasp nest treatments have given way to more calls for rats, mice and a number of calls for squirrels.
Of these three rodents, the squirrel is the one who can cause more damage in a loft then the other two.
Yet in every single infestation of squirrels we have dealt with over the last few weeks, as this photograph shows, they have gained access in to the loft because trees have been allowed to grow to close to the roof.
Many customers locally especially on the new Warndon estate are caught in a vicious cycle because the trees causing the infestation do not belong to them.
Trees and the branches of trees need to be kept at least 3 meters from a roof in order to prevent squirrels using them to gain access to the roof.

29/10/2023

CUSTOMER COMPLAINT!!!

This weekend we received a complaint from a very upset and clearly an angry man.
He had a wasp nest treated 2 weeks ago and phoned up to complain that his house was filling up with dopy wasps and that his wife had been stung when a wasp got stuck in her hair.
After he had vented his anger at having paid a large sum of money and still had a problem, I finally got to ask him "who are you and where do you live?".
Once he had calmed down enough to speak to civilly, turns out he was not one of my customers at all.
We know this because of what he had said so we explained to him why we know it was not me who had treated his nest; first off we do not charge customers £160 to treat a wasp nest. Secondly our phone log shows he did ring us on the 13th of this month and that his call had been diverted to the answerphone service but no message had been left and thirdly his address was not on our database for a treatment of any kind ever.......
Finally he realized that it was another company who had been and treated the nest.
We did offer to call round and take a look at the problem for him for free but he declined our offer and said he would get back in touch with the company he had used and if he got no help from them he would give us a call and take us up on our generous offer.
The problem for customers who do not like leaving a message on answerphones is that there are companies out there waiting for them to call and because they do not work locally or live locally they will hit you hard in the pocket because it will not affect them like it would a local company.
So be warned, not every company that advertise as being local are.

18/10/2023

THE DARWIN AWARD GOES TO.........

This week the Darwin award goes to the loft insulation contractor who, when working in a loft here in Worcester, discovered a wasp nest. Instead of showing caution, he decided to knock it down and was attacked by "hundreds" of wasps................
Each year we meet many contractors who need to work in lofts for a variety of reasons and discover when they enter the loft space that there is a wasp nest but we certainly do not meet many who then goes and knocks the thing down.
Brave or stupid, I will let you decide.