Pest Control In Manchester & Other Large Cities by Ken Chadwick

Big city pest control brings its own set of special circumstances which sometimes require a different approach to smaller and quieter towns.

Firstly the very logistics of working in a busy big city can be problematic, even the basics of parking your van near the customers’ premises can be difficult especially when equipment needs to be carried. This can lead to increased charges which have to be passed onto the customer and sometimes these can be substantial.

Premises are often open seven days a week and even twenty-four hours a day thus leaving little opportunity for the pest controller to go about his work.

This may not cause too much difficulty in routine preventative inspection visits but can cause extreme problems when infestation is detected in that often pesticides require premises to be vacated for a period of time.

Big towns & cities usually have a large number of takeaways providing food to eat on the go and often will be littered overnight with uneaten food scraps providing food for rats, pigeons and seagulls which have now moved inland.

Often daily waste collections mean that bagged food waste is put outside overnight thus encouraging rodents.

Pigeons & Seagulls are obviously a nuisance with their noise and fouling but often will take food stuffs up onto roofs and ledges causing a build up of rotten materials which produce flies and maggots.

Pigeons will often roost and nest in roof spaces for many years leading to a large build up of pigeon guano and often their droppings can make the walkways below slippery and dangerous.

Most big cities have a varied ethnic mix with a variety of shops and restaurants supplying foods from all over the world. Often these foods are imported in bulk from countries where pests such as cockroaches are endemic and these pests are then brought into the U.K. hidden away in the goods and packaging.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of big city pest control is the resurgence of the bed bug which in recent years has seen numbers rise exponentially.

A high transient population of visitors often staying in inexpensive, high turnover accommodation means that the bugs can spread quickly throughout a city and even expensive upmarket establishments are not exempt.

The very nature of a bed bug infestation means that it is difficult and expensive to cure and news of infestation is often of interest to local press who will often carry a story about a guest being bitten, thus ruining the reputation of the establishment.

Bed bug infestations require that the infested bedroom and those adjacent be treated thus losing revenue for the establishment.

Bed Bugs Are Back In Lancashire

Bed Bugs Are Back in Lancashire – One of the most feared and misunderstood pests known to man is the bed bug (Cimex lectularius). How many of us dropped off to sleep at night as young ones with the words of our parents in our ears ‘sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite’?

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Bed bugs probably started to feed on man at about the time we moved into caves, the ‘bat bugs’ Cimex pilosellus and Cimex pipistrella primarily feed on bats and it is probable that bat feeding species of bug evolved to dine on human blood when our ancesters started living in bat infested caves.

Until the invention of DDT in the early 20th century bed bugs were common non-paying guests in most low quality dwellings.

The later part of the 20th century saw pest control companies dealing with very few bed bug problems indeed, their presence being largely confined to inexpenisve vacation camps and student accomodation etc.

Many people mistake dust mites, which are not visible to the naked eye, with bed bugs which very definitely are.

Adult bedbugs are reddish-brown, about a quarter of an inch in size and decidely swollen after a feed of our blood.

They have an incomplete metamorphosis which means that the nymphs are just smaller copies of the adult, they don’t have a pupal stage like fleas or flies.

Bed bugs typically feed on human blood every 7 – 10 days, coming out in the hours before dawn and locating their prey by sensing the exhaled CO2 from our breath and when nearing in on their target, body heat.

In the absence of a convenient human to feed on they can stay dormant for periods of up to 18 months.

Signs of a bed bug infestation are spots of blood on bedding and on the underside of mattresses and many people can react badly to their bites.

The early 21st century has seen bed bug numbers increase across the world, the easy availability of international travel and economic migration have both been blamed for the come back.

What is certain is that thet are now making a real return not only in low quality housing but high class hotels, schools and often hospitals.

One London borough reports a doubling of bed bug call-outs each year from 1995 – 2001.

Just one night away in an infested hotel is all it takes, they catch a ride in your suitcases or bags. Pest control firms are also now reporting cases of transport related bed bug infestations on tubes, trains and buses so a single journey to work on an infested bus or train can be sufficient to spread the infestation to your own home.

They are an expensive pest to eradictate as contrary to popular mythology they do not just live in beds. They hide any nook and cranny conveniently close to a sleeping human, beds, electrical sockets, televisions, bed-side telephones etc and treatment is both difficult and time consuming. They have even been found living beneath the toe-nails of infirm persons and in the folds of flesh on heavily over-weight people.

They are not a pest that can be tackled by an amateur and a professional will almost certainly be |required.

Ken Chadwick B.A. (Hons) is a Pest Controller and author on pest control issues. For further information please visit http://www.waspgo.co.uk

That concludes this article entitled – Bed Bugs Are Back In Lancashire

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• Don’t let the bed bugs bite… (guardian.co.uk)