Pest Control
Some things are useful to know. Others are simply worth telling.
Before You Call and our pest guides cover the first. From the Field takes care of the rest.
Bumblebee nests: practical UK pest control advice
Not every buzzing nest needs treating. What to do if you find bumblebees, and when it is genuinely worth calling someone out.
Read the article → Before You CallA season-by-season guide to pest activity in the Midlands
Wasps peak, ants swarm and cluster flies look for a way in. What tends to show up and when, across the year.
Read the article → Before You CallWhy preventative pest control matters
The cheapest treatment is the one you never need. How proofing and monitoring compare with repeat call-outs over time.
Read the article → Before You CallHow to tell rats from mice in a loft
Droppings, gnaw marks, noise and timing all point one way or the other. What actually tells them apart, and where the signs alone fall short.
Read the article → Pest guide: BeetlesGround beetles: what's crawling into your home?
A black beetle on the kitchen floor in the morning is almost always a ground beetle that wandered in overnight. Harmless, and usually fixed with a draught strip.
Read the guide → Pest guide: BirdsTrouble in the eaves: dealing with starlings nesting in your home
Starlings return to the same gap in the eaves year after year. The law protects an active nest, so timing matters: wait for the young to leave, then close the gap.
Read the guide → Pest guide: WoodliceWoodlice in the house: causes, signs and fixes
Woodlice are harmless, but a steady trickle of them indoors is a reliable sign of damp somewhere nearby. Fix the moisture and the woodlice stop.
Read the guide → Pest guide: MitesMould mites unmasked: causes, solutions and prevention
Tiny pale specks moving across a damp windowsill or shelf are usually mould mites. They live on mould, so the cure is drying the room out.
Read the guide → Pest guide: SlugsMoisture seekers: how slugs find their way into UK homes
Slugs can get through gaps you would not think possible, and they climb. Here is how they get in, how they reach upstairs bathrooms, and how to find the route.
Read the guide → Pest guide: SlugsSlimy intruders: how to manage indoor slugs safely
How to deal with slugs indoors without putting pets or children at risk, and why salt, beer traps and pellets do not belong in the house.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Rats and miceMice in the loft? How to spot them, and stop them
Light scratching overhead after dark, small droppings by the insulation. How to confirm it is mice, how they are getting in, and how to stop it for good.
Read the guide → Pest guide: SlugsSlugs in the home: causes and long-term fixes
Slugs that keep coming back are telling you something about damp, drainage or a gap at ground level. Fix that and they stop.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Carpet beetlesUn-snug the bug in your rug: detecting and preventing carpet beetles
Small holes along a seam, bare patches at the edge of a rug, tiny hairy larvae on the skirting. Carpet beetles are common, and most of the fix is thorough cleaning.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Rats and miceThe British mice identification guide
Britain has several kinds of mouse, but only a couple cause trouble indoors. How to tell a house mouse from a wood mouse, and why it changes what you do next.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Rats and miceSmells like trouble: dealing with dead rodents
A sour, sickly smell that moves from room to room is often a dead rodent in a wall or under a floor. How long it lasts, and how to deal with it safely.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Rats and miceThe big clean-up: making your home sanitary after a rodent infestation
Once the rats or mice have gone, the clean-up matters. Never sweep or vacuum droppings. A safe, step-by-step guide to making your home sanitary again.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Wasps and hornetsEmerging queen wasps and early nests: what you need to know
Every wasp nest starts with one queen and a nest the size of a golf ball. Spring is when they are smallest, easiest to find and simplest to deal with.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Rats and miceRats in your loft? Here's what you need to know
Heavy scratching overhead at night, large droppings and greasy marks on the joists. The signs of rats in the loft, how they get in and what to do.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Wasps and hornetsDon't stir up a hornet's nest: your guide to the European hornet
The European hornet looks alarming and is calmer than a common wasp unless its nest is disturbed. How to recognise it, and what to do if one is nesting nearby.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Wasps and hornetsSpot queen wasps early: spring tips to prevent wasp nests
A large wasp hovering round the eaves in April is a queen looking for a nest site. What to look for in spring, and how to make your home less inviting.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Wasps and hornetsLate wasp nests explained: why they last into autumn
Still seeing wasps in October? Nests can stay active well into autumn, and the wasps are at their most irritable. When a late nest needs treating and when it can wait.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Stored food pestsFlour beetles: the common kitchen cupboard invader
Small reddish-brown beetles in the flour or crawling up the cupboard wall. The fix is finding the infested packet, binning it and cleaning, not spraying.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Stored food pestsFear no weevil: identification and infestation signs of stored product insects
Weevils in the rice, beetles in the flour, tiny insects walking up the cupboard door. How to tell what you have and get rid of them for good.
Read the guide → Pest guide: FliesHow to stop cluster flies taking over your loft
Dozens of slow, sleepy flies around the loft window. Cluster flies come back to the same buildings every autumn, and the timing of what you do matters.
Read the guide → Pest guide: Clothes mothsCase-bearing clothes moths: what you need to know
Small holes in a wool jumper and tiny cases stuck to the fabric. Case-bearing moth larvae carry their homes with them, and cleaning is the main cure.
Read the guide → Pest guide: BeesBuzzing about bees: a guide to species identification
Honeybee, bumblebee or mason bee? Telling them apart decides what, if anything, needs doing about a nest. A plain guide to the bees you are most likely to see.
Read the guide → Pest guide: BeetlesWhen is a cockroach not a cockroach? When it's a cockchafer
A big brown beetle crashing into the window on a May evening. It is almost certainly a cockchafer: harmless, native and nothing like a cockroach.
Read the guide → Pest guide: BirdsChimney nests and uninvited guests: a closer look at the jackdaw
Sticks in the fireplace and a noisy chimney in spring usually mean jackdaws. Why a chimney nest is a real hazard, what the law allows, and how to keep them out.
Read the guide → Pest guide: NoisesWhat's that sound? Common noises in the home explained
Most noises in a house are the house itself. Here is how to tell creaks and pipes from mice, rats, squirrels, birds and wasps, and what the timing tells you.
Read the guide → From the FieldThe rat the size of a cat
A call that started with genuine terror and ended, as these things usually do, somewhere rather smaller and considerably more mundane.
Read the story → From the FieldThe swarm on the washing line
On the strange, oddly moving business of persuading several thousand bees into a cardboard box, and why it never quite stops feeling like a small miracle.
Read the story →Get a fixed-price quotation.
Send a photo or just describe it. One of our technicians will tell you what you are dealing with, whether it needs treating at all, and what it will cost, before anyone comes out.