Posts Tagged ‘Manchester’

Manchester Pest Control – Carpet Beetles

Manchester Pest Control – Carpet Beetles – The Varied Carpet Beetle – Beetles in My House – The Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci) is a fairly new pest to the northern parts of Great Britain having been largely confined to the balmy southern climate but now pest controllers in Cheshire, Lancashire and Manchester are increasingly being called out to infestations of this insect pest.

Image via Wikipedia

A.Verbasci is a very distinctive, easily recognised beetle that can be a serious problem in the house. It feeds on natural fibres and can damage anything of natural origin, woolen carpets, furniture} and clothing.
The larvae are known as a woolly bear, a name it shares with the larvae of Pyrrharctia isabella or the Isabella Tiger moth.

A. verbasci was the very first insect to be shown to have a circadian and an annual cycle and to this date remains a classic example of

circannual cycles in insects.
The larval form of A. verbasci are circa 4-5 mm in length. The body has a pattern of alternating light- and dark-brown stripes. The body of the larvae is usually wider at the back than at the front and contains 3 pairs of hair tufts on its rear abdomen that can be used for self-defence

Adult insects range from 1.7 to 3.5 mm in length. Their dorsal surface has scales of two colours, whitish and yellowish-brown. White scales are condensed along the lateral margins of the pronotum. In addition, their antennae are 11-segmented with a club of 3 segments
A Verbasci has a very unusual life cycle for an insect, developing from larvae to adult in 1-3 years, according to the environment in which it finds itself.
Larvae hatch from eggs in the spring, very often they are associated with birds’  nests or around stored natural fabrics Larvae eat natural fibres throughout their larval stage, eventually experiencing a dormancy or diapause before completing pupation and emerging as an adult. Adults emerge between  March and early August, and feed on pollen.
These insects cause both physical damage by their larvae eating fabrics and psychological damage from the vast numbers of these pests which can emerge into living quarters.
When attempting to deal with these insects it is important to look for the presence of birds’ nests and remove any nests and feathers etc from the affected area before treating with an appropriate insecticide..
It is important to keep in mind that in the U.K. legislation affects the removal of birds’ nest, including sparrows and starlings which are the two common birds which have an association with A.verbasci so professional assistance should be sought to avoid [breaking the law.

That concludes this article entitled - Manchester Pest Control - Carpet Beetles

Late Season Wasps’ Nests in Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Late Season Wasps’ Nests in Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire – If you have a wasps’ nest we need to make you aware of a potential problem which occurs with late season nests and which you may experience. 

From about early September onwards the nest starts to produce the new queens which will hibernate for the winter and then start to build next year’s nests, an average nest producing up to about 2000 new queens. 

These queens then leave the nest and look for places to hibernate, typically in roof voids and lofts and it is quite common to find hundreds of them at a time on the floor of the loft or void. 

This process has already started and continues until the first cold spell, usually in November although in 2006 we were still destroying nests into December. 

Our operative has destroyed the nest on your property but as some queens will have already left the nest they will have escaped the treatment and may continue to cause you a problem. 

This may result in a continued stream of these wasps falling into the upper rooms of the property or the rooms adjacent to the nest. This can continue throughout the winter. 

This does not mean that we have failed to destroy the nest but merely that these queens had already left it. This problem will almost certainly occur with any nests left beyond the middle of September. 

Where this occurs the only solution is to carry out a “fogging” or “smoke” treatment of the loft or void using an insecticidal generator which will kill the vast majority of these queens. 

Unfortunately this incurs an additional expense which is as follows 

Destroy nest only – £29.50 

Destroy nest and treat loft or void on same visit   – £49.50 

Return visit to treat loft only where nest has already been destroyed  -     £44.50 

If you are currently experiencing wasps entering your property we would strongly suggest treating the loft on the initial visit to save further expense. 

Late Season Wasps’ Nests in Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire

Wasps’ Nests Destroyed £32.00 Stockport

Stockport Pest Prevention

Stockport based Stockport Pest Prevention announce that there will be no increase in their fixed price to destroy wasps’ nests in 2009, in Trafford.

Stockport Pest Prevention will get rid of wasps’ nests for you if you live in or around Trafford, seven days per week for a fixed price of £32.00.

Wasps’ nests can often be destroyed same day, give us a call to check for availability.

It is not advisable to allow a wasps’ nest to remain untreated as in September many thousands of queens will be produced and this may then require additional cost work such as fogging the roof void or loft, but until then we charge £32.00, no add-ons.

If you have more than one wasps’ nest on the same property in Trafford we do not charge extra for the second wasps’ nest and then only £10 each for the third and subsequent nests.

Many council pest controllers in Trafford are charging £52 for the first wasps’ nest and £30 for each subsequent.

To arrange a visit call us :

Cheshire 01565 849212

Lancashire 01772 837727

Manchester 0161 452 3165

Wigan 01942 504096

Trafford 01204 689361

Blackpool 01253 843019

Blackburn 01254 739138

Warrington  01925 670375

Sale & Altrincham 0161 930 8814

Chorley 01257 230637

Stockport Pest Prevention

Stockport Pest Control & Prevention specialise in Pest Control and Pest Prevention of:
Wasps, Bees, Rats, Mice, Bed Bugs, Ants, Wasps, Squirrels, Beetles, Pigeons, Wasps Nests, Birds, Moles, Flies, Starlings, Wasp’s Nests, Spiders, Magpies, Fleas, Bedbugs, Wasps’ Nests, Insects and Rodents in the following areas:

Appley Bridge, Accrington, Adlington, Alderley Edge, Altrincham, Ashton in Makerfield, Astley, Atherton, Bebington, Burscough, Formby, Blackburn, Blackpool, Trafford, Bootle, Boothstown, Bowden, Bramhall, Bury, Chadderton, Stockport, Croston, Stockport Hulme, Cheshire, Chorley, Culcheth, Darwen, Davyhulme, Didsbury, Euxton, Eccles, Eccleston, Farnworth, Flixton, Formby,  Frodsham, Fylde, Garstang, Gatley, Handforth, Stockport, Glazebury, Golborne, Greater Manchester, Hale, Hale Barnes, Harwood, Haydock, Heywood, Horwich, Helsby, Hazel Grove, Irlam, Kearsley, Knutsford, Lancashire, Leigh, Liverpool, Little Lever, Lymm, Manchester, Macclesfield, Middleton, Northenden, Northwich, Oldham, Partington, Preston, Prestwich, Poynton, Radcliffe, Rochdale, St Helens, Sale, Salford, Skelmersdale, Southport, St Helens, Stockport, Standish, Stretford, Swinton, Thameside, Timperley, Tarporley, Trafford, Tyldesley, Urmston, Walkden,Trafford, Weaverham, Wigan, Wilmslow, Woolston, Worsley, Trafford, Weaverham, Wigan, Winsford, Weaverham, Wilmslow, Woolston, Worsley,Westhoughton, Wirral, Birkenhead,Wallasey, Hoylake, Heswall, Winsford, Middlewich, Runcorn, Widnes, Rainhill, Croft, Halewood, Prescott, Huyton

Destroying Wasps’ Nests In Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire

 The early warm spring has caused the wasps’ nests in Manchester, Lancashire, Cheshire and Liverpool to be very early this year.

Harrier Pest Prevention destroy wasps’ nests at a fixed price of just £29.95, seven days per week. 0800 019 8382

Manchester based Harrier Pest Prevention reports treating wasps’ nests in mid-May, a full moth earlier than usual, and the early start means that in 2009 the wasps’ nests will be larger and more numerous than in is usual.

Although 11 species of true wasp are found in Europe, only two, the Common Wasp (VESPULA VULGARIS) and the GERMAN WASP (VESPULA GERMANICA) are important as pest species. Both species overwinter as queens. The Common Wasp usually hibernates in buildings and the German Wasp typically overwintering under the bark of trees.

In spring the overwintering queens leave their hibernating quarters to seek nesting sites which could be in a hole in the ground, a hollow tree or artificial structures such as eaves, lofts and attics, garden sheds etc. The queen starts to build her nest with a papery material that she makes by chewing small pieces of wood mixed with saliva; this is known as Wasp paper. She will raise the first few workers by her own efforts and those workers will then commence the enlargement of the nest and caring for the immature Wasps to follow. Nest construction starts in earnest in June and will reach it’s maximum in size in September, when 5 – 10,000 workers may be present. These workers will forage for food up to 400 metres from the nest. The size of wasp colonies will vary from year to year, the severity of the previous winter is probably the key factor. In the Autumn the young queens mate and leave the nest to hibernate, the rest of the nest dies out and the nest is never used again.

Individuals react differently to being stung by wasps; some are hardly affected, others suffer considerable pain and swelling and a few become seriously allergic to being stung, which in some cases results in sudden death due to anaphylactic shock.

Control

It is always advisable to let a professional Pest Control Officer deal with a Wasp nest for the reasons mentioned above. An insecticide will be used to cover the entrance to the nest. Returning wasps will carry the insecticide into the heart of the nest and within a few hours all wasps should be dead.

It is inadvisable to allow a wasps nest to remain untreated as the resultant queens produced by the nest will invariably nest nearby in the following spring resulting in many more nests the following year. For this reason several nests are often clustered together in a locality.

 As a rough guide you should not expect to pay more than £45.00 – £75.00 to have a wasps nest treated unless it is located in an area which is particularly difficult to access.

Pest control in Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire 2009

Pest Control in Manchester and surrounding areas has seen a lively start in 2009.

Pest controllers were kept busy with the usual city centre rat problems throughout the winter of course, but the relatively early spring has seen ant infestation call outs a month earlier than usual.

The wet summers of 2007 & 2008 were not to the liking of the hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants & bees) but 2009 looks like being a busy year for ant infestation work.

Frequently ants nest under the floors of houses and inside cavity walls causing a large number of foraging ants to visit kitchens & food cupboards.

However it is at mating time when they can be most distressing as they produce winged queens and males which then mate in flight.

The emergence of several thousand of these ‘flying ants’ inside houses can by traumatic indeed.

A relatively new pest has been especially troublesome this year, the Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci).

It was rare for pest controllers in Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire to encounter these pests until recent times but they seemed to arrive from nowhere in 2008 and already this spring has seen reports of varied carpet beetle in unprecedented numbers.

Having a similar life cycle to moths their larvae, known as ‘woolly bears’ can eat natural fibres and can do substantial damage to carpets and natural fabrics. They can be a difficult and persistent pest.

Bed bugs are continuing their resurgence in the Manchester area, frequently arriving as unwanted guests in the suitcases of returning holiday makers.

Often the first reaction of unfortunates who realise that they are infested with these blood-sucking insects is to destroy the old beds and buy new.

This is a costly mistake as despite their name bed bugs do not just live in beds and in an infested room will be found anywhere within about fifteen feet of the bed, in cupboards, drawers etc, even in electrical sockets and the new beds are quickly re-infested.

Many people confuse bed bugs with dust mite which are not visible to the naked eye.

Bed Bugs Bites

They dine exclusively on blood which they take form their sleeping victims. People often associate bed bugs with dirty conditions but nothing could be further from the truth, they don’t require dirt, they dine on you!

Until the end of April 2009 Harrier Pest Control are offering a 25% reduction on their guaranteed ant treatment.

The treatment which is guaranteed for three years, extendable indefinitely by a low cost re-treatment every three years can be carried out in most homes subject to free site survey

Contact Harrier Pest Prevention for details on 0800 019 8382

That concludes this article entitled Pest control in Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire 2009