Households and communities have been warned.
UK households urged to ‘block entries’ to home as epidemic sweeps England
UK households have been told how to banish rodents, bedbugs and other pests from your home. Amid an explosion of rodent numbers as rats overrun Birmingham amid the city bin crisis, households and communities have been warned.
Block entries, and keep homes spotless, residents are told. Mice can fit through holes as small as 6-10mm, experts and infestation gurus have warned Birmingham homes.
“You will need to fill any indoor or outdoor gaps, including around waste pipes, using rodent-proof materials, such as wire wool or metal plating, and fix with a suitable adhesive or screw.
READ MORE Rachel Reeves ‘looking at’ pay-per-mile car tax for 1.3 million drivers
“Or, in the case of an air brick, fix a purpose-built cover, or direct replacement may be more suitable,” says Niall Gallagher, the technical and compliance manager at the British Pest Control Association.
Gallagher recommends “making sure surfaces and cupboards are cleaned regularly, you’re not kicking crumbs under the kick plates, and that you are keeping food in rodent-proof containers”.
Sarah Spratt, the owner of the pest control company The Bed Bug Queen, says hotspots are behind the headboard, under divans and at the ends and undersides of wooden slats.
“Check the beds and the seams of the mattress before settling in,” she says. “I always put my suitcase in the bathroom and fully strip the bed and check the bed frame.”
Contact your landlord and try natural methods, too. “I blocked everything I could and created an environment that wouldn’t interest them,” one homeowner says.
“A combination of blocking physical gaps, removing food sources and using ultrasonic pest repeller plugs stopped them coming back.”
“We have been able to manage any mice that come through using humane traps, and leaving chocolate buttons and peanut better in them to entice them,” she says.
“We tend to catch any quickly after that and drive them 10 minutes away and let them out.”
You can also use professional experts. She adds: “Make sure they do not chemically treat the room if no evidence is found. They must find live bedbugs, shed skins, black spotting or poo.”