Rabbit Control

Pest purge are highly experienced in dealing with these rural pests, we can use a variety of traditional techniques, including, snaring, cage trapping, spring trapping, drop boxes, shooting and ferreting.

All of these require special training and in the case of shooting, the legal authorisation to use a rifle which we have from Kent Police. Rabbits are a serious pest to farmers and gardeners.

Problems Rabbits Can Cause To Businesses

They can ruin an agricultural or small holding business. We have even had to eradicate them when they gained entrance to council allotments and were eating all the produce! Pest Purge has annual contracts with farms, vineyards and private estates to control rabbits where they are a real threat to business. For these contracts we may combine ferreting through the winter with shooting all year round to keep their numbers down. On one recent contract we have removed over 100 rabbits from a farm starting a new growing venture.

Problems Rabbits Can Cause To Homeowners

For the homeowner in the countryside the rabbit will be seen as a pest when they invade gardens and eat expensive plants, they will also ruin shrubs and kill young trees as they nibble around the trunk stripping the bark, allowing disease to enter and the tree to die. Your vegetables will be a key target. Rabbits will dig burrows to live in but they will also live under sheds, garages, decking, barns and out-buildings.

They also live on the surface where there is sufficient ground cover and protection from the elements. Rabbit numbers will increase quickly as their breeding life-cycle is very fast, they will produce many young and all are mobile and capable of causing damage immediately.

Wild Rabbit Breeding Habits

Rabbits also breed all year round, now we have much milder weather, the seasonal temperature is less dramatic and this encourages them to breed even during the winter months. Pest Purge is well equipped to tackle your rabbit problem, for a cost effective quote give us a call and we can discuss the various options available. We can provide and install rabbit proof fencing or proofing for individual pants and trees.

Wild Rabbit Control Maidstone and Kent. Pest Purge can solve your rabbit pest control needs with effective treatments.

Beetles & Cockroaches Pest Control

Beetles and cockroaches have been with us a long time, Spider Beetles and Dermestid beetles have been found by archaeologists to have been around in 1300BC.

Insects like cockroaches, beetles and weevils are great survivors. Many of them had adapted well beyond their original wild ancestors.

Grain beetles for example had lost their wings, a costly appendage. Unnecessary when you can simply ride from place to place in transported grain.

These insects are adaptable; many of them are classed as stored product insects, flour, grain and spider beetles, book lice, rice and grain weevils, larder and biscuit beetles, most are only tiny but if they are left untreated, they will soon burrow into the stored food and contaminate it.

Pest Purge is experienced at dealing with these more unusual pests. First we identify them under a microscope and then we will treat them with a modern insecticide.

We have cleared houses of cockroaches and again with these insects it is important to determine which species we are dealing with, the main ones are German, Oriental, Brown Banded and American. Cockroach treatments are lengthy as repeat visits are required, where careful baiting around the home is important in order to be successful.

Cockroach Health Risks

Cockroaches are a serious health risk as they come out from their hiding places at night to feed. They will easily climb up cupboards and onto work surfaces in search of crumbs and left over food. They will contaminate our kitchen and utensils as well as transferring disease; if they run around unchecked you may end up with a serious stomach complaint like salmonella, gastroenteritis or diarrhoea.

Detecting a Cockroach Infestation

To find out if you have them, go into the kitchen at night, switch on the light and if they are present you will likely see them scuttling away into a dark corner. They also have an odour about them, their droppings will be present (little black dots everywhere) and exoskeletons which they shed as they grow into adults.

To avoid these highly unsavoury pests, call in Pest Purge for an immediate free survey and quotation.

Beetles & Cockroaches Pest Controller in Maidstone Kent

Bed Bugs Pest Control

This is an adaptable and evolving insect, one that has been around for thousands of years since mankind started colonising the earth and living in groups.

An insect which can be difficult to treat effectively.

Pest Purge has a lot of experience dealing with bedbugs for home owners, letting agents and hoteliers.

We are successful at treating this pest because we are thorough.

First of all an inspection is required to determine the extent of the infestation before an initial treatment can be carried out.

Often a single treatment can be effective in eradicating the pest but in some cases a follow up treatment is required.

How do you know if you have bedbugs?

You will be lying in bed and you will get bitten.

The bedbug will be attracted to the warmth from your body and the carbon dioxide you breathe out, it will climb up the bedframe, onto the mattress and then onto you, to feed and drink your blood (most likely waking you up and disturbing your sleep).

Once they have finished doing this they will move away and rest up during the day somewhere dark and quiet, to repeat the trip again when they are hungry.

They are tiny and hard to see, like the size of a lentil.

To spot the nymphs you should call in the experts to confirm their presence.

Bedbugs are resilient, they can live for around eleven months in a bedroom, sitting dormant waiting for someone to sleep on the bed and then out they will come to feed.

If there is no one in the room they will sit and wait.

Bedbugs, when they get going, can multiply very quickly.

An adult female can lay 500 eggs in her lifetime; she will lay 2-3 eggs a day.

In six months in the right conditions a single bedbug can turn a room into an infestation, with around 8,000 adults living in or on your bed.

Pest Purge will advise you on the best course of action, we can advise you if your bed (mattress and base) are worth saving or replacing.

If an infestation is left too long, the bedbugs may have crawled inside the mattress or be living inside the bed frame, damaged and second hand bedroom furnishings will mean a greater chance the bedbugs have gained a foothold and will be harder to get rid of.

Luckily Pest Purge use the latest professional insecticides to treat them, we understand about the different chemical compositions that can be used and resistance issues that the bedbugs develop, which will ensure a greater likelihood of success when treating them.

The key thing to remember is that if you suspect you are getting bitten and there are rashes on your skin or blood spots on the sheets, call in the professionals quickly.

Pest Purge will be able to reassure you and organise an effective treatment strategy with some advice about how to deal with them immediately.

This is one bedroom pest that requires treating quickly.

Pheromone monitors and bedbug proof mattress covers can also be supplied to ensure that the insect is eradicated completely.

Sleep tight!

Bed Bug Removal service for Kent, Maidstone and Medway.

Ant Control Maidstone

There are many species of Ant living near to us. Mostly their nests will be in the garden. But as they forage around looking for food they sometimes enter our homes.

Most of us have seen trails of ants marching towards a food source; they leave a pheromone trail which the others can follow to find the food.

Common UK ants include the Garden ant and Pharohs ant but there are thousands of species.

Correct identification is key to selecting the right treatment as behaviour and characteristics vary considerably.

Pest Purge has experience of dealing with ants in homes and businesses.

Ant colonies can hold up to half a million ants, they will have a queen of the colony and she will control it.

You can spot them outside as a small spoil of soil is left raised above the ground, if disturbed you will see the ants rushing around below.

Some ants will live inside, choosing instead to make their home under the floor or inside a wall cavity.

Pest Purge uses modern ant gels to eradicate them, as they come into contact with the insecticide and transfer it to the rest of the colony, it will successfully remove them.

Also, traps can be placed outside with the gel in, attracting the ants through its sweet and palatable formulation.

Ants are very well travelled pests; they have even made it into space.

In 2014 they were sent up into space as part of a schools science project to see how their behaviour alters in micro-gravity; they were part of a resupply mission to the International Space Station. Not bad for an Ant!

Ants Pest Control Maidstone and Kent. Call us for a free pest control quote.

A modern solution to rat problems

Pest control without poison is now achievable.

In the US authorities have been trialling a new bait called ContraPest to tackle rat infestations in New York and some East Coast cities. The bait stops female rats from having pups by making them infertile by triggering early menopause and affects male rats by impairing sperm production. There are no side effects and the rats die of natural causes. More humane than using poisons.

The New York subway trial halved the resident rat population in three months. On the East Coast a trial at a farm made numbers fall by a third in three months. In another urban trial population growth was supressed during the peak breeding season so the population expanded at only one third the expected rate.

ContraPest is being developed by SenesTech, an Arizona based biotechnology company and they are optimistic about it's prospects.

One breeding pair of rats can produce 15,000 pups a year, so if you can reduce that by a third in the first few months of using this bait, that is 5000 fewer rats. Part of the logic of using fertility control rather than poisoning is that killing rats simply means that others move in and take their place; fertility control maintains a small population of existing rats that guard their territory from newcomers.

One advantage is that there is no risk of secondary poisoning to non-target species. The flavoured liquid is ingested by the rat, the chemicals are then broken down by the rats' metabolism, preventing them from getting into predators bodies or the wider environment.

One contradictory point is that rats that don't take the bait may end up having bigger, healthier litters because there is less competition for food.

SenesTech are also looking at adapting the formulation for the control of mice and feral pigs; possibly feral deer, dogs and cats too!

Holidaying in the UK or abroad, how to avoid Bed bugs!

With spring well and truly sprung, and summer just around the corner, our thoughts turn to holidays and travelling. It is time to pack our bags and head-off to paradise for a summer break. So whether you will be staying in a five star hotel, rented house, B & B or caravan; here are some tips to avoid bed bugs which may be sharing your digs with you.

Bed bugs live on or in mattresses, check the seams for any spots or stains, often at the corners or along the edge where your head rests. If you see any suspicious signs, demand a change of room, your money back or look for alternative accommodation. Do not stay in that room or the chances are you may be bitten.

In any accommodation the most likely place for bedbugs to live is in the bedroom. Inspect the room thoroughly, before unpacking, paying special attention to looking behind the headboard, bedside cabinets and on the carpet or flooring immediately under the top or the bed. Also, if you have chairs or sofas in the room, inspect these too.

In hotels, use the foldaway table, unpack your case off the floor, stow it away in a wardrobe or high off the floor. There will be less chance a wandering bed bug will inadvertently stow away with you when you pack to return home. Or take a dustbin-bag with you and put your case in this whist you are away.
When you get back home inspect your case for bugs, vacuum it out before storing it. If you have a hand steam cleaner use this to steam your luggage, this will kill and bed bugs or eggs that may have hitched a ride home.

Wash all of your clothing at high temperature before hanging clothes in wardrobes or placing in drawers, this will kill any adults and eggs that may have travelled home with you.
Bed bugs are hitch-hiking masters, this is how they travel and get around. If you change rooms in a hotel make sure you are not given a room immediately above, below or adjacent to the one you were in, their relatives may be hiding out next door! They may have hitched on a house-keeping trolley, or through wall sockets. If an infestation is spreading to neighbouring rooms, it is often in those closest to the source.

Be vigilant and inspect hotel rooms close to airports. These are often full all year round with people staying for just one night before flying away; their high occupancy rates means bed bugs are very common in these establishments.

Remember, any accommodation is susceptible to bed bugs, other people inadvertently carry them in, and most hotels have suffered from them at some stage.

My top tip is do none of these things, the chances of you being in the same room as a few bedbugs is statistically small and therefore you should not be worried (unless you wake up with a bug on you or see signs of biting on your body)! Enjoy your holidays and remember that if you do bring them back to your home in Kent, Pest Purge has the knowledge and expertise to get rid of them for you. Night night, sleep tight!

Rat surprise in restaurant

The headlines from a popular daily newspaper jumped out at me "Waiter there's a rat on my head" Pest drops on lady at top eaterie. It's shock and gnaw.? With a picture of a rat in the bottom corner poking his head out from his hiding place.

How good is that, from a pest control point of view you couldn?t make it up. Hilarious I thought.
My mind imagining how a high class London restaurant, frequented by the rich and famous could have allowed this event to happen. I needed to buy this paper and read on, pest control nirvana.
Momentarily side-tracked from paying for my fuel, I purchased the paper.

It appears that a baby rat had fallen from the ceiling and bounced off a diner?s head, pink and hairless, it had been in a nest on some exposed pipe work, part of the industrial d?cor of the restaurant.

I thought that the reporter handled it brilliantly, there was another whole page devoted to it with a picture of the dead baby rat on the diners table and a shot of the packed restaurant with a cartoon rat announcing, ?I recommend the bubble and squeak.? There was also a fun menu with a rat design at the top offering Rat-a-chewy and other tasty offerings.
Apparently a woman screamed in terror when a live rat fell on her head as she ate at a top London restaurant. The fall killed the rat which was hastily cleared away by staff. The woman?s group was given ?450 off their bill by the restaurant, which insisted the bald creature was a mouse. Other pest control commentators suggested that the picture that had been taken was more likely to be a baby rat.

Compensation was offered and accepted and the restaurant commentated that it was an isolated incident with no future risk to its customers.
That will be fine then, incident over, I laughed to myself. Food, restaurant, health and safety, diners, expensive, hygiene, food safety management, pest control?.blah, blah, blah.

To avoid rats and mice falling into your children cereal bowls, ask Pest Purge for a routine inspection of your light fittings! Don't let your children demand compensation for a simple mistake. Call Pest Purge for same day rodent support.

Read more about our Rat and Vermin control service.

Pest Control in Maidstone

Pest Purge offer pest control Maidstone Kent

and pretty much all over Kent generally.

If you are looking for specialist pest control then please call us.

We regularly cover the following areas:-

Pest Control Maidstone

Pest Control Medway

Pest Control Tonbridge

Pest Control Canterbury

Pest Control Kent

Commercial Pest Control

Asian hornet update, coming to the UK soon!

Over the last two years there have been many scaremongering articles written about this insect and its imminent arrival in the UK. Most of these surrounding the insect's size, aggressive nature and potential danger to people. There have been a number of deaths in France, caused by anaphylactic shock.

Let us consider some distinguishing features. The Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) is smaller than the European hornet at 25mm (Queens are 30mm) compared with 35mm for Vespa crabo (European hornet). I have seen it mentioned that the Asian hornet is 50mm long with a 75mm wingspan. This is not the case. Other features of the Asian hornet include a completely dark thorax, yellow tipped legs and a much darker abdomen, except for the fourth segment which is yellow. Our European hornet has a mainly yellow and black abdomen and brown legs with a more yellow looking head.
The Asian hornet is more docile than our European hornet, when they sting the sensation is akin to a wasp or bee sting. Both types of hornet, when perceiving a threat to their nest, will coordinate their defence on the attacker. So ideally keep your distance, unless you are well protected.

Our European hornet has successfully colonised large areas of the UK, the south east and as far north as Nottinghamshire. The Asian hornet is found throughout France and Europe. It is only a matter of time before a stowaway or airborne insect makes the journey across the channel to arrive in Kent or Sussex to establish their first base. They are extremely strong fliers. We are awaiting this insect's arrival. It is not a case of if but when, it will be turning up sometime soon.
For pest controllers the rules of engagement should include treating a nest with Ficam D. Common nest sites for the Asian hornet will be off branches high up in trees, 15m high and close to water.

One concern relating to the insects arrival is the threat to honey bees, the Asian hornet preys on honey bees and other pollen gathering insects, stalking them and waiting for workers returning to a hive where they are killed and taken away to their nest. Bee keepers should be vigilant; they may well be the first to spot this new insect building a nest. The new colony should be destroyed immediately before it can get established, not be allowed to be left for a full season, when there will be a new batch of fertilised Queens ready to hibernate over winter, to start the life-cycle over again in the spring. If this is the case, they will be here to stay.

For any assistance of free advice about stinging bugs or flying insects, call Pest Purge for immediate support and eradication, 01622 842481.

The wasp and hornet season is almost upon us.

Once again we are starting to see wasps and hornets flying around, going about their business, nest making, pollinating and catching other insects. This is all fine until they want to join in with our BBQ's, the smell of sweet relish, cooked sausages and jugs of Pimms are all fair game for our yellow and black jacketed friends. To minimise any party disruption, keep an eye out for insects that keep coming and going from any potential nest sites. Likely spots are log piles, hedges, tree trunks, garden sheds, holes in the ground, up high under the guttering, in facias and soffits, under tiles and inside your loft space.

You will start to see the wasps making a continuous beeline to their entrance, popping in and out as they go about constructing their ornate nests
Reactions to stings vary, the earliest recorded death from a fatal wasp sting was King Menes of Egypt in about 3000 BC. Death from wasp stings is rapid, 66% of susceptible victims die within one hour of being stung.

Luckily for most of us, a severe reaction to the venom is unlikely. People are fairly tolerant to wasp stings and will just suffer some slight discomfort, inflammation and itchiness. There are 11 species found in the UK. A nest found at the end of the summer may have over 20,000 wasps living in it. They become problematic as peak worker numbers are reached during September and October, the wasps, drunk on fermenting fallen fruit, may become more aggressive and a greater nuisance.

To avoid any unwelcome fatalities or abandoned BBQ's call Pest Purge for a same day extermination service, call Richard on 01622 842481.

Read more about our Wasp Nest Removal service in Maidstone.