Pest and vermin control in the North West has seen a lively start in 2010 which is unexpected given the very cold winter of 2009/10.
Pest operatives were kept occupied with the usual town centre rodent problems during the winter of 2009/10, but the relatively cold early spring has already brought some ant calls coming in.
The damp summers of 2008 and 2009 were not to the liking of the hymenoptera (sawflies, wasps, ants & bees) but 2010 looks like it is going to be a hectic year for ant problems.
Regularly ants nest under the floors of buildings and inside cavity walls causing a large number of foraging ants to invade kitchens and food cupboards.
However it is at the mating time when they can be most troublesome as they release winged males and queens which then mate on the wing.
The release of thousands of these flying ants inside houses can be horrific indeed.
A somewhat new pest was very troublesome in the Lancashire, Manchester and Cheshire area last season, the Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci).
It was unusual for pest controllers in Lancashire, Manchester and Cheshire to deal with these pests until recent times but they seemed to appear from nowhere in 2008 and already this season has seen reports of varied carpet beetle in substantial numbers.
Having a similar life cycle to moths their larvae, called woolly bears eat natural fibres and can do a great deal of damage to carpets and some fabrics. They can be a difficult and tricky pest to remove.
Bed Bugs are carrying on their renaissance in the Cheshire, Lancashire and Manchester area, often arriving as stowaways in the suitcases of home-coming holiday makers.
Often the first reaction of those unlucky ones who realise that they have been infested with these hideous,blood-sucking insects is to burn the old beds and get.
This is an unneccesary error as despite their name bed bugs do not just stay in beds and in an infested bedroom will be found anywhere within around fifteen feet of the bed, in cupboards, drawers etc, even in electrical wall sockets and the new beds will be quickly re-infested.
Most people mix up bed bugs with dust mites which are not visible to the naked eye.
They dine only on blood which they take from their sleeping hosts. People usually associate bed bugs with insanitary conditions but nothing could be less true, they do not require squalor, they eat you!
Up to the end of April 2010 Harrier & Manchester Pest Control are offering a twenty-five percent reduction on their guaranteed ant treatment.
This revolutionary new treatment which is guaranteed for three years, extendable indefinitely in further three year chunks by a affordable re-treatment every three years, can be carried out on most homes subject to satisfactory,free
For the summer of 2010 Harrier Pest Control are guaranteeing a fixed price for getting rid of wasps nests in the Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire area of just thirty two pounds.
Contact Manchester Pest Control for more information on 0800 019 8382 or 0161 930 8814