Rats in West Berkshire

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A common pest control issue we get in hungerford and west berkshire generally is rats in gardens and in houses. We have a great deal of historic properties, and often older properties will have specific issues which make rats more likely to come inside, such as thatched roofs or brickwork which has degraded. Often due to properties being older they will have been heavily modified over time, with new bathrooms, extensions or conservatories being built onto the existing structure. Whenever structures are modified, the chances of getting a rat infestation increases.

Ponds are another high risk for rats in gardens. Rats are very similar to humans in that they need 3 things to survive; which are Water, food and shelter.

If they have all of these things in close proximity they are much more likely to settle in an area.

Another high risk for rats in a garden is having fruit trees such as apples or plums, which again are very common in rural areas such as hungerford and west berkshire.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is what we practice here at West Berkshire Pest Control. This is the professional pest control method that should be used by all qualified pest controllers in the UK. This means that not only do we use chemical control methods to eradicate the rats, such as applying poison or rodenticide, we also try to exclude rats using physical methods. This could be as simple as blocking up a hole used by rats, or it could be much more complex, such as repairing a defective victorian drainage system. It could also involved modifying the environment to stop rats being attracted to an area.

A good example of this would be rats are often attracted to chickens, which are very commonly kept in west berkshire. So in addition to killing off the current rat population with rodenticide or traps, you also want to change the environment to make it less likely for the rats to be attracted to the chicken coop again. 

A simple modification of practice would be to change how the chickens are fed, by hanging the feed off the floor on a rope, or stopping the practice of just scattering loose feed on the floor. This would make it more likely for the rats to be discouraged from re-infesting a garden or area where chickens are kept.

Another common issue in hungerford and west berkshire generally is that we have many large bodies of water such as the canals and rivers kennet and avon. Rats are obviously attracted to water, particularly in the summer time when we have less rain and other water sources are harder to come by.