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What are Some Common Signs of a Rodent Infestation?

Command Pest Control • Sep 30, 2021
With the colder months approaching, it is not uncommon for mice, rats, and other rodents to begin to seek shelter and warmth. Unfortunately, rodents tend to try to make their homes in your house, shed and other unwanted areas of your property. Since rodent populations can expand so quickly, it is best to catch the infestation early, before it gets out of hand. 

By learning the signs of a potential infestation, you can eradicate the rodents quickly and before they do any damage. Some ways to tell you may have a rodent problem include:

  • Chew Marks & Visible Damage – Finding small chew marks on wood, furniture, cardboard and other materials could be a sign that there is a rodent in your home. Rodents are known to chew on everything from baseboards to boxes to wiring.

  • Droppings & Urine Stains – Rodent droppings are one of the most common signs of an infestation. Mice droppings are small and dark brown with pointed ends, whereas rat droppings are longer and can vary in shape depending on the species. Urine can stay anywhere rodents run across. Any signs of excrement are unhealthy, unattractive and unwanted so contacting a professional immediately after finding droppings is a must.

  • Interior or Exterior Holes – Rodents will chew small holes in thin walls or materials inside or outside of your home. They do this in order to gain new entry in and out of your home, while inviting their friends and other pests to join them.

  • Scratching or Gnawing Noises – Do you hear scampering noises coming from inside your walls? Can you hear scratching or gnawing in the dead of night? If you can hear any running, gnawing or scratching noises inside your walls, ceilings, or attic, there’s a chance it could be a rodent.

  • Musky & Unpleasant Odors – A rodent infestation is normally accompanied by a musky and unpleasant odor. As the infestation grows, so does the smell. Unfortunately it is not uncommon for rodents to pass away, creating a rotting dead odor that can be hazardous and strong smelling.

  • Odd Pet Behaviors – Has your dog or cat started acting strangely? Are they hyper focused on corners of the room or constantly sniffing under furniture? Your pets have better smelling capabilities than humans so if they start to act erratically or oddly, they could be alerting you of an unwanted rodent in your home.

Have you noticed any of the above signs on your property? Contact a professional rodent control technician as soon as possible to avoid further damage, hazardous situations or an infestation that takes over. 

Residents and business owners throughout the Ipswich, Sudbury, Norwich, Norfolk and Suffolk areas rely on Command Pest Control Ltd. for prompt and efficient pest control services. We have the knowledge, experience, tools, and materials to eradicate any rodent and prevent it from returning. Give us a call today to discuss your rodent control needs!

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You're having a few drinks in the garden with your friends, or a family BBQ, when a load of pesky wasps arrive to spoil the party. You haven't seen them all summer and then suddenly they're all over the place, annoying everybody, causing panic and helicopter hands. Sound familiar? August is the time of year when people start to ask 'what is the point of wasps?' The answer may surprise you. Did you know that there are approximately 9,000 species of wasp here in the UK? These include the parasitic wasps, some of which are so diminutive they are like pin heads. Of the 250 larger wasps which have a stinger, the majority are solitary and cause no upset to humans. However, when we talk about wasps, we're almost certainly referring to the nation's nemesis, the Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris). To understand why these wasps become really annoying this time of year, you first need to understand their life cycle. Common wasps live socially like bees but unlike honeybees, they haven't evolved a way of storing food to allow the colony to survive the winter. In fact the only survivors are the young, fertilised queens who hibernate over winter. They emerge in the spring to build little walnut sized nests where they lay around 20 eggs. The queen feeds the resulting larvae until around May, when they mature and become workers. Then she focuses on more egg-laying and the workers get on with feeding them, enlarging the nest as they go along. By this time of year the nest has grown to around 40cm in diameter, often larger, and that nest can contain up to 10,000 wasps! Then, in late August and September, a dramatic change takes place. The queen quits her egg laying (save a few that will go on to be future queens and males to fertilise them) and no longer releases the pheromone that causes the workers to work. Basically, these workers are made redundant, and are left jobless and disorientated. And the problem for us is that, although adult wasps are insect predators, that meat is to feed the larvae not themselves. In their adult state wasps are not able to digest solid food and need sugary liquid to survive. Now, with fewer larvae to feed, they become uncontrollably and insatiably hungry. Wasps love easy food such as over ripe fruit and your fizzy drinks. Towards the end of their brief lives, their hunger drives them to search for easy sugar at exactly the time when we are more likely to be using our gardens and outdoor spaces for eating sweet things. The timing couldn't be better for them or worse for us. So why are those who panic and try to swat them away more likely to be stung than those who remain calm? Well the problem is that these redundant workers have their own pheromone, which helps protect the nest from attack earlier in the year, and that's essentially a chemical rallying cry to other workers that the nest is under attack. So when you swat that annoying wasp and it feels under threat, that rallying cry will go out. Suddenly it all kicks off and many more wasps will start arriving in aggressive 'red-mist' mode, fired up and ready to defend their nest. This is why the best advice is to stay calm. Think of it this way, from May that wasp has been working its socks off helping to keep things nice on planet earth. Now it’s going to die. So why not give it a break. Save your swats and instead put a bowl of sugary drink somewhere out of your way and let it go out on a nice sugar rush 🙂. At the very least don't kill it. So then, what's the point of wasps? Without them it’s likely that human life would not survive because, in the absence of their role as predators, our planet would be overrun by even more damaging insects such as aphids, ants and caterpillars. It is always best to seek professional help when thinking about removing a wasp nest; Command Pest Control offer safe and effective wasp nest removal across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and wider East Anglia.
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