Bristol Rat Control

Bristol Rat Control Services
Ethical Local Rat Control

Avoid the inhumane and unhygienic pest control practice of Bait - Stink - Flies - Repeat. We Find The Source!

"UNIQUE RODENT CONTROL INSPECTIONS". We consider drains, wall cavities, roof voids, cellars and Kitchens in our unique inspection methodology.

Every pest control action focuses on formulating a lasting solution to your rat problem. Our ambition is always to solve a pest problem and prevent the need for repeat treatments.

What Diseases Do Rats Transmit?

Rat-borne diseases and parasites represent a significant public health threat. Those Most At-Risk Include Children, Pregnant Women, The Elderly and people Convalescing.

The most notable diseases carried and spread by rats include:

• Salmonella - Severe and sometimes fatal food poisoning.
  
• Tularemia - If bitten by a rat, this bacteria can attack your immune system and lungs.
  
• Leptospirosis - Weil's disease - a notifiable disease leading to multi-organ failure and death.
  
• E.coli 0157 - This frightening disease from rat faeces causes renal failure and intestinal bleeding.
  
• Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis - Viral Meningitis that starts innocently like the flu.
  
• Plague - Very rare in this country, but still reported.

How Rats Spread Diseases And Parasites
Rats & Disease

Common Routes Of Rodent Disease Transmission

• Biting - you, your children, family, pets or livestock
• Urine & Droppings - Infecting groceries and work surfaces with urine and over 30 droppings each night
• Being eaten - by your pets
• Contaminating - pets and your pet's food and water
• Spreading - blood-sucking parasites like fleas and mites
• Contaminating - particularly when they fall into water supply tanks

Key Features Of The Brown Rat

Black rats in the UK are rare, so we will focus on Brown Rats

• Diseases Include - Bubonic Plague, Typhus and Weil's Disease.
• Life Span - 1 - 2 Years
• Length (body only) - 15 - 25 cm (body only) - up to 45cm including the tail
• Weight: over 500g when mature
• Colour: brown, charcoal
• Sexual Maturity: 4 - 6 Weeks
• Gestation Period: 21 days
• Number of litters: 8 per year
• Number of young: 6 - 12 per litter
• Diet: They are Omnivores, feeding on almost anything.
• Daily food: 25 - 50g
• Daily water intake: 100ml per 100g

Where Do Rats Come From?

Research suggests that Brown Rats in the UK originated in northern China over a million years ago. These rats also developed a relationship with human populations, a relationship that has endured for millennia.

The Introduction into the UK is believed to have occurred via ships from the far east in the 1600s, but this isn't easy to substantiate.

Today brown rats are found in almost every corner of the globe except the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Rats have become so well adapted to change; pest control services need to be agile to keep up.

Fortunately, our local pest control services helped us develop a unique understanding of property drainage and construction in the city. Essentially, black rats and brown rats have fewer places to hide!

How To Get Rid Of Rats In Bristol

Rats and rat infestations are often controlled and eliminated in two ways. The first and most traditional method is to manage populations with lethal control. The second and least popular method is exclusion and environmental control. So what's the difference?

Popular methods of lethal rat control include

Trapping (cages, snap-traps, glue boards)

Poisoning (bait, liquid feeds, contact poisons)

Shooting (air weapon, firearms, shotgun)

The best methods of environmental rat control include:

Rat Proofing/Exclusion (preventing rats from entering an area) or Line of sight (ensuring the elimination of all sources of cover, concealment and encouragement).

Successful control demands that a variety of these methods are married together. Only by using a combined and integrated methodology will it be possible to control rats successfully in the longer term.

Why Rat Poison Might Not Work

Rat poison is the most widely used form of lethal control in the UK. Local councils provide this service, and over 90% of pest controllers will offer you the same solution.

Poison baits have some significant limitations - namely, it's outdated and used only because it is quick and cheap to deploy. In most cases, it will have customers coming back in a few months for more of the same.

Yes, it sounds crazy but seriously - rats don't just parachute in or appear out of the blue. Rats are smart animals that use our homes for a few key reasons - food, shelter and water.

If we only use bait as a solution, you are never actually tackling the source of the problem, and this is bad news for you, your wallet and your home!

When Neighbours Have Rats!

The fact remains that adjoining properties might not share your proactive stance, and in time the rodent population will return despite all your efforts and investments.

It might be in five minutes or five years, but eventually, they will return - and you must be ready for them!

Terraced and semi-detached houses together with flats are some of the hardest to help where the source of the problem is not on or in your property.

Most people eventually sell their homes and move out quietly without raising concerns or costly and emotionally charged disputes with neighbours that can seriously affect the property's value.

Inherited Rat Infestations

Our research showed that a little over 80% of the properties we visited had rat problems before purchase.

The scale of this rat epidemic highlights how pervasive rat removal issues have become. We sympathise with how hopeless people feel when the only solutions offered by pest control companies is bait and traps!

Eliminating rats is a complicated task. The best scenario is to always focus on controlling the rodent population as close to its source as possible.

How Rats Enter Houses

Drain faults and building faults are by far the most common routes of rat entry into our homes. Structural repairs and proofing by experts like ourselves can solve a rat problem for good.

Rat poison and rat trapping have their place, but repairs and proofing are always preferable because they solve the problem and don't just subdue it.

How To Identify A Rat Burrow

Rat holes or burrows are very distinctive. Brown rat burrows are usually about 50-100mm in diameter. Burrows in regular use will have a very smooth and rounded edge at the entry point.

If the rats have burrowed up, then the hole will have no excavated debris around it. It could indicate a possible drain fault below.

If mounds of excavated debris have surrounded burrows, then it's likely the problem stems from issues above ground.

How Many Rats Are In My House?

Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) and the Black rat (Rattus rattus) might enter properties through open doors and windows. So rat removal is sometimes a case of finding a single rat that's been causing all the problems!

Bait and traps should deal with this scenario quickly. If rats remain active beyond 30 days, you likely have bigger challenges and costs ahead of you.

The very worst rat infestations reside in properties for decades, affecting many different owners. Residents will likely leave the property because of this seemingly unsolvable rat infestation.

Top 2 Pest Control Questions - "how many rats do I have"? and "Where are rats coming from"?

Here are some pointers; if you have droppings of different sizes, it's more likely you have a large number of rats.

If rat bait is taken, but you have no smell, then it's more likely the rats have left the building through a fault in an underground drain or some other gap in the fabric of the building.

Anytime you have free access for rodents to enter the property, they will eventually populate that property.

What surprises many people is the phenomenon of rats using the wall cavities, underfloor voids and roof spaces as a toilet!

Rats and Toilets

Urban rats in Bristol often come in to use the loo. We removed 25 kg of rat droppings from beneath a small kitchen.

We carry out dozens of drain inspections every year and find drain faults the biggest problem in almost every case, certainly over 90%.

Drain faults are so common, neglected and overlooked that eight in every ten of our customers inherit rats the previous occupants knew about.

That means you have less than a 20% chance of solving your rat problem without drain remediation!

Local Pest Control In Bristol

Rat Control Prices In Bristol Start At £78.00 for initial inspection or inspection is free if you have a treatment. Treatment prices vary depending on the scale and complexity of your unique issue.

The City of Bristol has a population of almost half a million people and is on the river Avon. Bristol dates back to around 60000. At least that’s what we know so far. As long ago as in Roman times, the area was known as a port but did not become a bonified city until 1542 as it started to develop as an essential global trading venue. Bristol has had epidemics from the black rat flea, bubonic plague and outbreaks of cholera. Today the city has world-class universities like Bristol University and The University of the West of England and entertainment venues that include the Bristol Hippodrome, Thekla and O2 Academy - Bristol harbour also has places to eat in Bristol

Bristol Pest Control Services – Local Places And Areas Our Pest Control Service Covers

Bristol – Clevedon – Portishead – St Annes – St Pauls – Bath – Sneyd Park – Fishponds – Eastville – Easton – Frenchay – Filton – Westbury – Stoke Bishop – Stoke Park – Southville – Long Ashton – Patchway – Bradley Stoke