Pest Control in Templecombe

Templecombe is a small village in south Somerset, straddling the main railway line between London and Exeter. The village is split between Upper and Lower Templecombe, with the station sitting between the two and the older part of the village clustered around the church and the Manor House. It is a quiet, rural place surrounded by dairy farmland and hedgerows and the pest problems here reflect that setting. Rats are the most common issue, moving into the village from the surrounding fields along hedgelines and ditches. The farmyard at the edge of the village and the grain stores and feed bins on nearby holdings draw rats in and from there it is a short hop into gardens and outbuildings on the village fringe.

The older cottages in Upper Templecombe, many of them built from local stone with tile or thatch roofs, have the kinds of entry points that mice exploit easily. Stone walls with old lime mortar, gaps under doors that have sagged on their hinges over the years and roof spaces where there is plenty of room for mice to nest undisturbed. The railway line itself also plays a part in pest movement, as the embankments provide cover and the litter along the track edges attracts rodents. Properties closest to the line, around the station and along the road between Upper and Lower Templecombe, sometimes see more rat and mouse activity than houses further away.

Being a small village, Templecombe doesn't have the commercial pest pressures of a larger town, but the agricultural surroundings keep rodent numbers high year-round. Harvest time in late summer and early autumn is the busiest period for call-outs as rats and mice leave stubble fields and look for new food sources. Wasp nests turn up in the usual rural spots during summer, including old stone walls, garden sheds and the eaves of older houses. The sheltered gardens and mature trees around the village also support birds and insects that occasionally need managing when they nest too close to homes.