Pest Control Saffron Walden

Pest Control in Saffron Walden

Saffron Walden is one of the best-preserved medieval market towns in England, sitting in the rolling chalk countryside of north-west Essex. The town centre is full of timber-framed buildings with ornate pargeting and the streets around the Market Square and Church Street have a character that goes back centuries. These older buildings, while beautiful, come with pest challenges. The gaps between old timbers, the uneven plaster walls and the cellars beneath the shops and houses all give rats and mice ways to get in and move around. The Slade, a stream running through the common, supports rat numbers near the centre and the allotments and gardens throughout the town provide food and cover.

The housing around the edges of Saffron Walden includes more modern estates, but the older core is where mouse problems are most common. The timber-framed buildings are difficult to seal completely and mice can travel through the wall voids and floor spaces with ease. The food businesses around the Market Square generate waste that attracts rodents and the busy market days bring additional food waste into the centre. The farmland all around the town means there is always a large population of field mice ready to move in.

Wasps build nests in the old roof spaces and wall cavities of the town's buildings each summer and the common, the castle grounds and the gardens provide excellent foraging. The Bridge End Garden and the town's many green spaces support insect life that wasps feed on. Squirrels get into the older roof spaces from overhanging trees and the damage they cause to wiring and timbers in a listed building can be costly to repair. Pigeons roost on the church tower and on the ledges of the taller commercial buildings around the square.