Pest Control in Hawes

Hawes is the highest market town in England, sitting at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park at around 260 metres above sea level. The town is built almost entirely of the local grey limestone, with stone-roofed houses, old farm buildings and the kind of solid Dales architecture that has withstood centuries of harsh upland weather. That exposed position is the defining factor for pest control here. Winters are long and cold and mice push hard to get indoors from early autumn. The stone buildings have thick walls, but lime mortar joints crack and recede over time and mice use the smallest gaps to get inside. Field mice and wood mice from the surrounding dale farmland head for any available building and the traditional barns and outbuildings that are part of every Dales property offer stepping stones into the main house.

The River Ure flows through Hawes and continues down Wensleydale and the tributary becks that feed into it from the surrounding fells drain through the town. Brown rats are present along these watercourses and around the farmyards that sit within and around the town. Rat control is common on properties with livestock buildings, stored feed and hay and the working farms that border the town on every side mean rats are never far away. The Tuesday livestock market and the Wensleydale Creamery both generate food-related waste that adds to the attraction.

Hawes is a small town, but its role as the main service centre for upper Wensleydale means it has shops, pubs, guest houses and holiday accommodation that bring their own pest considerations. Bed bugs can travel with visitors and wasp nests appear in the stone outbuildings and garden walls through the short upland summer. The altitude means the wasp season is compressed, running from late June to early September. Our technicians cover Hawes and the wider upper Wensleydale area, including Gayle, Burtersett and Hardraw.