Pest Control Ilkley

Pest Control in Ilkley

Ilkley is a spa town in the Wharfe valley in West Yorkshire, sitting in the LS29 postcode at the foot of Ilkley Moor. The town has an attractive centre with stone-built shops, cafes and restaurants along The Grove and Brook Street and the residential areas climb the hillside above and spread along the valley floor. The River Wharfe runs through the valley and brown rats are active along the riverbanks and in the vegetation at the water's edge. They move from the river into the gardens and commercial areas nearest the water and the restaurants and food businesses in the town centre generate waste that keeps them in the area. The Wharfe floods periodically and when it does the rats are pushed out of their bankside burrows and up into the nearest buildings.

The stone-built houses in Ilkley range from grand Victorian villas to terraced rows and more modern developments. Mice are a common problem in the older properties, where gaps have developed in the stonework, around windows and where pointing has deteriorated. The terraced rows have shared walls and sometimes connected roof spaces that let mice travel between houses. The cold winters in the Wharfe valley drive mice indoors early and once they find a warm cavity wall or roof space they stay through the winter. The moor above the town and the farmland in the valley both support healthy numbers of field mice that move into the edges of the built-up area as autumn arrives.

Ilkley Moor and the woodland along the river support grey squirrels and squirrel damage in roof spaces is a regular concern in the houses closest to the tree cover. Wasp nests turn up in the stone walls, under roof slates and in garden sheds through the warmer months. The sheltered valley position seems to concentrate them and the gardens in the town see good wasp activity every year. Ilkley is a town that combines the best of Yorkshire living with the pest pressures that come from sitting between a moor and a river in a valley of stone buildings.