Pest Control in Stocksfield

Stocksfield is a quiet village in the Tyne Valley, spread out along the south bank of the River Tyne between Corbridge and Prudhoe. The surrounding countryside is a mix of farmland and woodland and this rural setting means pest problems here are often driven by what is happening on the land nearby. Rats are common around the farms and smallholdings that border the village and they follow hedgerows and field boundaries into gardens and outbuildings when food becomes scarce in the fields. Rat activity tends to pick up in autumn when the harvest is over and the animals start looking for warmer shelter closer to houses.

The village itself is mostly made up of detached and semi-detached houses with good-sized gardens, many backing onto open fields or woodland. This means mice are a year-round problem, with field mice and house mice both finding their way indoors through gaps under doors, around pipe runs and where cables enter walls. Mouse control calls from Stocksfield often involve properties on the edges of the village where the boundary between garden and farmland is just a fence or a hedgerow. Grey squirrels also cause problems here, getting into loft spaces through gaps at the roofline and chewing through wiring and insulation once they are inside.

The River Tyne and the smaller burns that flow through the valley support a range of wildlife and the damp conditions along the riverbanks create good conditions for insects. Wasp nests turn up regularly in the older properties and garden sheds through summer and wasp removal is one of our most common calls from Stocksfield between June and September. The mature trees and hedges throughout the village give queen wasps plenty of sheltered spots to start building in spring.