Pest Control in Blackwood

Blackwood straddles a ridge between the Sirhowy and Rhymney valleys in the heart of the South Wales Valleys and its position high up means the town has a different feel to the valley-floor settlements nearby. The High Street runs along the top of the ridge with housing dropping away on both sides and the steep gradients mean surface water runs fast and can create damp conditions in properties lower down the slopes. Rats are drawn to these wetter areas where drains overflow and gardens collect standing water and they travel along the streams and culverts that channel water down from the hilltops through the residential streets.

The housing in Blackwood is varied, from the older stone terraces along the High Street and in Cefn Fforest to the larger estates at Pontllanfraith and Penmaen. The terraces have the shared drainage and close-packed layout that makes rat problems difficult to deal with in just one house at a time, while the newer estates further from the centre tend to see more mouse activity. Mice get into these later-built homes through the same routes they use everywhere: air bricks, gaps around pipes and cables and the spaces where boiler flues pass through external walls. The cavity walls on these houses give mice a sheltered highway once they find an entry point.

The woodland and green spaces between the valleys are close to much of Blackwood's housing and grey squirrels and field mice regularly move between the wild areas and residential gardens. Wasp nests turn up across the town each summer, with the older stone-walled properties providing particularly good nesting sites in their thick walls and roof spaces. The commercial centre along the High Street with its food outlets and shops also generates waste that needs careful management to avoid attracting rats and mice to the town centre.