Pest Control in Usk

Usk is a quiet, handsome market town on the banks of the River Usk in Monmouthshire, known for its castle ruins, its fishing and the annual Show that draws visitors from across South Wales. The river runs right through the heart of things and is the main factor driving pest problems here. Rats are long-standing along the riverbanks, using the tree cover and undergrowth as shelter and they move into the gardens and outbuildings of properties on Bridge Street, Twyn Square and the streets nearest the water. When the Usk floods, which happens several times most winters, rats are pushed up into the town looking for dry ground and food.

The town is built mainly of stone, with many of the older buildings along Bridge Street and New Market Street dating back centuries. These properties have thick walls where mortar has been wearing away for generations and mice find their way through openings that are barely visible from outside. The pubs, restaurants and food businesses in the town centre create food sources that attract rodents to the back lanes and yards behind the main street and the old stone cellars under some of these buildings provide perfect conditions for mice to nest through the winter undisturbed.

Usk is surrounded by farmland and the fields come right up to the edge of the town on all sides. Rats and mice from the farms move into the residential areas as food gets harder to find in the fields after harvest. The mature trees along the river and in the gardens throughout Usk support grey squirrels that occasionally get into loft spaces. Wasp nests turn up regularly in the older buildings through summer, often in the thick stone walls, behind barge boards and in the outbuildings and converted barns that are a feature of many properties on the edges of this attractive town.