Pest Control in Carterton

Carterton grew up around RAF Brize Norton and has expanded rapidly from a small village into the second largest town in West Oxfordshire. Much of the housing was built from the 1950s onwards to serve the air base and these post-war and later estate houses have cavity wall construction that makes them vulnerable to mouse problems. Mice get in through air bricks, around gas and water pipe entries and through the gaps where boiler flues pass through external walls. Once inside the cavity, they can travel between rooms and floors without being seen and the first sign of trouble is often droppings in kitchen drawers or scratching behind the walls at night.

The flat open farmland around Carterton means rats and field mice are common in the fields and hedgerows surrounding the town. Rat activity picks up on the edges of town after the harvest strips the fields of cover and properties backing onto farmland or the green spaces between housing areas see the most problems. The newer developments that have pushed Carterton's boundaries outward were built on agricultural land and the rodents that lived in those fields look for new shelter as the landscape changes around them. The drainage ditches and small streams that cross the flat ground also provide routes for rats to travel into the built-up areas.

The town has a straightforward layout with wide streets and a central shopping area around Black Bourton Road and the commercial premises and food outlets here need regular pest management to stay on top of rodents. Wasp nests are common across Carterton through summer, turning up in roof spaces, under eaves and in garden sheds on the housing estates. The flat terrain and open aspect of the area means the town is exposed to wind, which drives pests to seek shelter inside buildings earlier in the year than in more sheltered locations.