Pest Control March

Pest Control in March

March is a fenland market town in Cambridgeshire, built on an island of higher ground surrounded by flat, drained marshland. The River Nene runs through the town and the Old Course of the river creates a second waterway on the eastern side and both of these attract rats in numbers. The river banks, the areas around the bridges and the old wharves provide cover and food for rats that move between the waterside and the town. Properties on the streets closest to the river, including around the Broad Street area and near St Wendredas Church, see the most rat activity throughout the year.

The town centre around the wide High Street has a mix of older brick buildings and more modern shopfronts and the food businesses, market stalls and takeaways create waste that draws rodents to the lanes and yards behind the main street. The older residential streets have the shared drainage and terraced layouts that let rat and mouse problems spread between neighbours. The Victorian and Edwardian houses around the station and along Dartford Road have cellars and suspended timber floors where mice nest undisturbed.

March was an important railway junction and the marshalling yards, while much reduced, still occupy a large area of the town. The rough ground, embankments and sidings around the railway provide habitat for rats and mice that spill into the nearby housing. The flat fenland around March is intensively farmed and the drainage ditches and dykes that criss-cross the landscape carry rats between the farms and the town. After harvest, rodent numbers in the residential areas increase as animals leave the cleared fields. Wasp nests are common through summer in the older buildings and housing estates and the exposed fenland position means cold winds push pests indoors early in autumn.