Pest Control Down Street

Pest Control in Down Street

Down Street is a small hamlet in the Kent Weald, sitting quietly among the farmland and woodland that makes this part of the county so attractive. The handful of properties here include older Kentish cottages, converted barns and some more modern homes, all set along a lane with open countryside stretching away on either side. The older buildings are constructed in the traditional Wealden style, with exposed timber framing, brick nogging and tile-hung upper storeys. These building methods create a character-filled home but they also generate natural gaps in the fabric that mice have been using for centuries. Where timber shrinks or mortar between bricks softens, a space opens up that even the smallest mouse can widen and use as a doorway.

The agricultural surroundings are the engine behind most pest activity in a hamlet like Down Street. Fields of wheat, barley and oilseed rape provide food for rodents during the growing season and farm buildings offer shelter and nesting sites year-round. Rats follow the ditch lines and hedgerow bases that thread through the landscape, moving between feeding areas and the gardens and outbuildings of residential properties with ease. The heavy clay soils of the Weald hold moisture and the ground around older buildings can stay damp for much of the year, which attracts both rodents and the insects they sometimes feed on.

Summer brings the familiar challenge of wasp nests, which appear in the roof spaces, garden sheds and old walls of properties across the hamlet. The quiet, undisturbed nature of outbuildings in rural locations makes them especially attractive to nesting wasps. Our technicians cover the Wealden hamlets on a regular basis and bring a practical, experienced approach to pest control in these traditional rural settings.