Pest Control Hooe Common

Pest Control in Hooe Common

Hooe Common is a small area on the edge of Hooe village in East Sussex, sitting on the low ground closer to the Pevensey Levels. The handful of properties here are spread along lanes with farmland, grazing land and the network of ditches and dykes that characterise the levels stretching out around them. That wet, low-lying landscape is the key driver of pest problems. Brown rats live in the ditchbanks and field margins across the levels and they move toward the nearest buildings when food is available. The damp conditions suit them and the drainage ditches provide covered routes to travel along without being exposed.

The older houses and farm buildings in the area have the kinds of gaps that mice find irresistible. Gaps under doors, around windows and where services enter the building all provide routes inside. Field mice are active in the surrounding grassland and they move indoors as autumn arrives. The damp conditions on the levels can also mean higher levels of insect activity around the buildings, which adds another dimension to pest management in this area.

Summer brings wasp nests in outbuildings, under eaves and in the banks along field edges. The sheltered spots in gardens and around the older buildings provide the warm conditions that wasp colonies need to thrive. The flat, open character of the Pevensey Levels means this part of Sussex feels quite different to the rolling Weald further inland, but the pest pressures from the wet farmland are just as real. Keeping buildings in good repair and acting quickly when problems appear is the most effective approach in a landscape where the water table is always close to the surface and wildlife is never far away.