Pest Control Kemsing

Pest Control in Kemsing

Kemsing is a village at the foot of the North Downs in west Kent, sitting where the chalk escarpment meets the lower greensand. The village has a proper centre with a church, shops and a green and the housing ranges from older cottages near the core to modern estates further out. The Pilgrims Way runs along the base of the Downs through the village and the spring-fed streams that flow off the chalk provide the water features that attract brown rats. They follow these watercourses and the hedgerows that line them, moving between the countryside and village gardens where food sources are available.

The older properties in Kemsing have the character of traditional Kent construction, with flint and ragstone walls that develop gaps over time. Mice use these openings, along with gaps around doors and service entries, to get indoors. The farmland on the Downs above and the fields below the village keep rodent numbers high in the area and the seasonal move of field mice into buildings each autumn is a reliable pattern. The newer estates are not immune, with gaps developing around air bricks, service entries and where extensions have been added.

The Downs above Kemsing are covered in chalk grassland and scrub with woodland in the valleys and grey squirrels from these woods get into the roof spaces of houses on the higher ground. Squirrel control is a regular requirement for the properties nearest the treeline. Wasp nests are common in the chalk banks along the Pilgrims Way, in garden outbuildings and in the older rooflines through the village. Kemsing is a village with a strong sense of place, sitting in one of the most distinctive landscapes in Kent and managing the pest pressures from the Downs and the farmland around it is part of the ongoing reality of village life.