Pest Control Stanhope

Pest Control in Stanhope

Stanhope is a small settlement in the TN postcode area of Kent, sitting in the rural landscape of the Weald. Like many of the smaller places in this part of the county, it consists of scattered houses and farms along country lanes with fields, hedgerows and patches of woodland all around. The rural setting means the pest pressures come directly from the land. Rats are present in the surrounding farmland year-round, living in ditches, field margins and around outbuildings. They are drawn to properties where food is available, whether that is stored grain, poultry feed, bird seed or scraps in an open compost bin. In the autumn and winter, when the fields are bare and food is scarcer, rats move closer to buildings and are more likely to try getting inside.

The houses in a place like Stanhope vary from older period cottages and converted farm buildings to more modern rural homes. The older properties almost always have gaps somewhere in the structure that mice can exploit, whether around door frames, in worn pointing or where different sections of the building meet. Outbuildings and garages give mice shelter close to the main house and from those staging points they move indoors when the temperature drops. The heavy tree cover across this part of the Weald means grey squirrels are a constant presence and properties with overhanging branches are at risk of them getting into the roof space. Wasp nests turn up every summer in roof spaces, garden sheds and old wall cavities and the abundance of insect life in the hedgerows and orchards of the Wealden countryside helps them build large colonies before the season ends.