Many people believe that fleas are only a danger to their pets as they do not live on human skin, however, this is not the case and if left to infest your household could be a danger to your health too.

Indeed, fleas are most commonly found on pets and are more likely to cause an infestation if you have animals in your home but they can also be found in homes where pets don’t reside, travelling in via clothing, luggage and much more.

We are sharing some of the dangers of a flea infestation that you may not be familiar with to highlight the importance of getting it eradicated as soon as possible.

Fleas carry diseases

It is no secret that fleas carry disease and ignoring an infestation can increase your chances of contracting them which could be extremely detrimental to your health.

Fleas are known to carry spotted fever, typhus and cat scratch fever just to name three of the most common but have been known to carry a number of disease that can cause both you and your pets damage.

Bite reactions

Although fleas have no interest in living on the human body, they won’t pass up on the opportunity to sink their teeth into you and their bite can cause a range of reactions.

From swelling of the skin to full blown allergic reactions that can cause a hives outbreak all over your body, fleas can create many surface level issues and irritate your skin massively.

What to do if you have a flea infestation?

Flea infestations can be really difficult to get rid of but for the safety of your family and most importantly, your pet’s health, it is incredibly important to eliminate fleas at your first realisation.

There are millions of methods and products you can buy to get rid of fleas but a large-scale infestation in your home can become challenging to manage.

Getting touch with a pest control company like Advantage who can give you expert advice and assess your needs depending on the level of infestation you are experiencing.

Advantage can provide a fast and effective soul to protect your home and pets from an infestation going out of control.

In the winter and spring months many people feel obliged to put out bird feeders in their gardens to help birds with the struggle for food in the colder seasons.

However, this positive and considerate gesture can create a big problem for your home and garden by attracting rats who are – like birds – on the hunt for regular sources of food in the colder months.

Do bird feeders attract rats?

It is no secret that rats are scavengers and will eat almost anything they can get their claws on which makes a regularly topped up bird feeder an ideal source of food for rodents.

The worst part of their attraction to bird feeders is that commonly rats carry diseases such as salmonella that can be transferred to birds who feed in your garden and in the worst case scenario can transfer to the people in your household which could make your family very unwell.

Indeed, there is no guarantee that rodents will 100% be found in your garden if you have a bird feeder as it completely depends on your surroundings, however, it certainly increases the risk of rats making your garden their home if they are in desperate need of food resources.

How can you stop rats from using your bird feeder?

Now that it is clear that rats are attracted to bird feeders, it is time to consider the different ways to stop rats from coming into your garden and taking advantage of your good nature.

Installing bird feeders that are rat proof is a great way to deter the pests away from your garden, because if they can’t get the seed they will quickly give up and look elsewhere for their lunch.

The quality of your bird feeder will play an important role in avoiding rat infestations and purchasing a slightly more expensive feeder that only birds can access could save you much more money in repairs to damages that rats can cause in your garden and home.

You can also remove water sources surrounding the bird feeder and in your garden which will also have a positive effect on discouraging rats to gather around your home.

Rats may be initially attracted to your garden by water sources as they can’t survive too long without it, but will stay for the free food dangling in front of them.

Believe it or not, birds can be picky eaters and will often flick away seeds to get to their favourite pieces hanging in your feeder with the scraps being left on the ground.

As a result, keeping a close eye on the area surrounding the bird feeder and making sure you are clearly up any less desirable seeds that have ended up on the grass or patio is essential to ensure rats don’t find food just laying out in your garden waiting for them.

If you think you may have a rat infestation or need further support to deter rats from entering your garden, Advantage Pest Control have years of experience in dealing with and preventing rodent problems in domestic settings.

Of all the pest problems that businesses and households may experience, mouse and rat infestations are some of the most common.

Food and shelter are the main priority for these particular pests and that is exactly why they are commonly found in homes and businesses.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to distinguish whether you have an issue with mice and rats at your property until an infestation is occurring.

It’s very important to realise that rats and mice are extremely intelligent which makes them great hiders, however, if you are clued up on what you’re looking for, you stand a better chance of quickly identifying their presence and dealing with it accordingly.

Signs of a Mouse Infestation

For those who live in rural areas, the chances are higher that you are experiencing an issue with mice.

Mice are very subtle creatures that will fit through just about any space they can find to set up a home or source food, however, in many cases, they will leave behind evidence of their presence with many tell-tale signs revealing their identity.

• Chew marks on wiring around your home and business, as well as food packaging and containers.
• Small droppings are one of the best ways to identify a mouse problem, the more fresh and moist they are the more likely you have an active mouse infestation.
• Another clear indicator that can be picked up in a household when everyone is sleeping is the very quiet sound of scuffling.
• A change in your pet’s behaviour around the home, unusual anxiousness and cautiousness from your dogs or cats is another way of identifying a problem with mice.
• Discovering a nest is probably the most obvious sign of an invasion of your home or business by mice, this will often be made up of cardboard or other soft materials available to them.

Where do they hide?

One of the biggest reasons it can be difficult to identify a mouse infestation very quickly is due to their sneaky nature, meaning they remain in the darkest and most out-of-reach places they can find around your property.

Due to their ability to fit through almost any hole, mice can find their way into pipes, walls, attics, garages and vents without any trouble. If you’re not sure whether you are experiencing or have experienced an infestation one of the best ways to find them is by thinking like a mouse by pinpointing areas of your home or business where they could gain entry.

Will mouse traps eliminate the issue?

If you’re concerned about infestations and key indicators that you have a mouse problem that have presented themselves, you may be wondering whether mouse traps could be the answer.

Mouse traps will likely kill or at least seriously injure mice, however, if you would like to get rid of your rodent issues more humanely there have been several developments in the traps you can buy to remove the mice safely from your home and business, without killing them.

There are traps with doors that you can set up with bait inside that have a door that shut on the rodent so that you can trap them without them escaping and without killing them, allowing you to safely remove them from your home and business without any harm caused to the animal.

Signs of a Rat Infestation

Rats are more commonly found in built-up areas, like cities, town centres or big housing estates where there is high-traffic footfall.

The first thing you will need to know is how to distinguish the difference between a mouse and rat infestation, as although they are similar in many ways, they also differ in so many others.

One of the most obvious differences is that rats are usually much larger than mice, which can be found in the evidence they leave behind when infesting your home or business.

• Indeed, just like mice one of the key indicators of a rat infestation is chewed-up wires, food containers and packaging etc. however, these are likely to be much bigger and much more destructive.
• Again droppings are a key indicator just like a mouse infestation, but again will be much larger.
• Rats are also much noisier than mice when making their way around your home and business, listen out for scurrying, squeals and scratching noises.

Mouse and rat infestations can be dangerous

The realisation can be quite unsettling if you are noticing the indicators that you are experiencing a mouse or rat infestation.

Both pests can cause serious health problems by contaminating food and spreading airborne viruses, which can be extremely dangerous for those occupying your home or business, so getting to the bottom of it fast is the only solution whether you decide to manage that yourself or call in a professional pest control service to help you.

Either way, if you do experience the signs of a mouse or rat infestation the most important thing to do is address it extremely fast and if you do decide to take on the challenge yourself, make sure you know what you are doing.

When to Contact a Rodent Control Professional

There are many ways that you can handle mouse or rat infestations on your own and pest control has become a business that features many products and services that allow you to deal with these problems on your own.

However, this is dependent on your execution and the number of rodents you currently have in your home so if you are taking measures to eliminate a suspected mouse or rat problem but are still finding evidence of their presence around your home and business, you may have a larger problem than first anticipated.

With that being said, at that point, you will find it much more beneficial to bring in a pest control team who can handle larger infestations with expert equipment and knowledge, just like Advantage Pest Control.

During the autumn, there appears to be a greater number of spiders in our houses, and these insects appear to be larger.

This happens because they are currently in the midst of their breeding season, which starts in the early phase of September and lasts until about the middle of October, when male arachnids will emerge from their hideouts during the breeding season to search for a female.

Which types of spiders are most prevalent?

The majority of the spiders that we encounter crawling about inside our houses throughout the autumn are trapdoor spiders.

There is a good chance that there are forty spiders hiding in the crevices and cracks of the typical house, and it’s possible that there are many in older homes.

Garden spiders are responsible for the huge webs that mysteriously emerge overnight in entrances and on bushes, when the sun reflects off the dew, they have a mystical appearance, but walking through one makes your feet feel sticky.

The United Kingdom is home to 650 different species of spiders, the vast majority of which are not harmful; nonetheless, this does not make these creatures any more endearing.

As they scamper across the floor, their threatening appearance is enhanced by the fact that each of their eight legs is composed of seven subparts.

The vast of the remaining species are endemic to particular environments, including such dunes, grasslands, or heathlands, and thus are known as a specialist.

Do spiders bite you?

Spiders are the subject of a number of urban legends, but to put your thoughts at ease, they do not slither into our mouths on purpose while we are sleeping, they do not produce eggs inside our bodies.

The majority of the arachnids that we encounter in the UK are unable to nibble us even if they tried because their jaws do not open widely enough or their claws are not strong enough to puncture our surface.

Nevertheless, the “noble fake widow” spider is one of the few kinds of spiders that are known to bite people. They were described for the first time in the UK in the 1870s, and since then, they tend to be among the most prevalent urban crawlers in the UK, these spiders originated in the Mediterranean.

They prefer to dwell indoors, where they may remain concealed for the majority of the year, where they can grow to up to 0.5 inches and a half inch wide.

They will only attack in response to a perceived threat, and even then, the bites are rarely dangerous because the snakes’ venom is not highly toxic.

The good stuff about spiders

• Spiders are beneficial to homeowners because they devour any bug that flies or crawls, such as clothes moths, flies, ants, mosquitoes, aphids, and beetles. This helps keep your house free of unwanted pests.
• Spiders are beneficial to agriculture because they consume mature insects as well as the bugs’ larvae and eggs. Some of the insects that spiders feed on include aphids, flies, caterpillars, leafhoppers, as well as other insects.

There are not many downsides to the summer season but one of the biggest is the resurgence of pests when the weather heats up in the UK.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can plan ahead to minimise pest control problems that could occur over the summer months so that you can enjoy the warm weather in peace.

ELIMINATE STANDING WATER

In the UK adverse weather conditions and rain in particular are common occurrences in the summer months and standing water is one of the most common ways to attract pests in and around your home.

Flower pots, swimming pools and buckets full of standing water are a haven for insects, so making sure you can minimise the amount of standing water you have surrounding your home this summer will definitely reduce the likelihood of a pest control problem and nasty insect bites when you’re out in the garden.

GARDEN MAINTENANCE

All year round garden maintenance should be a priority, but in the summer especially it is something that should be regularly kept on top of as the rise in pests in the summer months in particular will more than likely cause you problems if you neglect your garden.

Do your best to remove garden waste, keep up with mowing your grass, eliminate weeds and trim the hedges.

SEAL YOUR DOORS AND WINDOWS

Sealing or resealing your doors and windows will be one of the best ways to keep pests out of your home this summer.

Check for gaps in your doors and windows as well as using screens over the windows you have open, can make a huge difference if you can repair and protect your home.

KEEP YOUR KITCHEN CLEAN

A very common problem in the UK household in the summer is ants, and if you don’t keep your kitchen clean you will more often than not attract a tribe of ants into your home to feast on your leftovers.

Wiping counters, emptying bins and sweeping the floors regularly should be a top priority in the summer months, as rats are also in search of food supplies in the summer months too and could become a much larger problem.