Domestic Pest Control.

What are the signs that your home needs pest control?

Most domestic enquiries start small: droppings behind the cooker, scratching above a ceiling at night, bites on an arm.

• Rats and mice. Mouse droppings are about the size of a grain of rice; rat droppings are capsule-shaped and around a centimetre or more. Look also for gnawed packaging, greasy smear marks along skirting boards and scratching in ceilings or stud walls after dark.
• Squirrels. Thumping in the loft early in the morning and through the day, rather than at night, is more often a grey squirrel than a rat.
• Wasps. A steady line of wasps flying in and out of one point, such as an airbrick or a gap under roof tiles, almost always means a nest.
• Bed bugs. Bites in lines or clusters, small blood spots on sheets, and dark spotting along mattress seams and headboards.
• Fleas. Bites around the ankles, pets scratching, or a sudden problem after moving into a property where the previous occupant had animals.
• Cockroaches, ants and moths. Cockroaches appear at night near boilers, fridges and sinks; ants trail to sweet food; clothes moths leave irregular holes in wool.

Why do Manchester homes get pests?

Much of Greater Manchester’s older housing is Victorian and Edwardian terracing, with shared roof spaces, party walls, suspended timber floors and clay drains well over a century old. When a drain joint cracks or a redundant connection is left open under a kitchen, rats can come up from the sewer into the floor void, and in a terrace they can move along the row. Mice use the same routes through gaps around pipes and cavity walls.

Interwar semis have their own pattern: gaps at the eaves, airbricks with broken grilles, and attached garages or later extensions that join the house through shared voids. Converted mills and newer apartment blocks bring service risers, communal bin stores and shared ducts, which let mice and cockroaches move between flats however clean any one of them is.

The Irwell, the Mersey and the canal network give rats sheltered corridors through built-up areas, while overflowing wheelie bins, bird food on the ground and open compost heaps supply food.

Turnover matters too: student lets around Fallowfield see furniture and luggage move in and out every year, which is how bed bugs travel. Season matters too: rodents push indoors in autumn, and wasp nests peak in late summer.

How does our domestic treatment work?

We run domestic jobs with the same discipline as our commercial work, so every one starts with an inspection, not a spray. The technician confirms what the pest is, where it is living and, most importantly, how it is getting in, from under the stairs and behind kitchen kickboards to the loft, airbricks and drain covers.

For rats and mice, we choose between trapping and rodenticide based on how many there are, where they are and who else uses the space. Where rodenticide is the right tool, it is a professional product supplied under the UK Rodenticide Stewardship Regime, run by CRRU UK under government oversight, which restricts these products to trained, certified users. It goes in locked, tamper-resistant stations and is removed once activity has stopped, not left down indefinitely. Traps are set inside covered boxes. Glue traps have no place in domestic work; in England they need a licence for use on rodents.

For insects, treatment targets the places they hide: residual insecticide into cracks, voids and seams for bed bugs and fleas, and gel baits for cockroaches and ants. Wasp nests are treated with insecticide dust at the entrance, and activity usually dies down within a day. Our rodent control, wasp nest removal and bed bug treatment pages cover each in more depth.

Some pests carry legal conditions. Grey squirrels in a loft can be trapped and the entry points proofed, but under the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019 a trapped grey squirrel cannot lawfully be released, so it has to be dispatched humanely. Pigeons under solar panels are a job for our bird control service. The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects all wild birds, their eggs and nests in use or being built, so any control of feral pigeons must meet the conditions of a general licence, and mesh proofing is usually the lasting answer.

Where the real fix is structural, such as a broken drain, we say so plainly and set out what a drainage contractor or builder needs to do.

Is it safe for children, pets and everyone in the house?

Safety planning starts when you book: we ask about babies, anyone pregnant or with asthma, and any animals, from cats and dogs to reptiles and fish, and plan the method around them.

Bait is never laid loose. Stations are locked, fixed in place where practical and positioned where children and pets cannot reach them. Insecticides go into the gaps where insects hide rather than across open floors and worktops, and for sprayed treatments we tell you how long to keep people and pets out of the room, usually a few hours until surfaces are dry. Fish tanks need covering, with air pumps off, during some insect treatments, because many insecticides are highly toxic to fish.

After each visit you get a note of the product used, where it was placed and any aftercare, such as how long to leave treated floors before washing them.

How many visits does it usually take?

It depends on the pest and how established it is:

• A wasp nest is normally one visit.
• Rats and mice usually take two or three visits over a few weeks: treatment, then returns to check stations or traps, remove them and confirm activity has stopped.
• Bed bugs normally need at least two treatments, roughly two to three weeks apart, so that bugs hatching after the first treatment are dealt with.
• Fleas are often resolved with one treatment, with a second if adults keep emerging.
• German cockroaches, common in flats, usually need several visits over a number of weeks.

How do you stop pests coming back?

Treatment removes the pests that are there; proofing stops the next ones. For rodents that means sealing gaps around pipes with stainless steel wool, metal mesh and mortar, replacing broken airbrick grilles with fine mesh that keeps ventilation working, fitting brush strips to external and garage doors, and closing gaps behind kitchen units. Where rats are coming from the drains, the fix might be a repaired joint, a capped redundant pipe or a non-return valve fitted by a drainage contractor.

Housekeeping does the rest: lidded bins, bird food kept in feeders, compost bins with a base, and less clutter in lofts. For bed bugs, be wary of second-hand mattresses and check luggage after travel.

When does DIY stop being enough?

A single mouse in a kitchen can sometimes be handled with a couple of snap traps set in boxes along the wall. Beyond that, it is time to bring in a professional when:

• activity carries on for more than a week or two after you start;
• you can hear movement in walls, ceilings or under floors that you cannot reach;
• there is any sign of rats indoors;
• you have bed bugs or cockroaches, where shop-bought sprays tend to scatter them rather than kill them;
• a wasp nest is in a roof void, behind fascias or at height;
• young children or pets in the house make handling poison a risk.

The DIY toolkit is also deliberately limited: public-use rodenticides are restricted, and setting a glue trap for rodents is an offence for householders in England.

Who is responsible if you rent, or the problem starts next door?

If you rent, in most cases the landlord is responsible where pests come in through disrepair or the condition of the building. Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 covers the structure and exterior, and the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 requires rented homes to be fit to live in, with pests one of the hazards assessed under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS). Where an infestation starts with a tenant’s own pet or belongings, the tenancy agreement may place it on the tenant.

In terraces and semis, a problem often spans more than one house, and treating one while next door does nothing means repeat work. Councils have powers under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 to require owners and occupiers to deal with rats and mice on their land, which can help where a neighbouring property is the source.

Our written report records what we found, the likely cause and what was done, ready to pass to a landlord or letting agent. Landlords will find more on duties and record-keeping on our pest control for landlords page.