City of London Pest Control News:
Wasps in the City of London by paulg on 27/04/2012 |
Wasps! Nobody likes them but we all put up with them. We don’t like being stung by them; we don’t like wasps making nests in our lofts. We don’t like them swarming around us while we are trying to enjoy a nice outdoor lunch. But unfortunately we don’t have much choice but to endure them in the City of London. There are many different species of wasps around. Luckily only a few of them live here in the city and only some of them are pests to humans. The Yellow Jacket/Common wasp and the German/European wasp being the most annoying. The Yellow Jacket/Common Wasp is found in many cities in the UK including the city of London. They are black with yellow stripes and at first glance look mainly yellow. They can be around 1 to 1.5 cm in length. Like all wasps they do sting and are one of the more aggressive species of wasp as the sting can retract and sting again. The feeding habits of the wasp are varied. It will feed on other insects to take back to the nest to nurture the young. It will also feed on human food waste, overripe fruits and meats. The nests of Yellow jacket/common wasps are usually be found in attics and eaves. They can sometimes be found in soil cavities in disused areas such as old office blocks. Nests are made from wood and saliva, regurgitated to form a light but strong paper Mache. A nest by the end of the summer may have as many as 10,000 wasps inside and have been known to be the size of a door and larger. A wasps lifespan is generally just a year, during the spring and summer months. As the weather turns colder in the autumn the worker wasps start to die out. Only the queen will continue to live leaving the dieing nest to go and create a new one after hibernating through the cold winter months. Queens may live up to seven or eight years. German wasps tend to build their nests closer to and even in the ground in areas around overgrowth and fields. The queen will start to build a nest in the spring, making twenty to thirty hexagonal cells before filling them with eggs. Once the larvae eggs have hatched, the workers then take over the maintenance and feeding of the nest from the queen. A fully grown nest may be 25-35 cm across and contain up to 3000 wasps. German wasps sting just like any other. The sting from any wasp is generally sore and itchy for a couple of hours. If a soothing cream is applied soon after the soreness may disappear within minutes There are some people who are allergic to stings and can go into anaphylactic shock, with swelling around muscles and eyes, and in severe cases around the throat making breathing difficult or at worst, impossible. This alone is a very good reason to get a wasp nest eradicated as soon as possible. |
Rats in city of London by paulg on 07/03/2012 |
City sandwich bar fined and closed down for cockroaches and rats. The owner of a Sandwich Bar in the City of London was fined a total of £15,500 with costs of £3,067.50 after pleading guilty to two Food Safety offences in the City of London Magistrates’ Court. The case was taken on after a complaint to the City of London Corporation Environmental Health was made by a customer. Environmental Health Officers visited the sandwich bar in the Royal Exchange in October 2010 following a complaint that a customer had found a cockroach in their drink. Their investigation found both cockroach and rat activity and as a result the premises were closed immediately using Hygiene Emergency Prohibition powers contained in the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations. The subsequent prosecution was brought because of the conditions found in the premises at the time of the visit and because contaminated food had been sold to a customer. A spokesperson for the Environmental Services, said: “The law expects all food business operators to be proactive in dealing with both on-going pest problems and pest-proofing their premises to prevent further infestations. It is simply not acceptable, particularly as London heads into Olympic year, for businesses to shirk their responsibilities and endanger public health. These sorts of problems should not be happening and any that are will be dealt with accordingly”. |