Yahoo News Rats, mice, and MOLES found infesting Herefordshire businesses
Rats and mice are the main reason for pest control visits to Herefordshire businesses, new figures show.
Herefordshire Council provides a pest control service for commercial premises in the county, but not for homes.
In a response to a freedom of information request, the council said nearly half of the 884 visits made by its pest control team over the past three financial years were to deal with rodents, which accounted for an average of 140 visits a year.
More than half of rodent-related visits were follow-ups to earlier callouts, indicating these are trickier pests to eliminate.
Moles accounted for nearly 27 per cent of callouts, wasps just over 15 per cent, and other insects – ants, flies and bees – 10 per cent. Figures have remained broadly similar year-on-year.
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Pests which the council says it will also deal with but which do not feature in the callout figures include bedbugs, carpet beetles, carpet moths, cockroaches, fleas and harlequin ladybirds.
It will not get rid of bats, foxes, grey squirrels or gulls. And it encourages companies to find a local beekeeper to deal with honeybees.
Visits by its accredited workers are charged at between £102.60 to remove an insect nest, £118.20 per hour to deal with mice and rats, and from £147.60 to deal with moles.
