Sutton Pest Control News:
| Sutton landlords cost of cockroaches by paulg on 07/05/2012 |
| A private landlord in Sutton has been fined for allowing his tenants to live in what Sutton Council has described as a home from hell. The landlord who lives in St Albans and owns 5 properties in Sutton, pleaded guilty to eight offences of failing to keep the flat in a good and clean decorative repair. Horrified housing enforcement officers discovered the filthy, mouldy flat, which had a hole in the staircase leading into a workshop below, after complaints from neighbours about the smell that seemed to be coming from the flat. When they investigated they found exposed wires, cupboard doors off their hinges in the kitchen and an infestation of cockroaches. The cockroaches were that vast in numbers, they had spread to neighbouring properties. The problem was brought the councils attention when one of the neighbours reported seeing cockroaches in their kitchen. When council pest control officers went to inspect the reporting property, they knocked on neighbours flats to see if there was any activity there. When the tenant of the infested property opened their door, cockroaches were seen straight away. After just 5 minutes inspecting the flat, it was decided that the councils environmental health officers should be involved called. A spokesperson for Sutton council said: “We both need to and will, ensure that private sector rented residential properties are well managed and meet a good standard. We do have good landlords in Sutton and we want to work with them. There are also some bad ones and these are the ones we are targeting. We will not accept private sector tenants being directly exploited by landlords who make them live in dangerous and unacceptable conditions.” The landlord was fined £2,750 and ordered to pay costs of £700. The flat has been deemed unfit for safe living and the landlord has been ordered to do all repairs and to make the property fit for purpose within three months or face possible imprisonment. |
| Finding rats in Sutton by paulg on 15/03/2012 |
| Should we take it for granted that there are rats around in Sutton? Unfortunately yes we should, because like the rest of London and the UK they are everywhere. It is said that there are approximately 80 million rats in the UK to just 60 million people. That’s about 1.3 rats per person. This is an apparent increase of nearly 40% in 12 years. A lot of people are saying that the increase has happened mainly in the last 5 years during the recession and due to refuse collections being reduced in some areas, then being bought back to normal, which is confusing everybody as to when they should be putting their rubbish out. When rubbish is put out early, maybe because small households do not have the room to keep lots of rubbish indoors (and who really wants to), it just invites the rats and other scavengers to come for food. Other contributing factors could be the rise in small take away businesses popping up all over the place all of the time and more and more people choosing to eat these take away foods as a quick snack, or sometimes actually dinner, and not discarding the left over food and containers properly. And with the council cut backs that are always happening, there are not enough street litter pickers to clean the mess up and empty the bins. As well as the associated street problems, there are the problems that may affect the home. The most common and sometimes destructive is the chewing of electrical cables. Rats are always chewing and gnawing at things. This is because of their constantly growing teeth. Like humans and our nails, rats and their teeth need to be kept down in size for both comfort ability and the need to keep them sharp for defence uses. The chewing threw electrical cables is thought to cause approximately 50% of farm fires and 25% of fires in urban homes in recent times. Then there is the damage to any plastic piping that water may flow through, like washing machines and dishwashers causing flooding. Wooden kitchen units and rafters in the roof can be chewed through at an alarmingly fast rate. All of this damage will result in some serious repair bills. So what should you look out for? If a rat problem has arisen in your local area and you are worried, some things to look out for would be; Holes in the earth around your property, usually around the size of a golf ball may indicate some underground nesting, small holes chewed out in the corners of kitchen units and walls or in the kickboards at the bottom of the units, droppings in hidden places like under units, behind appliances and in cupboards. If you are unsure of how to deal with the problem or the methods you are trying are not working, call a professional pest control company who can treat the problem for you and advise you on how to keep them away in the future. |