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Recent Vermin and Pest Control News
Montecristo rat eradication could be blocked
02/02/2012
Plans to carry out an aerial pest control operation on the famed Italian island of Montecristo could be thwarted by environmentalists.
Authorities had been planning to drop around 26 tons of poison pellets on the island in a bid to tackle an infestation of black rats that is threatening the uninhabited nature reserve’s valuable bird wildlife.
Italy's Anti-Vivisection League, however, has lodged a formal objection with the Italian environment and agricultural ministries against the idea. The league’s president, Gianluca Felicetti, said that the plans were “absurd” and posed a real threat to the other indigenous wildlife on the island.
“Dropping 26 tons of poison out of an aircraft is an irresponsible action because it puts at risk all the fauna of the island,” he said, pointing out that the rat poison being used would also prove harmful to marine life such as fish and crabs.
The leagues claims have been contradicted by another environmental group, however. Legambiente has said that the system of pellet bombing has been used to great effect on other islands and in other regions of the world.
It is thought that the rats first came to the island via the boats that brings the 1,000 tourists who are allowed to visit the island every year.
Edinburgh tram works blamed for mouse problems
30/01/2012
The owner of an Edinburgh chip shop that has repeatedly violated public hygiene regulations, has blamed the tram works in the Scottish capital for the persistent mouse problem that is plaguing his shop.
Carlo Crolla, who own the Clifton Fish and Chicken Bar in Haymarket, said that the works have disrupted mice and sent them scurrying into places like his shop, leaving him in a “nightmare” situation.
Mr Crolla was speaking out after health inspectors closed his shop for the third time in three years, after discovering a number of mice on the premises.
Health inspector Mark Herron pinned a note to the shop front, in which he said, “Effective mouse control is not taking place AGAIN. Two dead mice were found behind the fridges upstairs and one in the basement.
“Pest control have not visited since November 1, 2011.”
Mr Crolla told The Scotsman newspaper that the tram works were ruining his business and causing tremendous difficulties for others in the vicinity
“I’ve been running the shop for ten years and I never had any problems until the tram works, which are digging up all the mice nests,” he said. “All the shops along this street have problems with mice, but my shop is particularly old.”
Mr Crolla will make his case before Edinburgh Sheriff Court in the next few weeks.
Pest controllers tackle Plymouth flat after hoarder evicted
26/01/2012
A hoarder from Plymouth has been evicted from his vermin-infested flat and pest controllers have moved in, after putting his neighbours through a ‘living hell’ due to his squalid living.
Anthony Drake, 54, has been handed an indefinite antisocial behaviour order by Plymouth Magistrates Court, banning him from his local authority flat in the city’s Pike Road. He was taken to court by Plymouth County Council, after nine lorries had been needed to remove the hoarded detritus from his flat.
Council antisocial behaviour officer, Debbie Goad, told the court that she had never seen a case like it.
“The property was filled with all manner of things. There was an awful lot of food in there," said Ms Goad, who also spoke of seeing cockroaches, flies and rodent evidence in the flat, and later found she was covered in flea bites.
Nine lorries were required to clear the rubbish from the garden of the flat alone, and a decontamination company have already had to clean the flat three times. Steven Didymus, from landlords Plymouth Community Homes, told the court, “There was a concern that the floor could have fallen into the flat below were it to get any worse.”
Scottish storms have caused huge vermin problem
23/01/2012
Storms that battered the west coast of Scotland have caused an enormous infestation of vermin in the town of Oban.
The popular seaside town has seen sales of mousetraps and rat poison soar in the last few weeks, after the storms swept away many of the animals natural seaside habitats, sending them scurrying for cover wherever they could find it.
Jaz MacIntyre, a sales assistant at Oban’s Mica Hardware, said, “People are coming in the shop for bait and traps and they are saying that they have never seen so many mice.
“It is an explosion – as soon as they kill one mouse another two replace them. What we really need a Pied Piper.”
He said that he had heard the vermin had become a major problem throughout the whole of the Argyll and Bute region, and that stocks of pest control apparatus were flying off their shelves as soon as they were brought out.
Tom Bell, chief executive of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland said, “If there is heavy rain at any time, any living creature will seek shelter and habitats have probably been destroyed in the storms.
“That certainly could account for the mice moving into homes, barns, or other places where it is dry. There can be an increase in sightings because they have been flushed out of their usual hidey holes.”
