Adult, strongly depressed oval body, females 4mm to 8mm long, males are slightly smaller; reddish brown, becoming purple after feeding; well developed antennae; prominent, simple eyes; feet clawed so can climb rough but not smooth surfaces;

Origins and distribution

Habitat:

Throughout Europe and widespread across UK.

Behaviour:

Breeding

Food:

Control:

10 to 20 mm, narrow waist, distinctive banding in bright yellow and black, 2 pairs of membranous wings. Both wasps are very similar to look at.

Origins and distribution:

Common throughout UK, favours bakeries, fruit processors, jam factories, drinks factories and confectioners. Skips and waste containers plus returns trays and empty raw materials containers draw them to premises.

Habitat:

Throughout Europe and widespread across UK.

Behaviour:

A social insect with classes and order, the sterile females are the workers, others take on many different responsibilities in the colony.

Breeding:

Queen emerges from hibernation in mid-April, constructs 10 to 20 chambers and lays eggs in each one, sterile female workers hatch and by late summer the colony reaches 3,000 to 30,000 individuals. Males and new Queens are produced in late summer, males mate with the new Queens and then die. The Queen wasps in turn fly off to find an over winter hibernation site usually inside buildings or hollow trees.

Food:

Any sweet sticky high sugar foodstuff, jam, fruit juices and, meat, carrion including dustbin waste material.

Control:

• Insecticidal Spraying
• Electronic Fly Killers
• Baits

Workers: 2.5- 3.2mm long Queens 3.5-3.8mm long Male 3.4-3.6mm long This species is reddish yellow to dark brown and the sterile workers are wingless. Wings are present in young queens but absent in older insects. The males are also wingless. All sexes are identifiable with a single tall segment in the pedicel and a conspicuous constriction between the first and second segments. Both the female and workers are armed with a sting.

Origins and distribution:

This species was first captured in Britain in 1860 by Henry Squire at an address in Burton Crescent London. Its true distribution today is not really known but many recent reports in the north of England suggest its is spreading quickly. The ant is probably much more widespread in Britain than was at first thought. Although it is sub tropical, it can be found throughout Western Europe and the Canary Islands. This species have been introduced into many temperate areas around the world as a result of commodity trading.

Habitat:

The ant is often reported in greenhouses where they have been found in soil filled pots and boxes, obviously imported and introduced by accident. They will also infest any heated premises such as kitchens, bakeries, and food processing factories. Colonies can exist outdoors in waste tips especially in fermenting refuse. If discovered outdoors the ant prefers sunny locations. Inside buildings the ant prefers warm damp areas such as drains, shower blocks / toilets or process areas. Each nest is usually fairly small of 60 to 100 individuals but when larger numbers of insects are observed this can be misleading, suggesting that there is one large nest. In fact normally there can a number of colonies in close proximity. Nests are usually totally inaccessible therefore control is sometimes difficult. Favoured sites are sub floor areas, wall cavities and gaps behind wall tiles. Their preference to drains and permanently warm wet tiled areas means they are often seen after showers have been in use or shortly after cleaning has taken place.

Behaviour:

Rogers ants do not follow pheromone trails but forage for live prey, killing small insects including pupae, carrying them back to the nest. When leaving the nests to swarm queen ants often head towards light sources such as windows and they can sometimes be found in fly killer catch trays, attracted to ultra violet light.

Breeding:

Where conditions are damp and warm enough females can occur all year long. Swarming takes place in July to September but the males always remain in the nests. Males however do compete in order to mate with queens. Food: This ant feed exclusively on protein including small live and dead insects, they will sting small insects and carry back their victims to nests to feed the colony. Damp areas often support other insect life on which the ants feed. The larvae or grubs can feed themselves on insect material if placed nearby.

General comments:

As most problems are reported in shower and amenity blocks in food factories. The problem is often located behind tiles on shower walls where the ants have taken up residence in numbers. When showers are used, with the subsequent rise in humidity levels, the ants will evacuate in numbers. The control solution in this environment often sounds drastic, builders or maintenance staff need remove all the wall tiles and access is also required beneath the shower tray, the infested section can then be treated with a residual insecticide. With all possible harbourages sealed after treatment, the shower area needs to be re tiled. If this is carried out correctly the infestation is normally cured. It sounds expensive, but this is the only way control will be achieved saving much time with repeated follow up spray treatments. The solution is simple “Find the seat of the infestation” by watching individuals making their way back to the nest in order to ascertain the true location and extent of the colony.

Control:

Baiting

Insecticidal Spraying

Habitat & History

Pigeons nest on buildings, on ledges they eat seeds and domestic scraps, they normally live in cities, where they also roost. They are found in large flock and have defined nesting, eating and resting areas. Pigeon nests can contain a large variety of lice and insects.

The pigeon can reproduce up to twice a year and produce up to four young.Pigeons cause many problems including fouling of buildings, hazards to pedestrians and drivers, they encourage other pests and insects and can transmit diseases.
Control / Treatment

* Netting
* Anti roost system
* Trapping
* Shooting
* Scaring

17-30 mm, dark brown to black very shiny and very flattened, the female has very reduced wing buds and the male wings are longer to almost the end of the abdomen. They have long flexible antennae.

Origins and distribution:

Worldwide and widespread throughout the UK.

Habitat:

Mainly in heated buildings, dustbin areas, waste/compactor areas, cellars, boiler houses, ductings, lift shafts. Colonies are often established in drains or services but sometimes in cladding and dead spaces inside processing equipment. They can squeeze into very small cracks and will exploit bad fitting coving and door jams etc. One of the main routes into premises is via laundry suppliers off site, these should always be considered when carrying out supplier auditing.

Behavior:

This species cannot fly but it is very fast running. It cannot climb smooth surfaces.

Breeding:

Ootheca produced 5-10 per female each containing 16/18 eggs, incubation 48 to 80 days at 20°C to 25 °C preferred temp. Nymphal stages 7-10 to adult, life span 60 to 250 days depending on temperature.

Food:

Omnivorous feeding on any organic matter including human waste to soap, candles, paper etc. They are true scavengers.

Control:

• Insecticidal Spraying
• Gel Bait
• Fumigant

The House Mouse is smaller than common Rats. The tail is about the same size as the body and the mouse can grow up to 10cm long. they are normally grey or brown and live indoors. They can be found in homes, commercial premises and all types of warehouses etc.

Mice prefer cereals and grain in their diet, they can eat up to 3g’s of food per day. They can live without water for long periods. Mice often live on the ground but can burrow and climb.

Habitat & History

Mice carry salmonella bacteria that cause typhoid like infections in the intestine. Mice probably cause food poisoning more often than bad hygiene.

Mice can cause damage in houses and commercial premises just by gnawing at anything in their way. They have good eyesight and sensitive whiskers, they will often stay in the same area and know every inch of it.In good conditions mice can have litters of up to 16 and have up to 8 litters per week. They can reproduce from the age of 8 weeks old.

Control / Treatment

• Trapping
• Rodenticides
• Proofing

The most common brown Rat is distinctive by body size, it’s snout, ears and the fact that it’s tail length is not in proportion to it’s body. It has a blunt snout, thick body hair, small hairy ears and the tail is shorter than the head and body with a pale underside. These Rats are normally found everywhere, buildings, sewers and outdoor spaces.

Rats carry a fatal disease commonly called Weil’s Disease. This is spread through rat urine. Up to 30% of British rats carry this disease. Rats also carry a deadly minute roundworm, the plague and lice. They too can carry salmonella.

Rats have very adept senses, they can move freely in complete darkness, their sense of smell, and their whiskers guide them to food.

Habitat & History

Brown rats are omnivorous but prefer starch and protein-rich foods, such as cereals. Their diet includes meat, fish, vegetables, weeds, earthworms, crustaceans, nuts and fruit. They sometimes cache food to return to later.

in good conditions this species can breed continually through the year. They can breed from the age of 12 weeks, which results in rapid increase of young, healthy rats. They can have litters of 8 and breed up to 6 times in a year.

Despite bad press, Rats are very clean mammals; even though they live in very dirty surroundings they can spend a quarter of their lifespan cleaning themselves.

Control / Treatment

• Rodenticides
• Trapping
• Proofing

Pale brown and dark brown abdomen with a mid brown fury thorax and dark brown legs. Curved antennae. 15mm in length

Origins and distribution:

Throughout Europe and common in most of the southern part of the UK.

Habitat:

Soft stonework and masonry in older buildings during the spring and summer months. Sometimes these bees adopt keyholes in old buildings and outbuildings.

Behaviour:

Small burrows excavated in buildings with many individuals living in close proximity but on a solitary basis.

Breeding:

After laying her eggs, the female bee seals and abandons the nest and soon dies, leaving her offspring (larvae) to develop on their own. The burrows are 2-10cm long and are lined with a varnish that the bee produces from its salivary glands. The burrows are filled pollen and nectar to a depth of 1cm. A single egg is deposited and the larva feed on the food material until full grown, it then pupates and over winters until the spring before hatching.

Food:

The adult bee feeds on pollen and nectar.

Control:

• Insecticidal Spraying
• Electronic Fly Killers
• Baits

Honeybees, both feral (wild) and colonised, are important beneficial insects, not normally considered as pests. They live either in the wild in nests or as colonies in hives kept by beekeepers. In either case they will only sting people if strongly provoked.

Because of their beneficial role every effort should be made to avoid carrying out control treatments against honeybees. Treatment with a pesticide should be considered only as a last resort.

Risks from treated nests.

If foraging non-target honey bees find a nest, which has been treated, they will carry away contaminated honey. This can lead to contamination of honey destined for food use, serious bee kills and the destruction of hives.

Length 23-25mm female and 21-28mm male. Two colour forms exist in Europe. This is a large and robust wasp and the markings are similar to European wasps but it is their sheer size and reddish colouration to the mesothorax that distinguishes them.

Origins and distribution:

Worldwide but localised common in the UK with the major populations tending to be in the fruit growing areas of the country. Somerset, Herefordshire, the Vale of Evesham and Kent have noticeably higher incidences than with other localities.

Habitat:

Oak woods, water meadows and old parks are favoured sometimes close to human habitations.

Behaviour:

A fairly aggressive insect in defence of its nest but it does not normally bother man.

Breeding:

Queens emerge in April and are active until September. Nest construction and the social hierarchy is similar to the German and European or common wasp. New queens over winter in tree stumps and hollow trees. Nests are often in the same location every year but old nests are not used, new ones are built.

Food:

Its principle food preference is soft-bodied insects, caterpillars and flies. The adults visit flowers and take nectar. It visits orchards in the autumn to feed from ripened and fallen fruit.

Control:

• Insecticidal Spraying
• Electronic Fly Killers
• Baits