Pest Squads Tackle City

It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it – and Edinburgh city council's pest control team has done it an incredible 8,300 times in the last year. New figures reveal that the exterminators deal with an average of 23 calls a day to deal with everything from foxes to wasps. Those figures only account for the council's teams – thousands more cases are dealt with by private firms.

These recent statistics give a breakdown for the first time on where – and what – the biggest problems are across the city.

Mice proved to be the biggest issue, followed by wasps, rats, ants and pigeons. Around 85 call-outs were made to tackle problems with foxes, while other infestations included bed bugs, bees, cockroaches, fleas, beetles, seagulls, squirrels, bats, badgers and woodlice.

The documents also reveal which areas across the Capital were the worst hit for each kind of pest. Forth had the biggest problem with mice, with call-outs being double the number found anywhere else across Edinburgh, perhaps linked to the amount of building work.

Inverleith, home to the Royal Botanic Garden, was worst affected by wasps, while Sighthill and Gorgie had the largest rat problem. Leith was worst for pigeons and Corstorphine and Murrayfield had the biggest issue with foxes.

Morningside and the Meadows recorded the highest number of calls about seagulls, but in nearby Southside and Newington, squirrels caused the most concerns. Portobello and Craigmillar, meanwhile, had the dubious honour of the most bed bug infestations.

Andrew Burns, director of Total Pest Solutions, on South Bridge, said they had seen some marked increases in pests during the last year, especially in bed bugs and German cockroaches. He said that the "markedly higher" number of pest problems was partly to do with the bin strike, which encouraged rats, seagulls and mice.

He said: "There are areas where there are pockets of high levels of pest problems. The big increase in infestations have been with bed bugs and German cockroaches, especially in the Leith area. Between 2008 and 2009 we only tackled about three jobs for cockroaches, but that rose to 82 this year."

The rise in bed bug cases over the years has previously been blamed on increased international travel and visitors to the city. "With bed bugs, we attended about 120 houses in 2008 and 2009, but this was in excess of 400 the next year. This seems to be the case for all pest control services, from talking to them," said Mr Burns. "The most call-outs we get are for mice and wasps."

He added: "The seagulls are getting way out of control in Edinburgh, especially in summer. They rip open bags across the city centre and rubbish gets strewn into the street. During the bin strike it was worse than ever. All sorts of animals were getting into the bags and they were breeding more because there was plenty of food around. We've only just got a handle on the amount of pests following the strike. It definitely made pest numbers markedly higher last year."

"The council are getting to grips with the seagull problem now, which is a good thing, but it takes the service a long time to do anything about infestations. We tackle any problem the same day we are called."

The total number of infestations recorded by the council during April 2009 and 2010 was 8,328, around 600 more than the previous year. Exterminators visited more than 2,600 households to tackle mice, 1,800 to deal with wasps, 900 for rats, 600 for ants and 430 to get rid of pigeons.

A council spokesman said: "There's always some variation from year to year, but we're not seeing any significant trends in vermin that give us cause for concern. We work to prevent pest problems by keeping Edinburgh's streets and other areas clean, but the public can also play their part by not leaving out anything that could attract vermin."

The council states that it will respond to call-outs about rats, fleas and other biting insects within two working days, and mice and other pests within five working days. The service costs between £55 and £150.

Article provided by Total Pest Solutions Ltd