Warm weather keeps pest controllers busy

EXPERTS HAVE have recorded soaring numbers of complaints about insects because of the warm weather.

Reports of ants increased by 73 per cent, of wasps by 39 per cent and of flies by 30 per cent from May to July compared with the same period last year, according to pest controllers Rentokil.

David Cross, who heads the company’s technical training academy, said: “The mild wet winter and last year’s ‘Indian summer’ have contributed to a significant spike in pest activity this summer. In particular we have recorded significant increases in enquiries regarding ants, flies and wasps.”

Mild winter conditions have allowed more fly pupae to survive and hatch as soon as warmer weather set in, he said.

Flies laid eggs in batches of 30 to 500, each of which had the potential to develop into a pupa and finally an adult. Similarly, he said that more ants had managed to remain alive in their nests over the winter period to emerge in greater numbers as temperatures rose.

Mr Cross added: “The increase in wasps is most likely to have been driven by the warm and dry autumn experienced last year. Male wasps die off in cooler months as the queen goes into hibernation, but due to the mild weather wasp activity continued well into the autumn, allowing more time for breeding and creating more queens to come out of hibernation this year.”

Flies were one of the most common causes of food poisoning and wasps were capable of delivering highly painful stings multiple times. Although ants were generally harmless, indoors they quickly became a nuisance as they laid down chemical trails for the colony to follow to food, he added.