3 min read: ‘ARC ANGLE’: MARCH 2024
A roundup of the latest news, legal updates, and industry trends from Arc Legal...
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Over the past several summers, and what we’re already seeing this summer too, are extreme heatwaves, a major reason for pests to make their way indoors as they try and escape the heat.
Wasps: one of the ultimate summer pests; they land on your food, fly in your face and seem to sting you at the first chance they get.
Mice: have been known to spread nasty diseases – such as Salmonella and Listeria – to humans through their urine, droppings, and bedding. Mice have a need to mark their territory with their urine and due to their sporadic eating habits, build nests near food sources. This puts anyone with an infestation at risk of food poisoning.
Rats: They communicate and mark their territory by urinating everywhere they go and build nests near food sources. Rats can carry many nasty diseases which can spread to humans, including Salmonella and Listeria.
Hornets: generally less aggressive than wasps but hornets can still attack humans and delivery a nasty sting. They are often attracted to scraps near outdoor eating areas, and homes with protected nooks on outdoor siding and hard to reach soffits provide the ideal spots for hornets to make nests.
Cockroaches: Infestations are more likely in the summer as the increase in temperature spurs cockroaches to feed and produce at a much faster rate. They are most active overnight and contaminate any food stuff they walk on and carry organisms which cause food poisoning such as E. coli and Salmonella.
While dealing with some of the most common pests is irksome, the solutions to preventing an infestation are straightforward:
Remove temptation: For most pests, the attraction to our homes is the easy access to food. For creatures such as rats and cockroaches, this is one of the main factors they look for when choosing a home to move into. To prevent attracting any pests it’s important you use jars which tightly shut, lock away food and keep the kitchen as free from food and crumbs as possible.
Secure your home: To infiltrate and infest your home, pests need access. By blocking off their access points, you can stop them from coming into your home. While keeping your windows closed during the summer can hinder your access to the fresh air, an easy preventative measure can be the installation of bug screens which fit into your open windows and prevents pests from being able to enter your home easily.
Maintain your garden: Another easy preventative measure to combat pests is to maintain your garden by removing overgrown bushes, trees, and grass. By removing materials that pests like to use to build their nests, they are less likely to become a problem.
Preventing pests, is always the best way to stop them. By denying them access to food, water, and shelter, you deny them the right habitat to breed and live in, therefore encouraging them away from your home and garden. There are several effective preventative measures which also include using harsher approaches such as pesticides and chemicals to eradicate pests. However, not every measure is 100% effective, therefore it’s important to contact us immediately if you experience an infestation within your home within the policy notification period. Our Home Emergency Helpline is available 24/7, 365 days and provides our customers with advice and assistance to help them deal with their pest infestation.
Our specialist Home Emergency insurance also covers the following perils:
For further details on our products and services, please contact your Partnerships Manager or email enquiries@arclegal.co.uk.
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