Pest control for homes, explained before it starts
Most households call us once something has already gone wrong. The job is to deal with what is there, find out how it got in, and leave you knowing which part was a one-off and which part needs watching.
Worth a call
Signs it is worth having someone look
- Droppings in a cupboard, behind the cooker or along a skirting board
- Fine sawdust or hollow-sounding timber around door frames and window reveals
- Mud tubes running up an outside wall or a garden retaining wall
- Scratching or running sounds in the ceiling after dark
- Bites appearing overnight, in a line, on the side of the body you sleep on
- A sweet or musty smell in a room that has been closed up
- Ants following the same line across a worktop for more than a few days
What we treat
What households usually call us about
How it runs
What a home visit looks like
A technician arrives inside the window you were given and starts by looking, not spraying. That means the kitchen, the bathrooms, the roof void if it can be reached safely, and the outside walls where they meet the ground. It usually takes twenty minutes to half an hour.
You are told what was found before anything is applied, including the parts that turned out to be nothing. If treatment is not the right answer — and sometimes it is not, because a gap in a door seal is the real problem — you get told that instead of being sold a spray.
Where treatment is right, you are told what is being used, which rooms to stay out of and for how long, and what to do about pets, food, and anyone in the house who is pregnant or unwell. That conversation happens before the equipment comes out of the van, not after.
You get a written record of what was treated and what was recommended. If a follow-up is needed it is booked before the technician leaves, so it does not depend on anyone remembering to ring.
Straight answers
The questions households actually ask
Do we have to leave the house?
For most treatments, no. For some you will be asked to stay out of the treated rooms for two to four hours, and the technician will tell you which rooms and exactly when you can go back in. If a treatment genuinely requires the house to be empty for longer, you are told when the quote is given, not on the day.
Is it safe with children and pets?
The products are licensed for use in occupied homes and are applied at the rate on the label. The precautions exist because the safe outcome depends on following them: keeping pets out of a room while a treatment dries is part of the treatment, not an optional extra. Tell us about fish tanks, birds and reptiles before the visit, because those need different handling.
Will one visit fix it?
For a lot of problems, yes. Cockroaches and bed bugs usually need a planned second visit, because the first treatment does not reach eggs that have not hatched. If your problem is one of those, you are told at the quote stage. A single visit sold as a permanent fix for a bed bug infestation is not an honest quote.
How soon can someone come?
A technician calls you within two working hours of a request to confirm what you are dealing with. Most Western Province appointments are within two or three working days, sooner where there is a health risk, such as a rodent problem in a kitchen or a wasp nest by a doorway.
What does it cost?
It depends on the property size and the pest, so the quote comes after we know both. What we will not do is give a number over the phone, arrive, and discover the job is twice the size. If a technician finds more than was described, you are told the revised figure before any work starts and you are free to decline.