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Explore your options today of stencilling dot i.e. that Pat Kenny show on Newstalk.

Well, this week we talk about pest control, if you have any questions attached to five, three, one, two, six or eight, Pat Kennedy on Twitter. On the line is Trevor Hayden, MD, of Complete Pest Control in our studio, actually.

Good morning, Trevor. Good morning. How are you? I'm very well.

Now, general question. First of all, people say if I called a pest control people out like a complete pest control is one visit usually enough, whether it's rats or mice or wasps or ants or whatever it might be, it really depends on the issue.

So if we're dealing with something like a rodent issue, you're not going to solve that in one visit. It's going to take several visits, other things like ants or wasps or something like that. Absolutely. That can be solved in a single setting.

Now, questions we went away for a week and came back to a garden destroyed by what we think are foxes, rubbish all over the garden, beds and plants, pots dug up, lots of fowling plus trying to dig under a fence between our house and our neighbors. We've tidied up repeatedly and started to deploy fox repellent pellets and black pepper to upset scents and so on. It's had some success, but not completely. Does Trevor have any advice on this?

Is there anything we can do if it continues?

Yeah. So these repellents just won't work, especially over the last while we've had so much rain. So anything you put down is just going to be diluted and it's not going to be effective. We do work in conjunction with the Fox society. They're based in Kildare and they were actually taken home and look after the actual fox. So there's no actual harm to the foxes, but they can be relocated.

So that's the answer. I mean, you can't whack a fox, you can't kill a fox, but you and you can't poison a fox.

No, nor would I want to know it's not the right thing to do. I have a big problem with Ansar, I believe their nest is under my conservatory, I imagine them in the house, I manage them in the house with powder and traps. But I'd really like to stop them at the source because they're back every year for months on end.

More often than not, even though you're getting the ants inside. The problem is actually located outside. So Angelov sandy type soil. So if you've cockblock or paving just outside the conservatory, the nests more often than not is going to be outside. And what you're seeing is an overflow den of them coming in in search for food and stuff like that. Yeah, I'm not sure they do anybody any harm in the end, I mean, are they capable of undermining the foundations of how some people spread this kind of thing?

No, no, no. What it is, is what we class as a nuisance pest. They're not really doing any harm.

But you'd rather not have them there. We seem to have a plague of shrews in our garden. We've put traps down and we have a new dead shrew every morning since the beginning of summer at least. Do we need pest control because clearly the shoes are breeding like shrews? Yeah, yeah.

It's one of those ones that is not that popular. So, yeah, you do need a specialty service to get rid of them.

I have had an influx of bluebottles. I've had about 20 in my living room last night. Is there a reason for this? How can I stop them coming in? The windows were not open all day. That's from Kevin in Dublin.

Yeah, so bluebottles lay their eggs in decaying matter.

So this can be anything from, you know, food that's fallen down behind the couch to compost in a flower pot. So when we do a treatment, it's just not a case of going in and doing a spray. It's we have to address, regardless of the pest control issue, we're there to deal with. The question we always try to address, first of all, is why? Why does this problem exist? So we would spend time having a look and trying to figure out why you have this problem in the first place and then the treatment actually comes second.

So if I'm giving advice to this person, I would be saying, have a look, see if there's anything, you know, behind the couch or, you know, decaying matter. This is this is what you're looking for. Mm hmm.

Mm. Can you please ask your expert about moths as they are having a ball? Eating my clothes. And I know they eat carpets as well.

You have some experience. Yeah. So that the moth itself is actually not doing any damage. It's the larvae. So when they lay their eggs that the larvae, the egg hatches into Allaway and it's the larvae that's actually doing all the damage. So in a situation like that, it's a spray treatment is required and that it's very, very effective. Obviously, you can't spray close the if you just general washing and drying will take care of them. But it's the other than areas like curtains and carpets and stuff like that would need to be treated.

And did the old fashioned mothballs still work in your wardrobe? They do, yeah. They're very effective. Yeah.

My garden is alive with reddens. They're all over my vegetable patch and when weeding they go into shoes, up arms, et cetera. They've also taken over the garden shed. Any advice would be welcome.

Yeah, these guys are quite nasty. My own mother, she has a place in Cork and only a couple of weeks ago she was bitten on the foot and it swelled up. So again, it's trying to find the source. There's no point in just going out and spraying the garden. You need to find the nest and you can attack the nest. Then once you find it, there are a little bit more difficult in your home, like previous caller.

But you know, your conservatory, that's quite easy to deal with. But red ants in a garden, it can take some time. My mother lives in a semi-detached bungalow, she constantly has rats and mice and is very upset about it. The neighbors do not have the same problem. The semidetached people we blocked of small halls outside and inside the house, but they keep returning. She has a trap under the sink, which catches a lot. What more can she do?

Do the electric sound devices work? Is it because there are a lot in the area? Should she have poisoned down outside the house?

Anybody can be unlucky and get a rash or most in the house, but if you have sustained activity over a period of time, there's a little red flag goes up there. You have nobody is that unlucky. So what we're finding is a lot of the times that these type situations happen, it's drain related because this is where you find a huge amount of rats is in the drains. So there must be a breach there somewhere. Now, what can happen as well?

She's saying she's getting rats and mice. It's more than likely rats and baby rats is what she's actually saying. So what I would suggest is getting the drains checked. And you you know, more often than not, that's where the problem is coming from.

I'm looking for advice on how to get rid of cellar spiders. That's from JAAM.

Yeah. So spiders, it's good and bad thing. It shows that, you know, the place is nice and dry and definitely a spray treatment would help to get rid of them. For a lot of people, it's not an issue that doesn't bother them at all. But when they start turning up in huge numbers, then it's a spray treatment that will get rid of them for them.

Yeah, presumably they're there because there's good pickings of other insects for them in their webs. So, yeah, they're probably conducting a service for you, irrespective.

Will a WASP queen remain in the nest when the workers die in late August? And should I remove it around September when only she, the queen is resident?

So yeah. So towards the end of summer, what happens is that the Queen wasp will lay new eggs, these eggs will turn into Queens and those queens go off and hibernate over winter. So that nest that that person has will die off naturally by itself. And new nest then will form next year so they don't reuse the same nest. It's not the same as a honeybee where they hibernate. And, you know, you can keep bees for years and years, new nest every single year.

OK, so there's no point in doing anything.

Just let her out of it. And those that hatch will just go off and do something else. Yeah.

Has your expert any advice on how to get rid of mason bees and the chimney without having to hire a cherry picker to get up there and physically remove them? Kevin, and go. Oh, that's that's a difficult one.

Yeah. No, you would have to physically get up and you you'll actually struggle to find people to do it because the last place you want to be is at heightH. When you're dealing with bees or wasps, it's from a health and safety point of view.

It's quite difficult. I have an infestation of bluebottles in our family room. It seemed to have come from our fire stove. We sprayed the whole room and that killed them.

However, the next day Lutts came back and we still get a small amount of them in the room.

Bluebottles that's from Catherine. Yeah, bluebottles and Chimney's can be.

Sometimes what you have is you have a bird's nest that has been in the chimney and for whatever reason, that chick has died or there's, you know, old food there and the flies have found this. And this is what they're what they're actually breeding off. I have a rodent problem in the garden shed, and although the base of the shed is being taken intermittently, the droppings still appear now and again. I thought I blocked up the holes, but maybe they're still getting in.

Could they be breeding in the shed?

Yes. Or possibly under the shed. I was unlucky enough to have rats under my own shed last year. I have a raised shed and the rats got in and they burrowed under the ground. So the shed was actually kind of acting like a roof. So chances are they're actually breeding and living actually under the shed as opposed to in the shed.

I have an issue with Aanenson, what looks like earwigs in my house. Initially I thought they were just in the kitchen, but I've seen them in a few other rooms now. It's really worrying me. I've tried everything I could think of to get rid of them, sealed any voids that I can find, cleaned the house with debt, oil and vinegar and lemon juice. Is there anything else I can do?

Yeah. So there's going to be a gap, a breach there. It's a broken vent or a gap under a door. And this is this is what's allowing them to come in again to deal with something like that. Spray treatment works really, really well. You don't want to be using the dust. If you use the Dorsets, it's indiscriminate. Plus it can become disturbed, fairly handy, which makes it become airborne, which is a bit of a problem.

But yeah, look, I would be recommending there's bound to be a gap at the bottom of the door. So maybe something like a Bristol strip or replacing a broken vent would actually help that.

I've just been told shrews are a protected species and it is illegal to kill them.

So that person putting a trap under the sink? Not I'm afraid not.

Look, Trevor, we could go on all day. People are obviously infested with pets of all kinds of pests of all kinds around the country.

But we have to draw a line there. We'll invite you back in a few weeks. Time to continue this conversation. Trevor Hayden, M.D. of Complete Pest Control, thank you very much for the.

Thinking about your next getaway, rediscover the journey, the adventure of the open road and every stop along the way rediscover space and comfort on board in our lounges and private cabins, enjoy the fresh air and relax as you travel safely and in style. Rediscover ferry, travel west online and take a vacation to Britain. A great value economy. Fares start from only 117 euro single car and driver with flexi ticket upgrades. Only 18 euro more whenever you're ready. We can't wait to welcome you on board.

Explore your options today. Externalising Dotti a.