Greasy Rub Marks Along Skirting Boards
Dark smears at pinch points are body oil transferred by an animal travelling the same route nightly. They map the runway, which makes them worth reading.
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Yellow Stains on Bedding: Pest or Not
Most of it is not a pest at all. The staining that is comes with other evidence, and a damp white cloth separates the two in about ten seconds.
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Stains on Walls From Insects: What Made the Mark
Yellow spotting, dark smears and rusty specks are three different animals leaving three different substances. Colour and height narrow it quickly.
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Dead Mouse Smell: How Long It Lasts and How to Find It
Two to four weeks in most houses, peaking in the second. How to locate the source, what shortens it, and why cavity poisoning causes this in the first place.
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A Sweet Oily Smell: The Cockroach Signature
Aggregation pheromone and cuticular oils, detectable before the insects are. Where the smell is strongest is where the harbourage is, which makes it useful.
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A Musty Smell in the House: Pest or Damp
Damp first, pest second. Most musty smells are moisture, and the pests that smell that way arrived because of the moisture rather than causing it.
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Ant Mounds and Hills: Reading the Soil
A fine crater, a loose heap or a hole with no spoil at all. The shape of the excavation narrows the species and says whether anything needs doing.
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Nests in Vents and Soffits: What Is Living in the Gap
Blocked airflow is the real cost, not appearance. Which of bird, wasp, rodent or bee you have decides both the timing of any work and what the law allows.
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Mud Dauber Nests on Walls: Should You Remove Them
Finger-length mud tubes built by a solitary wasp that does not defend a nest and hunts spiders. In most cases the honest answer is to leave them.
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Paper Wasp vs Hornet Nest: Telling Them Apart
An open umbrella comb against an enclosed grey sphere. Position, size and season separate them from a safe distance, which is how it should be done.
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