What Happens on a First Visit

Before anyone arrives

Three Useful Minutes

Work out when and where. Not "there are rats" but "scratching under the kitchen floor, worst about eleven at night, started three weeks ago". Time of day in particular separates whole categories of problem: squirrels are daytime, rodents are night, wasps are all day.

Do not clear up the evidence. Droppings, damage, a dead insect, chewed packaging — all of it is diagnostic. Photograph anything you do have to move.

Say who is in the property. Children, pets, anyone pregnant, anyone with a respiratory condition, anyone who reacts badly to stings. It changes what is used, how, and sometimes when.

And if you have already tried something from a shop, say so. It is not a telling-off — it genuinely changes where a technician expects to find things, because most consumer products scatter a population rather than reducing it.

Images on this page are illustrations only.

The inspection

The Longest Part

A first visit is mostly an inspection, and a good one takes longer than people expect.

Inside: where the activity is, what the evidence says, where services enter the building, the voids, and the places that are never looked at — behind and under appliances, inside kitchen plinths, airing cupboards, loft hatches.

Outside: the whole envelope at low level, pipe entries, airbricks, thresholds, the bin area, outbuildings, and the roofline where it matters. This is the part customers are often surprised by, because the problem is indoors and the technician spends twenty minutes in the garden.

What is being established is three things: what it is, how it is getting in, and what is keeping it there. Treatment without all three is guesswork.

The treatment

Usually Quick, Sometimes Not Today

Where the diagnosis is clear, treatment normally happens on the first visit and it is usually the short part — bait placed, gel applied into harbourage, dust into a nest entrance, a heat treatment set up.

Sometimes it should not happen today, and a technician saying so is doing the job properly. Reasons include: a wasp nest with dependent young where the timing matters; a bed bug job where the property is not prepared; a situation needing a drain survey first; and anything where what you actually have has not been established.

You should be told what is being used in general terms, what precautions apply during and after, and how long before you can use the room normally.

At the end

What You Should Have

• What it is, said plainly.
• Where it is getting in, or that this has not been established yet and what would establish it.
• What was done today and what to expect over the next few days — including what "normal" looks like, which for several pests means more activity before less.
• What you need to do, if anything.
• What it will cost, and whether further visits are included.
• What the guarantee covers, in words, if there is one.
• The proofing recommendations — the part that stops it recurring, and the part most often skipped.

On a commercial job that goes in writing as a matter of course. On a domestic job, ask if you want it in writing, particularly if you rent or you are going to claim.

Short answers

Drain Blocker Questions

Going further

Drain and Rat Guides