Construction sites are some of the most suitable targets of pest infestation. With all the materials and potential food supplies found in such areas, they’re a natural location for all kinds of nuisance animals, insects, and pests. The many nooks and crannies formed by piled up timber, lumber, wood frames, plywood, cardboard, and other scattered construction materials give those creatures plenty of places to hide and build nests. Site managers and foremen should therefore make pest control one of their sanitation priorities.
In England, construction sites attract everything from rats, mice, and cockroaches to wasps, ants, and fleas. If you discover that your site’s been infested by critters and insects alike, you can ask any reputable Manchester pest control company in your area to help you deal with the problem. Here are a few of the signs you should watch out for indicating that you’ll need pest control for your construction site:
- Damage To Building Materials
One of the surest signs that pests are crawling all over your construction site and creating their nests is damage to building and construction materials. Most pests such as mice, rats, worms, and cockroaches need to find breeding grounds in order to thrive. To establish those areas, pests build nests in construction materials. They love doing so on construction sites because there are lots of materials they can bore through to build their homes.
Some construction materials that pests love to inhabit are cardboard packaging and wooden materials such as pallets, timber, and lumber. Rats and mice have the habit of biting and chewing on wood. A lot of other insects love to burrow on timber. A pile of damp logs and partly cut logs is an enticing residential prospect for many insects. Even other construction materials such as rope, wire, and insulation are also suitable homes for pests and critters.
Completed buildings may have pest infestation issues of their own, but it’s even more of a problem on construction sites because there are a lot of materials that’ll get damaged. If it’s going to take time before you make use of all that piled up wood and timber, pest infestation can ruin unmoved materials. Even equipment and parked cars can be targets of pest infestation.
Unlike a finished building, there’s still plenty of work being done on a construction site. Most of the crew are busy with their tasks and deadlines and can’t be expected to worry about or deal with pest infestation unless you make them pause from their work. However, you should ask them to look out for signs of possible pest infestation.
It’s important to regularly check places where you’ve stored and dumped building materials. If you notice any seemingly small and harmless damage caused by nesting animals and insects, you should report it and include it in the issues to be addressed through the site’s pest control measures.
- Droppings And Defecations
Another sure sign that pests have started to move into your construction site is if you see bird droppings and rodent waste in the area. Those droppings and defecations mean that such creatures are constantly roaming and running around the site, but you might not have noticed or paid attention to them.
Spots of droppings and pest waste indicate that critters have already made a habitat of the location. They’ve most likely bored and burrowed into some pile of damp wood or stack of raw lumber lying around somewhere.
All kinds of droppings and waste are dirty and carry with them bacteria and germs. These can potentially cause disease and sickness among your construction crew and staff. If some of them become very ill, you might end up facing serious legal action.
Aside from causing diseases, bird droppings and other animal waste are highly acidic. They can cause damage to wood materials such as timber and lumber and other stored construction supplies. They can also cause permanent smudges to stonework and other masonry materials.
If the construction materials are severely damaged, more money will be spent to buy new ones, causing delay to the project and loss of revenue. If you notice that droppings and waste tend to appear almost always on the same spot or within the same area, it’s likely that pests and animals have built nests nearby.
- Sickness And Illness
If a sudden bout of illness and sickness affects considerable numbers of your construction crew, this can also be a sign of pest infestation. Pests can crawl on construction crew’s food and might even bite them. This can result in sickness, illness, or injury, causing needless expenses.
It’s possible for droppings to land on and infect exposed food as well. Unsuspecting construction crew members are often too tired to notice and still eat their food even if it’s been left exposed and out in the open. This can cause sickness and even be a potential source of infectious diseases. Oftentimes, it’s more difficult to make sense of a pattern of illnesses among construction workers because they’re not required to report their health conditions to their foremen and supervisors, unlike office workers.
Control Pest Damage
Amid the constant work on construction sites to meet schedules and deadlines, there’s a tendency to neglect seemingly minor things such as pest infestation. But if left unchecked, this can result in damage to construction materials as well as the structure being built. It can also cause sickness and infectious diseases among workers. Everyone on a construction site should watch out for the signs mentioned above and proactively implement pest control measures to prevent the issue from worsening over time.