Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Unwelcome visitors (cockroach, mice, flies)
I moved to Harringay last July and I like the area a lot.
But first I saw a cockroach on my kitchen floor last summer (no more seen since), then I had a fly infestation just before Christmas.
On Saturday I saw a mouse dashing across my kitchen. Traps and poison are now down and poison has been eaten, no more mice seen since, so far.
My flat is clean and not very cluttered. I never leave food out. After the cockroach most of my food in cupboards is in plastic containers and the rest will be soon after seeing the mouse.
I did have mice in Finsbury Park but nowhere else in London and have never seen a cockroach or had flies to stay before.
Do you think the ladder is worse than other areas of London due to high density of housing and all the food shops and restaurants?
I am on the ground floor of a house that was turned into two flats and majorly gutted just before I moved in - might that affect things?
Or am I just unlucky?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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You're not unlucky I'm afraid, it is a pretty common problem. Last big post about it is here, with various suggestions about what you can do. Traps work for us (for mice).
I think a lot of the problem is the cellars to be honest, as they really limit how much you can do. We see mice a few times a year and normally get rid of them with traps - though we've one cocky bugger at the moment who seems to have our system sussed and now wanders around with a swagger. It is only a matter of time.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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.....and see a host of posts here. I think a lot of London has pest problems.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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For mice, get a cat. As for Cockroaches, if you're part of a terrace they seem to have an infestation in one part and the rest of you get the odd visitor or three.
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Permalink Reply by 20i9fmkcbz0dn on
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We have mice in our house in Duckett Road. I think because all the houses on each side of the street are connected it makes it easier for mice to run from house to house. I dont think there are any nests in my house, but someone must have one! I have found they are best left alone. with old houses like these, mice are not only highly likely but also virtually impossible to get rid of. Kill them and they will keep coming back cos chances are they dont live in your house they are just looking for food. Unless you are infested and see them everyday, I'd just leave them to it if I were you.
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Permalink Reply by Dick Harris on
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In my long experience Harringay, I have encountered mice once, cockroaches once and rats once. Mice were attracted by food left around on the floor (someone who often ate in his bedroom and left unwashed plates around). Cockroaches must have damp to survive and they had found a damp patch under an old freezer in the basement. Rats live underground and in sewers and had dug their way up under the kitchen floor. All of these causes were dealt with and no more vermin.
The moral of this story is: find the causes and deal with them. Poison and traps won't stop new ones coming if the conditions are right. Of course, dealing with damp might not be so simple as getting rid of an old freezer. Kitchen appliances and sinks often have little damp spots but they shouldn't have and they need to be fixed.
My current concern is food weevils infesting unsealed food bags that have been left carelessly in cupboards. As with the other pests, it has much to do with our own behaviour.
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The terraces don't help, providing routes between houses, but here's a few tips I've picked up since we moved here (last July!)
- For mice, make sure there are no holes at the front or back of your house that they could get in through. One of our council cockroach sprayers (see below..) spotted two in the wood under our front door, which we've now covered with mesh.
- For cockroaches, there seem to be two types around - the oriental (quite big, slow, likes living in basements/spaces under houses) and german (small, fast, likes warmer spots behind fridges).
We were having regular sightings of the oriental ones, so decide to pay for spraying from the council, which is quite cheap (less than £200 for 3 visits), but there was a long delay before the first visit. Commercial operators apparently come faster but cost a lot more!
The three sprayings were around 6 weeks apart, so as to maximise the chance of getting rid of the Oriental cockroaches, which apparently have a long life cycle & can hang around as eggs for a long time. German ones have a shorter lifecycle, so can be faster to get rid of.
The advice from the council sprayers was that this area has cockroaches, and they can't guarantee they won't come back, as they get through under the houses. One suggested that the Ladder has Oriental & German cockroaches, whilst the Gardens just has Oriental.
Making sure floors are sealed is helpful, but apparently the babies are very small! Obviously avoid food around, but I've read that they can exist on very small amounts of food.
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Permalink Reply by Sophie Smith on
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Hi - bad luck but I've had cockroaches in my flat on the Ladder. I doubt the fast food joints nearby help but I think it's inevitable where you get lots of people (therefore food) in close proximity. I imagine the problem is passed around the houses. I got my flat sprayed last year no problems since then.
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Our friend the cucaracha has been around for at least 300 million years, some little time before Victorian terraces, fast or even slow food, or posters on HOL. S/he has survived the Great Flood, numerous Ice Ages, the Great Fire of London, The Blitz and even a variety of Whig & Tory governments. Maybe we should practise a little bit of peaceful coexistence and learn some cockroachian survival skills.
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Can't help with cockroaches/flies, but for mice the best way to keep them out is to stuff any external apertures with steel wool which they cannot stand. You need to do a full circuit of the outside of your home eg. air bricks, gaps around doors and windows of more than 1cm (mice can get in remarkably small spaces) and not just at ground level as mice can easily run up and down brickwork/drainpipes etc.
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Permalink Reply by Rebecca on
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Never seen a cockroach, mouse or rat in the 2 and half years that I have lived in Harringay.
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Permalink Reply by christina edwards on
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we had a cockroach problem that kept coming back after getting the council round to do a series of treatments to get the nymphs as well as mature roaches, they keptcoming back though...he said it was the outside drains but they have gone now that we have had a new kitchen floor laid. rather expensive solution but they get into the house through tiny holes and cracks in the floor.
mice...get a cat?
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