RODENTS & MOLES
Step 1: Identify the pest
CSS Pest Services provides comprehensive rodent control solutions for both residential and commercial properties, covering rats, mice, moles, and squirrels. Our technicians are fully qualified to British Pest Control Association (BPCA) standards, working to robust, safety-focused protocols to protect your premises and reputation.
We deliver fast, discreet, and effective treatments tailored to your site, combining traditional control methods with long-term monitoring using our CSS Alert Online System and Reolink camera technology. Alongside resolving active infestations, we offer inspections, building surveys, proofing recommendations, and expert advice to reduce rodent activity and help prevent future problems.
Select the pest type below to learn about our targeted control methods:
If you’re unsure what pest you’re dealing with, provide the details of your problem in the form below and we will help you identify it.
know your pest
Rats are highly adaptable rodents that can infest properties at any level, from a single intruder to a well-established colony.
Rats are larger than mice, typically 20-25cm long (body and tail) with blunt noses, small eyes/ears, and coarse brown/grey fur. They are bolder, more aggressive, and excellent climbers/swimmers often heard scurrying loudly in wall cavities, under floorboards, or nesting in roof spaces.
Unlike mice, rats leave bigger droppings (about 20mm long, capsule-shaped vs. mice’s rice-sized), cause more extensive gnaw damage to food packaging/structures, and create greasy rub marks along their wider travel paths in both homes and commercial buildings.
rat droppings
rat marks on pipe and wall
About Infestations
Rats enter buildings seeking food, shelter, and warmth, often exploiting gaps in walls, doors, or drainage systems. They pose serious health risks by contaminating food and surfaces with urine, droppings, and saliva, potentially spreading diseases like Leptospirosis (Weil’s disease), Salmonella, Listeria, and Hantavirus.
Under the Damage by Pests Act 1949, property owners must take action to maintain a rodent-free environment, with persistent infestations potentially leading to structural damage, food spoilage, and health risks.
Our Methods
CSS Pest Services uses proven eradication techniques including secure bait stations with professional rodenticides, snap traps, and multi-catch traps placed strategically along rat runways, combined with thorough proofing to seal entry points.
We also make use of emergent technologies such as UV contact gel and thermal imaging using infrared cameras. The gel is applied in targeted areas to track rodent movement using an exclusively UV-visible pigment. Infrared cameras allow you locate rats hiding in walls, ledges, roofing, and other hard-to-reach areas with zero disruption. Both are especially effective where bait shyness is present, helping identify activity levels, movement patterns, and entry points within a property.
We tailor treatments to your property type – discreet for homes, compliant for businesses – and follow up with hygiene advice and long-term monitoring using our CSS Alert Online System and Reolink cameras to confirm elimination and prevent resurgence.
The Rat Detection Scan
For persistent infestations where the entry point is uncertain, our specialist Rat Detection Scan identifies hidden drainage defects like uncapped or collapsed pipes that let rats access your building.
Using advanced survey equipment unavailable to standard drainage companies, our experienced team achieves a 100% success rate in locating these entry points, even in blind junctions. We then provide targeted repairs and proofing for permanent exclusion in both residential and commercial settings.
For more information on our drain surveys click the button below:
COMPILATION OF RATS FOUND IN DRAINS USING OUR DETECTION SCANS
know your pest
Unlike larger rats, mice have smaller, more scattered droppings and favour tighter spaces like kitchen units, loft insulation, and cavity walls, often most noticeable in autumn/winter when seeking indoor warmth.
Mouse Droppings
mouse chew mark on bin liner
About Infestations
Mice enter through tiny gaps (as small as 5mm) seeking food and shelter, breeding rapidly year-round with females producing 5-10 litters of 5-7 young annually, reaching maturity in just 6 weeks. A single sighting likely indicates a hidden colony, leading to contaminated food, structural damage from gnawing (especially electrical wiring), and health risks from diseases like Salmonella.
Property owners have legal duties under the Damage by Pests Act 1949 to address infestations promptly.
Our Methods
Treatments are discreet for homes and compliant for commercial sites, with follow-up monitoring to confirm eradication.
know your pest
Grey squirrels are larger (25-45cm body length) than the native red squirrels, with grey fur, bushy tails, prominent ears, and white underparts. They are bold, noisy, and diurnal, often seen scampering across roofs or chewing on loft timbers.
Unlike the smaller, native red squirrels (which have tufted ears and prefer conifer forests), grey squirrels are invasive, highly adaptable to urban areas, and cause audible scratching in lofts, wall cavities, and roof spaces of homes and businesses.
squirrel living in attic
About Infestations
Introduced from North America in 1876, grey squirrels are classified among the world’s top 100 invasive species by the IUCN, thriving in deciduous woodlands and urban settings where they strip bark from trees, raid bird feeders, and invade buildings.
They cause extensive damage by gnawing timbers, insulation, and electrical wiring, posing fire risks and structural threats. They also outcompete native red squirrels, destroy forests, and contaminate food sources, creating health hazards for both residential and commercial properties.
Our Methods
CSS Pest Services provides effective grey squirrel control compliant with UK law, which prohibits releasing live-caught greys – requiring humane dispatch where necessary.
We use targeted trapping, proofing of entry points (e.g. roof voids, soffits), and baiting where appropriate, tailored discreetly and efficiently to your needs.
Following treatment, we advise on habitat modification, such as tree pruning and bird feeder protection, plus ongoing monitoring to protect your property and support native wildlife conservation.
know your pest
Rabbits are small, burrowing mammals that live in colonies in underground burrow systems called warrens. They are identified above ground by burrow holes, grazed vegetation with clean diagonal cuts, narrow runs through grass, and small spherical droppings rather than by sightings.
They feed on grass, shoots, vegetables, and young plants, and are active day and night, but you will rarely see them except at dawn or dusk.
Infestations can affect both private and commercial sites, most often gardens, paddocks, sports grounds, and agricultural land, where multiple burrow holes, extensive grazing damage, bark gnawing on trees, and uneven ground from burrowing are main indicators.
Rabbit crop Damage
About Infestations
Rabbits are attracted to areas with short grassland, hedges, and abundant vegetation, making lawns, fields, farmland margins, and amenity grassland particularly vulnerable.
Their feeding and burrowing can damage shoots of herbaceous perennials and vegetables, gnaw bark from trees and shrubs, and create holes that undermine ground, paths, and structures. In agriculture they over-graze pasture, reduce yield, contaminate silage with soil, and create trip hazards for livestock.
Left unmanaged, a small number of rabbits can quickly create extensive warrens and widespread grazing damage across large areas.
Our Methods
CSS Pest Services will assess the extent of rabbit activity and design a targeted treatment plan to protect your land, whether it is a private garden, estate, sports facility, or farmland.
Our trained technicians use proven control methods such as rabbit-proof fencing, trapping, and snaring, applied humanely and in line with UK legislation.
We focus on effective, humane control and can provide ongoing monitoring and advice to keep future rabbit activity to a minimum.
know your pest
Moles are small, burrowing mammals that live almost entirely underground, identified above ground by fresh molehills and raised tunnel runs rather than by sightings. They use their large front paws to tunnel through soil and navigate with their snouts and whiskers, so you will rarely see them on the surface.
In gardens, paddocks, sports grounds, and agricultural land, multiple molehills, uneven ground, and collapsing soil can indicate an active infestation affecting both private and commercial sites.
molehills
About Infestations
Moles are attracted to areas with rich soil and abundant invertebrate food sources such as worms, making lawns, fields, and amenity grassland particularly vulnerable.
Their tunnelling can destabilise the ground, damage roots and turf, and create trip hazards, while in agriculture they can contaminate silage with soil, reduce pasture yield, and impact livestock safety.
Left unmanaged, a small number of moles can quickly create extensive networks of tunnels and molehills across large areas.
Our Methods
CSS Pest Services will assess the extent of mole activity and design a targeted treatment plan to protect your land, whether it is a private garden, estate, sports facility, or farmland.
Our trained technicians use professional tunnel trapping techniques, set with great care to minimise disturbance, as moles readily detect and avoid poorly placed traps.
We focus on effective, humane control and can provide ongoing monitoring and advice to keep future mole activity to a minimum.
after a succesful mole control operation
Step 2: Contact Us
Fill the contact form below or visit our Get In Touch page to alert our expert team about your problem. We will contact you as soon as possible to arrange the next steps.