Pest control in St Peters Churchyard

Due to the increased drought and increase in numbers of rat sightings in the churchyard pest control measures will be carried out from today so please be aware when walking around the churchyard.

The site backs onto open wild areas where rats will travel from. The town to the front provides attractive feeding sites and currently a source of water which is scarce due to the low rainfall.

As the public have constant use of the area and pets and children are also present, any use of rodenticides must be kept to an absolute minimum and very specifically targeted at known activity points.

This means there is a possibility that only a small proportion of the rat population using the site routinely will encounter poison, and that sightings can and probably will continue after any short term treatment has finished. It is reasonable to expect that the rat population is significantly reduced with a careful treatment but there is no way to know how effective this will be over the longer term.

Bait boxes will located in various places so please keep dogs on leads.