Pest control in Salford

Three eras of housing, one city

Salford has rebuilt its homes more than once. During industrialisation, terraced streets went up so close together that some areas held around 80 houses to the acre. Clearance of the worst of them was under way by 1933, and during the 1960s and 1970s over 30 tower blocks went up on cleared terrace land, many of them coming down again in the 1990s. Ordsall’s old streets were heavily cleared, and its council estate has since been rebuilt, with 672 homes redeveloped by 2017. Terraced Seedley and Langworthy were taken into Housing Market Renewal work in the 2000s, Pendleton is still a district of high-rise flats, and the old docks became Salford Quays, now home to apartment towers of 16 to 20 storeys.

So a call might come from a Victorian two-up two-down, a 1960s tower or a flat finished this century, and each lets pests in differently. The building is the first thing we ask about.

Why do mice keep finding the terraces?

A renewed terrace in Seedley or Langworthy may have a new roof, new windows and a new kitchen, yet it still shares party walls and, very often, an under-floor void with the houses either side. Mice use those shared spaces as corridors, so the tidiest house on the street can still find droppings behind the cooker when the nest is two doors down.

Renovation adds gaps of its own. Each new boiler flue, gas pipe and broadband cable pushed through old brickwork leaves a hole, and a gap the width of a biro is plenty for a mouse. They’re usually noticed once the nights draw in and mice move indoors to nest. Our mice control work starts with finding those holes, because trapping without sealing just clears space for the next family of mice.

Rats, the river and three canals

The River Irwell dominates Salford’s landscape and divides it from Manchester. Over the years it has been straightened, channelled and banked up, yet flooding has never quite gone away. On Boxing Day 2015 it burst its banks and flooded about 400 homes in Lower Broughton and Kersal, almost 300 of them on the Spike Island and Riverside estates. The Environment Agency has since turned former racecourse land at Kersal into a flood basin and wetland, designed to shield around 2,000 homes and businesses.

Brown rats swim well, burrow into banks and travel through drains, so when the water comes up they make for whatever is dry and close: a shed, a heap of garden waste, the void under a kitchen floor. Add the Manchester Ship Canal and the Quays basins to the south, the Bridgewater Canal and the Manchester, Bolton & Bury Canal passing Pendleton, plus large green spaces such as Peel Park, Kersal Dale and Buile Hill Park, and plenty of Salford streets have water and cover within a short run.

The council’s own advice is that rats are seen more in autumn and winter, and it suggests checking under decking, sheds and trampolines. We’d add the drains. Our rat control visits include lifting the inspection covers, because a cracked pipe beneath an old terrace is a more common way in than most people expect.

When the problem belongs to the whole block

Tower blocks and managed apartment buildings have their own pest patterns. Pipes, cables and service risers run through every floor, bin rooms gather a whole building’s rubbish in one warm place, and a pest that’s settled in one flat can move to the next without going outdoors. That applies to Pendleton’s high-rise flats and the newer towers at the Quays alike.

A Lower Broughton case made the news in July 2026, when residents of a block on Camp Street described four years of rats and cockroaches, with cockroaches turning up in the bin rooms. The landlord’s response was that it was baiting the whole estate and closing up gaps. It shows why one flat treated on its own rarely stays clear. In a block, we’ll treat inside your home, explain what the building’s managers need to do and share our notes with them if you wish. Our cockroach removal service is built around exactly this kind of shared-building problem.

Student houses and the bin rota

The University of Salford has more than 19,000 students, and shared houses matter enough to the council that it has written a guide on keeping them clean. Its message is blunt: rubbish brings vermin, every bin lid has to close, and bags left beside the bin won’t be taken. In a house of five, that comes down to agreeing whose turn it is. Food in five different cupboards, takeaway boxes waiting for a full bin and a back door propped open in September all help mice settle in.

Bed bugs are the other worry in shared houses, because they travel in suitcases, rucksacks and second-hand mattresses rather than through gaps in walls. If you wake with lines of itchy bites, check the mattress seams and bed frame for tiny dark spots and tell your landlord in writing. Our bed bug removal page explains how to get the room ready before we arrive.

Renting in Salford: who sorts it out?

Salford City Council is clear about rats: if you rent, the first call should be to whoever you rent from, be that a private landlord, a housing association or a property management company. For social tenants in Central Salford, that usually means Salix Homes.

Housing law generally places the structure, exterior and drains of a rented home with the landlord, and a home overrun with pests may fail the legal test of being fit to live in. Tenants are expected to keep the place reasonably clean and report problems promptly, so put it in writing with dates and photos. If your landlord asks you to arrange a visit yourself, we’ll write up what we found, including any holes or broken airbricks, so the repair side is on record.

Can I get Salford City Council to deal with it?

Many councils run a pest control service for residents, but what is covered, who can book and the charges all vary and can change, so check the council’s own pest control pages before you book. If you rent, report the problem to your landlord first. If you would rather book a private firm, call or message us and we’ll offer the earliest slot we have.

Children, pets and smaller homes

Space is tight in a terrace or flat, so placement is planned around whoever lives there. Traps sit inside covered boxes, any bait is locked in a tamper-resistant box fixed in place, and where there’s a cat or a dog in the yard we lean on trapping and proofing. You’ll see every box before we go, and it all comes away at the end.

Shops beneath the flats

Homes come first for us here, but we look after corner shops, cafés and takeaways on the same terms, especially where a problem moves between a shop and the flat above it.

Getting to you

Salford runs straight into its neighbours, so we’re often close by already: over the Irwell in Manchester city centre, out west in Eccles, or north beyond Broughton towards Prestwich. Tell us what you’ve seen and where, and we’ll offer the earliest slot we have, often the same day.