ABSTRACT
Pests include mammals, birds, insects, mites, and nematodes. Human and pet safety is greatly helped by including a bitter-tasting chemical in the bait, which makes it unacceptable to other species than the rat and mouse. Sometimes, different bait ingredients may need to be tried in succession before an effective control is achieved. These baits involved in rat control are poisonous to humans and other mammals and, when not in use, should be safely stored away from possible contact with children and pets. Scale insects are distant relatives of aphids. The female scale, measuring up to 6 mm, is tortoise shaped and has a thick cuticle. It may be a serious pest outdoors on vines, currants, top fruit and cotoneasters, sucking phloem sugars out of the plants. The pest arrived in UK in 2002 and has rapidly spread to most areas in England and Wales. The other common horse chestnut, the red-flowering species, is not affected by the pest.
