Pest control in Kandy

Kandy is the one area we work in where the climate itself reorders the problems. It is cooler and considerably wetter than the coast, and it stays damp. That single fact makes timber the story here rather than kitchens.

Termites lead, and the building stock is the reason. Kandy has a great deal of colonial era and early twentieth century construction, with substantial timber in roof structures, staircases, floors, door and window frames, and much of it original. Put that timber in a climate where humidity rarely drops and where rain persists for weeks, and you have conditions that suit subterranean termites better than anywhere on the coast. Damage is usually well advanced before anyone notices, because the timber is eaten from the inside and the surface stays intact. What people see first is a mud tube on a plinth, a frame that sounds hollow, or a floorboard that gives.

On a building of this kind we would rather look at the whole structure than one affected room, because the route in is frequently somewhere other than where the damage shows: a beam end built into a damp wall, a verandah post set into soil, a section of roof that has been leaking quietly for years.

The second half of the work here is hospitality. Kandy carries hotels, guesthouses and restaurants in volume, and two things follow. Bed bugs are a real and recurring risk in any property with a high turnover of guests, and they arrive in luggage rather than through poor cleaning, so a spotless property is as exposed as any other. We treat room by room and include the rooms either side and above and below, because bed bugs travel through wall voids. Kitchens have the same cockroach pressure as anywhere with long hours and continuous food.

Rodents are steady rather than dominant, usually entering roof spaces in the older buildings, and ants are a constant background call.

Mosquitoes matter less here than on the coast and in the wetland suburbs, which surprises people. The cooler hill climate suppresses the species that cause the most trouble at sea level, though standing water on a property still produces them.

Kandy is a distance from our base, so work here is grouped into scheduled runs rather than driven out to for single calls. That means you get a real date rather than a vague promise, and it is worth booking a little further ahead than you would in Colombo.

The city divides in ways that matter for this work. Around the lake and the Temple of the Tooth the buildings are the oldest and most protected, and treatment there is slow, careful and planned around visitors. The commercial centre near the market and the bus stand has the density and the food waste of any town centre, which is rodent and cockroach territory. Peradeniya and the university side, and the residential slopes above the town, are large older houses with mature gardens and substantial timber, which is termite territory almost exclusively.

The hill position also affects access and timing in a way flat-country work does not. Properties on the slopes above Kandy are frequently reached on foot from where a van can stop, which changes what a technician can carry and how long a job takes. It is worth telling us when you book, because it is the difference between one visit and two.

The hotel trade here runs on a season, and the sensible time to deal with anything structural is outside it. For termite work on an older hotel building we would far rather have a quiet couple of weeks and do it properly than work around full occupancy.