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Environmental Health
Lewes District Council
Southover House
Southover Road
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 1AB
Tel: 01273 484354
ehealth@lewes.gov.uk
Minicom 01273 484488
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Insects & Nuisance
We take reasonable steps to investigate complaints of nuisance insects, where they emanate from industrial, trade or business premises.
Insects provide essential environmental and ecological goods and services, pollination being just one example. Very few insect species are likely to cause a nuisance. These include the Mosquito, Fruit Fly, House Fly, Lesser House Fly, Cluster Fly and Autumnal Fly.
Confirming the source of nuisance insects can often be a difficult and lengthy process. This is because flying insects can travel long distances. The legislation relates only to insects emanating from industrial, trade or business premises and does not apply to domestic property, although infestations from a dwelling may indicate another problem, such as filthy conditions.
Infestations of such premises may not mean they are the source of the insects, and they may be victims themselves. The Environmental Health Officer will need to take a cautious approach when searching for the source and this may take more time than other nuisance investigations.
Insects arising naturally from such a premises (for example, flying ants breeding in the grounds of a factory) will not result in any action by an Environmental Health Officer. Action will be taken when insects arise as a result of a process from an industrial, trade or business premises (e.g. a sewage treatment plant or a poultry farm).
Making a complaint
If you wish to make a complaint about nuisance insects, it would be helpful and appreciated if you could begin by keeping a written record of the insects and include their location and numbers over several days, as well as how they affected you and any measures you took to deal with them. It would also be useful if you could collect some of the insects to enable identification. This may help speed up the Officer’s initial investigation. You should continue to keep a written record following your complaint.
We will make every effort to work with the responsible person if the source if the nuisance insects is located in order to resolve the complaint informally. However, we can take legal action to resolve the nuisance if necessary. If you wish to make a complaint, or would like some advice, please contact the Public Health Team on 01273 484354.
