Pest control in La Condamine

Built environment and local building types

Established on the alluvial plain of the Sainte-Dévote valley, La Condamine brings together late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century apartment buildings with ground-floor shops, old cellars and interior courtyards. The neighbourhood revolves around its food market, its covered halls, its pedestrian streets lined with food shops and the nearby harbour front. The ageing sewer networks, the shallow water table linked to the culverted valley and the density of food-related activity create particular conditions for pest management.

Seasonal pressures and sentinel species in La Condamine

The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) finds a constant habitat and food supply in the old sewers and the organic waste of the food sector, with increased pressure in autumn and winter. The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) colonises restaurant kitchens and the storerooms of food shops, where it breeds all year round. The Oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis), more light-averse, occupies the damp cellars and drainage inspection chambers of the older buildings. The yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) takes advantage of rooftops and the surroundings of the market, particularly from March to July, its nesting and chick-rearing period.