Pests
Information about termites and common pests
TERMITES + OTHER TIMBER PESTS
Many people don’t understand or fail to realise, until it’s too late, the extensive amounts of damage that termites cause to homes old and new. Since termites remain concealed behind walls, chewing on timbers, having entered the home through underground leads (mud packing), it is often not until the damage is extensive that you realize there is a problem.
There are three types of termites in Australia:
- Dampwood termites (infest timbers in touch with the ground)
- Drywood termites (nest in decaying or dead trees)
- Sub-terranean termites (most destructive and conceal their nests)
BROWN ANTS
Small brown ants run along benches in the kitchen and bathroom areas, sometime leaving bodies behind, taking crumbs and sugar from the sideboards back to their nests inside the walls and ceiling areas.
COCKROACHES
Cockroaches crawl through sewage, grease traps, drains and then roam around our kitchens at night, and then by day they hide in cracks and crevices of dishwashers, microwaves and fridges.
FLEAS
Fleas are very small, brown and black in colour, with flattened sides. Through stimulus vibrations, adult fleas emerge and are quite annoying, especially when climate conditions are favourable. Increasing in numbers dramatically, they actively crawl and jump through hair, irritating the skin for a blood meal, leaving eggs to hatch on hosts, carpets and in floor board cracks.
RODENTS
Rodents will enter and nest in buildings only seasonally during autumn and winter. They carry and transmit disease by biting or by blood sucking insects (Fleas) and normally live for 9-12 months, having 4-5 litters per year (with each litter having approx. 6-8 young).
SILVERFISH
Silverfish are flat in body and crawl under bark and in soil. They like to get into ceilings and travel through cracks and light fitting and into homes, damaging books, paper and clothing, in particular starchy glues and the sizing on these articles.
SPIDERS
Spiders normally hide during the day and come out at night to renew their webs. This is why we would prefer they leave the webs in place for a more successful treatment. Common household spiders include the venomous redback.
INSECTS
Insects compensate for their small size by increasing the number of offspring infesting and contaminating our homes, leaving droppings behind and spreading disease such as Dysentery, Hepatitis, Gastroenteritis and salmonella food poisoning.