Tag: Pests

What causes an ant infestation?

The most common reason why you see ants in your house is that you have a food source for them. Ants can survive on tiny crumbs in your kitchen as well as the food your kids and pets leave behind. You might have an infestation on your hands due to the moisture that the bugs need. Not only are they attracted to your pet’s water dish, but ants can also pull moisture from wet or damp wood. While garden and green ants are common in Australia, you may see other types, including:

•  Blackhouse ants
•  Sugar ants
•  Pavement ants
•  White-footed house ants
•  Fire ants

How to get rid of ants naturally

Create ant bait

The best way to get rid of ants might be with homemade ant bait. Combine equal parts borax and sugar before sprinkling the mixture around your home. The sweet smell of the sugar attracts the ants, but the borax kills them. You should keep borax ant bait away from pets and children as it is not safe for them to consume. 

Use sprays to deter ants

When you look at how to get rid of ants in the house, you can learn how to deter them and make them avoid your house. Natural sprays are easy to make and use. Peppermint is available in an essential oil form and only requires a few drops of oil mixed with water and pour into a spray bottle. If you have distilled white vinegar on hand, use one part of the vinegar to two parts water and use it in a spray bottle. You can also try pepper. Both black pepper and spicy peppers work when mixed with water or vinegar. Apply the solution around your home, making sure to focus on the areas where you saw ants. 

How to get rid of ants in the kitchen

Immediately clean up food scraps

As any food scraps will attract Australian ants, it’s important to try to clean them up as soon as possible. You should also empty the trash into the outside bin regularly.

Use sealed containers

Another great tip on how to stop ants is to use sealed containers. Ants have a keen sense of smell and can smell food in containers that are not air-tight. Sealed containers made from glass or plastic block out food odours and prevent ants from getting to that food.

Leave out strong-smelling herbs

Finding a natural ant repellent is as easy as looking at the herbs in your garden. Strong-smelling herbs make your home smell nice at the same time that they repel ants. Rosemary and lavender are two of the best herbs to use. You can also try thyme and peppermint. If you have cats, consider planting some catnip. It repels ants as it grows and becomes a fun treat when you dry it.

Spray vinegar inside your bin

One of the top home remedies for ants is vinegar. Both apple cider and distilled white vinegar work equally well when sprayed in your bins. Bins are a buffet for ants, especially if you don’t rinse the bin or clean it every week. They can survive on the smallest of food scraps clinging to the bin and any crumbs that get outside. Simply spray the vinegar inside the bin and let it sit. The strong odour of the vinegar will repel the ants.

Rinse pet food bowls

Learning how to keep ants away from your home will require that you clean up after your pets, too. Instead of leaving food sitting out all day, get your pets on a schedule where you feed them at set times throughout the day. After they finish eating, throw away any of the food that they left behind and rinse out their bowls. You should also keep dry food stored in sealed containers.

How to get rid of ants outside

Boiling water

Boiling water is one of the easiest ways to get rid of ants naturally outside. Ants live inside nests that look like small hills in your yard. Once you find a nest, you can get rid of the ants with plain boiling water. The easiest way to do this is boiling a kettle and pouring it directly on the nest. Not only will the water kill the ants in the nest, but it will remove the scent trail that surviving ants use to get between the nest and your home.

Vinegar

Another easy DIY ant killer that you can try outside is plain vinegar. Check your lawn and garden for anthills before grabbing a bottle of vinegar. It’s usually easier to apply the vinegar with a spray bottle than straight from the bottle. Spray enough vinegar on the anthill that you saturate the surface. Though you can use equal parts water and vinegar, straight vinegar is much stronger and gets the job done faster. The smell of the vinegar turns off the ants and causes them to seek a new home. If you find that one application of vinegar fails to kill the ants or make them leave, try using multiple applications.

Lawn ant killer

While chemical lawn ant killers aren’t safe to use around pets, they will eliminate your ant problem and usually work with only one application. Depending on the product that you buy, you may want to wear goggles and other gear to stay safe while using the substance. Liquid killers are easy to use and work on both the ants inside your home and any anthills that you see outside. You can also use bait products that infect ants that eat the bait. They carry the bait back to the nests and kill the other ants.

How to hire a pest control expert

Out of control infestation

If you’re tired of searching the web for tips on how to get rid of ants and want to take care of the problem as soon as possible, now might be the time to hire a pest control expert. Experts will spend some time in your house to find out why you have ants and the severity of the problem. They also let you know about the best remedies and how much each one costs.

Licensing and qualifications

Whether you want a pet safe ant killer or need to eliminate anthills outside, make sure that the pest control expert you hire has the right licensing and qualifications. Australian pest control experts need to take courses in the field and any special areas where they want to work. They also need a pest control license, which usually requires that they apply for one and show their qualifications. 

It’s unlikely that anyone will ever be pleased to see a cockroach cross the floor of their kitchen. The negative emotions we have with these creatures make us think that all cockroaches are so disgusting some of us even freak out.  While it’s true that of the 4000 cockroach species in the world, about 450 species can be found in Australia, only a few of them are actual pests.

They have a lifespan of 6 months and the female lays up to 8 oothecae, each containing about 40 eggs that incubate between 20 and 28 days. They have a flattened body and their colour is yellow to black, and sometimes brown. Its size varies from 1 to 5 cm according to the species.

If you find yourself with some of these unwelcome guests, you can attempt to rid your home yourself – or hire a professional pest control expert.

Here’s a rundown of the 3 common types of cockroaches that you might find in your house:

The Australian cockroach

Ever heard of the word sneaky? These cockroaches are the definition of sneaky – they generally enter buildings at night through the garden and found mostly in places where winter is relatively mild. Although they are called ‘Australian’ cockroaches, they are not a native species. Females of this species lay oothecae – egg cases that contain up to 24 eggs. Once hatched, it takes about 6-12 months for them to develop into adult cockroaches.

The German cockroach

The German cockroach, ‘Blattella germanica’, is a small species of cockroach typically measuring just 1 to 2 cm long. It’s found in many parts of the world, including Australia, mostly near human habitation. Its colour varies from bronze to light brown with two dark parallel streaks that extend from the head to the base of the wings – which are longer in the female than in the male. They prefer hot, humid environments – often found in residential and commercial kitchens and bathrooms.

The American cockroach

Originally from tropical Africa, the American cockroach has spread to all continents today. It is found, in general, in basements, sewage systems, and boats. As it consumes a wide variety of foods it is present wherever food is stored and prepared. It prefers relatively hot, humid, dark, and hidden places such as cellars or boiler rooms.

What do they feed on?

Cockroaches are omnivorous which means for them, everything is food, even paper, tissue, blood and faeces! In a more traditional way, they enjoy meat, dairy products, sweet foods, vegetables, fruits, and even animal feed. But they are not content simply munching on our food, they defile it with their excrement and a nauseating secretion. Finally, the cockroach is able to feed on the excrement and the corpses of its congeners. Delicious.

What attracts cockroaches?

Cockroaches are lovers of heat and humidity, requiring water to survive, and will find their way in no matter what. The hotter it is the more easily they reproduce around several thousand per year per individual. Don’t underestimate them! They can easily adapt to extreme conditions – remember that this is one of the oldest terrestrial species. They can hide anywhere and feed on everything, even paper, and leather. They are very fast, they can travel 1 km/hour and can climb on all surfaces. Food also attracts them, so be sure to keep your kitchen free of any easily accessible food.

How to get rid of cockroaches?

Mostly only active at night – it can be difficult to catch them out. However, this of course doesn’t mean they’re impossible to get rid of. There are many ways of ridding your home of cockroaches, here are some of the most tried and tested methods.

Note: Cockroaches are good actors – they so plausibly pretend to be dead, having smelled the smell of chemicals, it is hard to not applaud their performance!

A fight against cockroaches should begin with making their environment inhabitable. Here is what you should do in order to avoid these pesky visitors:

• Regularly clean the kitchen, especially appliances and the kitchen hood, which can be clogged with grease splashes
• Never leave dirty dishes lying around
• Fight moisture and mould. Cockroaches need water and love hot, humid places
• Keep surfaces clear of all food, water, and other spilled substances.
• Have pets? Avoid leaving their food and water uncovered at night – and keep their baskets and litters as clear as possible as these can easily turn into a real “cockroach nest”

If you’ve already spotted some roaches in your home, here are some methods to try and rid your home:

1. Cockroach Bait

There are a couple of methods of baiting roaches. Firstly, try mixing boric acid with mashed potatoes, boiled yolk, sugar powder or even bread. Put this mixture where you suspect cockroaches come out at night. A few of them eating the mixture is all it takes to infest most of the colony. Otherwise, you can try a bait purchased from stores. These contain .05% or Hydramethylnon 2% as the main ingredient.

Once they eat the bait, cockroaches will excrete it at their nest resulting in other cockroaches coming into contact with it and dying. This might be a lengthy process, taking up to a few weeks.

2. Cockroach Traps

Cockroaches might be sneaky but they are not exactly the smartest creatures – traps can be an effective method of fighting against them. It can also be used to determine infestation areas and degree of the infestation, monitor the effectiveness of insecticide treatments and detect the onset of cockroach infestation. Several types of traps are available, with most around the size of a large box of matches. They are open at both ends and slowly release a food attractant – with the surface covered with a very sticky adhesive.

• Traps are placed where cockroaches are seen the most
• Cockroaches will smell the food, enter the trap and get stuck on the surface
• If the trap doesn’t catch any cockroaches, relocate it after a day
• Traps can also be informative in terms of the degree of infestation and its spread

3. Cockroach Gels

This method is popular because the application is discreet, does not require work interruption or evacuation of premises, no specific precautions such as emptying the cabinets.

• Apply the gel where you think cockroaches’ nest entrance is at
• Apply in small drops around the entrance so that the cockroaches can’t avoid it
• Do it in as many spots as you can in your home

After having consumed the gel, the excrements of the cockroach are infested and ingested by its congeners. The contaminated cockroach dies quickly and will be devoured by its congeners infecting the active substance, creating a chain reaction, which will quickly lead to the total destruction of the colony.

The gel has a residual action of a few weeks to 6 months depending on the type of gel used and the environment, thus providing protection against possible reinfections.

4. Cockroach Sprays

Insecticide sprays can also be used against cockroaches. Make sure the one you get is labelled for use against cockroaches and contains Cyfluthrin or some other insecticide as the active ingredient.

• Children and pets should be kept away while spraying
• Read and follow the instructions on the packaging
• Ventilate the area well after each use
• Sprays might push cockroaches even further in their nests which might create additional issues

If you are still struggling with cockroach infestation, you should find a professional pest control service and solve the issue for once and all.