Slaters might be welcome in the garden but sometimes they over step the mark and slaters invade your home! You’re more likely to find slaters coming into the house into autumn when the temperatures start to drop or during dry, warm periods when they are searching for moisture. If you find slaters in your home it can be an early warning sign that you may have a source of damp in and around your house. Slaters need moisture to survive, so you must remedy any source of dampness to get control of a slater numbers. At the same time, you should seal any cracks and crevices in the building to stop s ..read more

Pantry pests is the common name given to insects that infest stored products such as flour, cereals and indeed any dried foods. Sometimes you may not be even aware your food has been infested, but when you do… yuck! But what are the common pantry pests? How do you get rid of them? And how can you prevent a pantry pest problem in the future? What are the various types of pantry pest (stored product pest)? The most common types of panty pests are the pantry moths – the Indian meal moth and the Mediterranean flour moth. However, there are also a whole range of beetles and weevils that attack a wi ..read more

Mothballs have been around for ages – something even “granny” used to use. But do they actually work to protect your clothes from clothes moths and are there any modern alternatives? White naphthalene mothballs on black velvet What are mothballs made of? Traditional mothballs have a very distinctive smell. The smell is due to the insecticide ingredient in moth balls – naphthalene. In fact, they are nearly 100% naphthalene. Napthalene is a solid, but sublimes (turns from solid into gas) at room temperature. Are mothballs safe? Napthalene mothballs need to be used carefully. Significant adverse ..read more

It is important for those carrying out DIY pest control to know how ant baits work, so they can choose the correct ant bait for their particular situation. Ant baits – Basic Information What goes into an ant bait? Ant baits consist of food materials attractive to ants (you want them to find and eat the bait) and a slow acting insecticide (they need to take it back to the nest and spread it around before it starts to take effect). Types of ant bait There are a variety of ant baits available. Ant baits are generally grouped by the type of ants they target – some target sweet feeding ants, some t ..read more

It’s a weird thing… generally speaking, in Australia, brown ants seem to be more of a pest outside the home than inside the home, whereas black ants tend to be more of a pest inside the home. Let’s have a look at the types of brown ant that are the major pest ant species in Australia. None of the brown pest ants are big ants, they are either small ants or tiny ants! Two of the most widespread ants are major invasive pests globally, the big-headed ant (coastal brown ant) and Argentine ant. Big-headed ant (coastal brown ant) A major worker of the big-headed ant, Pheidole megacephala. Globally kn ..read more

Finding black ants in the house is a pretty common problem. However, getting rid of the ants isn’t always that straight forward. To get control you need to be able to identify the ant species and know a bit about its behaviour, so you know which products to use and where to apply them. Here is some information on four common black ants found around homes in Australia, with some tips on how to treat them. Black house ant Black house ant The black house ant is found all over Australia. They build a single nest, with a single queen, with the nest getting larger over time. Although they will norma ..read more

Black house spider, Badumna insignis   The black house spider, Badumna insignis, s one of the more common spiders found around Australian homes. Although their bite is quite painful the main concern for homeowners is that they build unsightly, dense webs around windows, doors and eaves. Fortunately, this makes it very easy for the homeowner to carry out their own pest control treatment.   What do black house spiders look like? Black house spiders are a charcoal / black colour, although the abdomen appears grey (sometimes brownish) with white markings. Their legs can be brown and blac ..read more

Ticks aren’t just a problem in the bush, there’s a good chance they’re in your backyard too! So whilst pet owners may be switched on to the dangers of paralysis ticks and treat their pets with a suitable treatment, how do you protect your family from a potential tick bite? Female paralysis tick looking for a meal Ticks live in the leaf litter and grass. Contrary to popular belief they don’t drop out of trees onto your head, although they may climb up grass and small shrubs to wait for a suitable meal to walk by! The main hosts for ticks are native animals, such as possums, bandicoots, koalas ..read more

Silverfish Secretive and nocturnal, a silverfish infestation can go unnoticed for some time. A versatile, primitive insect, silverfish can inhabit a wide range of hiding places in your house. Silverfish like to eat starchy foods, so they find paper and cardboard delicious! They are also particularly like dark, undisturbed, damp conditions with a high humidity. You should check areas that contain your stored belongings. Old clothing, books and files are both a safe hiding place and delicious treat for silverfish. They commonly damage clothing and documents in storage, often valuable items that ..read more

  Sydney Funnel Web Spider Funnel-web spiders are perhaps the most feared spiders in Australia – the bite of the Sydney funnel-web can cause death in as little as 15 minutes! However, there hasn’t been a death from a funnel-web spider bite since the development of the effective anti-venom in 1981. Given its status as the world’s most deadly spider, it is perhaps a good idea to know what a funnel-web spider looks like, what to do if you are bitten by a funnel-web and what you can do to get rid of funnel-webs from around your house. Funnel-web spider information… Funnel-web spiders – what d ..read more