There are many great things about summer: Christmas, holidays, beach days and catching up with loved ones. But there’s one thing the warmer weather brings that isn’t so welcome: common household bugs. Australia, with its breezy wooden houses and subtropical climate, can be a summer pest’s paradise, and these pests put your house – and you – at risk.
Here are Australia’s common household pests and some summer pest control tips to help keep them at bay.
Summer pests: House bugs pictures and names
Cockroaches
While cockroaches are an ‘all-year-round pest’, they thrive in warmer weather. These widely despised household pests multiply and expand into new territories in summer, so they become more pervasive at this time of year.
Roaches love mess: food scraps, scattered crumbs on the floor or counters, dirty dishes in the sink, leftover food in cans you’ve thrown out and the rubbish generally. So frequent and thorough cleaning, focusing on the kitchen, will help to keep cockroaches away.
Flies
Flies aren’t just incredibly annoying – they can also be a serious health hazard. Flies will feed on almost anything, and deposit germs onto everything they land on. They are known to carry a range of human diseases such as cholera, dysentery and conjunctivitis.
To keep flies under control, keep food sealed and don’t leave crumbs and scraps in the kitchen – like most household pests, they mainly come looking for food and water. Flies also find food in unkempt gardens, so harvest produce early and remove fallen or decomposing fruits, vegetables and plants regularly.
Ants
Australia’s ant population booms in summer, and as such, they’re more often seen raiding our pantries at this time of year. Make your house less attractive to them by eliminating food scraps and crumbs, sealing food containers tightly, cleaning up dirty dishes quickly and spraying vinegar on your countertops and in cracks to get rid of the ants’ chemical trail.
Some short-term chemical solutions such as Ant-Rid are available, but these only kill the ants you can see and won’t stop them from coming back.
While keeping the house clean and sealed up can help keep summer pests out of the house, professional pest control is the only truly effective solution for both removal and long-term prevention. We’ve got you covered – give us a call or book online to get started with a pest inspection!
