Urban Pest Control

Ants

Black Ants, Coastal Browns, Sugar Ants, Argentinian Ants, Singaporean Ants, Carpenter Ants, Fire Ants

• Black Ants commonly nest indoors and outdoors. They nest around paths and rockeries, inside cavity walls, behind skirting boards and architraves, under and behind kitchen cupboards. Prefer feeding on sweets.
• Coastal Brown Ants, also called big headed ants are a major nuisance ant to Western Australia that was introduced from Africa. .
• Argentinian ants nest in exposed soil or under rotting logs. Often move indoors in wet weather. Prefer sweet foods but will also eat meats, insects etc.
• Singaporean ants nest in and around buildings, in cracks and crevices, wall cavities, behind skirtings and under paths. Prefer animal materials and sweets.
• Carpenter ants commonly nest in decayed or moist wood. Mostly associated with bushy areas. Eats dead and live insects and is attracted to sweets.

Spiders

Most spiders are nocturnal. During the day they are seldom seen, unless they are sought or disturbed in their natual environments. When the light fades, spider become active. They leave the protection of their burrows or shelters and go out in search of food or, in the case of web-spinning spiders, construct their webs to snare prey. As day breaks, most spiders seek the safety of their shelters again.

Redback, White Tailed Spider, Black House Spider, Daddy-Long Leg Spiders

• Redback spiders, the female has been known to cause deaths and illness from its bite. Many bites occur on male genitals, as these spiders construct their webs across the seats of outside and often unsewered toilets. The female hides in stacked articles and rubbish during the day. Males occur in numbers around the female’s web usually in late summer and autumn. The male is small, about 3-4mm and does NOT bite. The female is about 12-15mm, black, velvety and has a bright red or orange stripe on the upper surface and a ple or red area on the underside. Sometimes the female may be entirley black and mistaken for another species.
• White Tailed Spider, is dark grey to black with a characteristic white spot on the end of its abdomen. Inside homes it may be found on walls, particularly in the bathroom. It is also found outdoors under loose bark of trees and in leaf litter. It is not an aggressive spider but like many other spider it will bite if touched or placed on the body inside clothing. The bites are painful causing localised pain and this may lead to ulceration in the area of the bite.
• Black House Spider, lives in country and city areas. The female is dark brown to black and about 15-18mm long, while the male is only 8-10mm long. They make their webs in window frames, in corners and under eaves. Their bites cause some pain and swelling but the patient recovers pretty quick.
• Daddy-Longleg spiders are found in houses, cupboards and sub floor areas. The female is about 7-9mm long and is characterised by its very long legs. Apart from the nuisance of their webs, they do no harm and are non-toxic.

Cockroaches

German, American, Australian, Oriental

• The small German cockroach is probably the most widespread that co-habits with humans in buildings. This cockroach seeks conditions that provide warmth, moisture and food. Adults are light amber-brown with two dark stripes on the back. The vast majority of infestations are associated with kitchens and any other areas providing foods in a domestic and commercial situation. The German cockroach is also found under sinks & cupboards, in and under drawers. It will eat almost any organic material ranging from crumbs to built-up grease.
• The American cockroach is probably the largest cockroach that infests households. Adults are red-brown with a pale yellow border. This cockroach prefers warm, moist, dark conditions. It lives indoors in colder areas and outside in warmers regions. It can be found in roof and sub floors voids, grease traps and rubbish dumps.
• The Australian cockroach is relatively large and similar to the American cockroach but the body is a darker brown with yellow markings. This cockroach can live in greenhouses, under bark and in gardens. It does prefer warm, sub-tropical conditions.
• The Oriental cockroach is dark brown to black. This cockroach has a preference for relatively cool conditions and can be found outdoors and in damp sub-floors around drainage systems.

Carpet Beetles

Black Carpet Beetle, Australian Carpet Beetle

Black carpet beetle, widespread and destructive. May attack woollens, silk, carpet, felt, upholstered furniture, leather and various stored foods.
Australian carpet beetle, not a destructive as the Black beetle but attacks woollens, carpet, felt and stored meat products.

Bees

Bees are flying insects, closely relates to wasps and ants and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and bees wax. Honey Bees are a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. The Honey Bees consist of a) Drones, b) Workers, c) Queens.

• Drones or Males: are typically Haploid, having only one set of chromosomes. They are produced by the Queen if she chooses not to fertilise an egg. Drones take 24 days to develop and may be produced from summer to autumn.
• Drones have large eyes to locate queens during mating flights. Drones do not sting.
• Workers: are female bees and have two sets of chromosomes. They are fertilised eggs and develop in 21 days. A typical colony may contain as many as 60,000 worker bees. Their duties change with age starting with cleaning out their own cell after eating through their capped blood cell. They feed blood, receive nectar, clean hive, guard duty and foraging. Some workers remove corpses of their nest mates. They do sting. If the colony becomes ‘Queenless’ a worker will develop ovaries.
• Queen: Queen Honey Bees like workers are females. They are created at the decision of the worker bees by feeding a larva only royal jelly throughout its development. They are produced in oversize cells and develop in only 16 days. Queens have a different morphology and behaviour from worker bees. In addition to the greater size, she has a functional set of ovaries and a spermatheca which stores and maintains sperm after she has mated and can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. They produce a variety of pheromones that regulate behaviour of workers and helps swarms track the queen location during migration.
• Defence: All Honey Bees live in colonies where the workers sting intruders as a form of defence and alarmed bees release a pheromone that stimulates the attack response in other bees. Worker bees live up to 12 months.