The Ultimate Queensland Pest Control Guide
What are the things you need to know about pest control
Not every home, apartment, or hovel in the state of Queensland is infested with pests, but every home, apartment, and hovel should probably worry about them. This is because no matter what the weather is like, it is always more hospitable for pests to reside in someone’s pantry than it is to live in the gutter.
But what drives a pest to be a pest? Why do ants, termites, and cockroaches even deign to bother human beings? Are they not safer out in the wild, where they do not have the smartest animals in history hunting them? Well, the reason they dare to brave humans’ concrete jungles is actually rather simple.
When you ae dealing with a pest, be it a termite or a cockroach, that pest is there for three things: Food, water, and shelter. Pests are not industrious. If they lack any of these three things, they would rather go elsewhere to find it than try to make it work in a location they like.
And the thing is that no matter how powerful humans are relative to them, pests estimate the probability of finding food, water, and shelter near humans to be good enough to run the risk of incurring our wrath.
With that being said, the question remains: How do you control pests? How do you deal with them once you have them? And, in fact, what pests are you likely to deal with? You are never the first person to run into a pest in your home, so there is basically always going to be a solution to any pest you can run into.
What Kind of Pests Live in Queensland?
Every species reshapes the environment to its needs. Humans are no exception; in fact, the human race has such complex needs that it has had to reshape much of the planet in order to account for them. But this reshaping of the environment means that rarely can two species co-exist without conflict.
Queensland, Australia is home to a massive variety of creatures, but the ones that invade human spaces most commonly are ants. Specifically, electric ants, fire ants, and yellow crazy ants. The names might seem interesting and fantastical, but all of them cause problems for the ecosystem of Australia.
These three pests are important to know about because they, more than any others, pose a risk to human health and safety. They are not dangerous in the way that a tiger is dangerous though; they do not exactly threaten to kill anyone. But they do threaten to make things unclean and, to a degree, unsafe.
They are dangerous enough that residents of Queensland actually have an obligation to report the presence of these ants for extermination.
How Are They Treated?
One of the most common ways to treat ants is by using bait on the nests. The ants will eat the bait and will die from the ant poison inside, and those that don’t eat it will bring it back to their nests. Other ants will eat the bait and then they will die. Pretty soon the entire nest will fall apart and won’t be a problem for your property anymore.
The two types of bait available to you and any pest control service you hire are fast acting and slow acting baits. While fast acting baits will remove a moderately sized nest in 1-4 weeks, the slower acting bait actually interferes with the reproduction of the ant queen. The bait will prevent new ants from maturing into adults, and eventually, all the adult ants will die. With the adult ants dead, the queen will have no one to feed her and she will starve. With the death of the queen, the nest will collapse.
Finally, if your ant nest is inside of an area where they pose a threat to humans or animals, the pest control service will use direct nest injection (DNI). DNI is where the nest is flooded with an insecticide called fipronil, and it is a colorless and nonrepellent substance. It coats the ants and their tunnels, and the ants eventually eat the insecticide or come into contact with it, and will die.
Regardless of which treatment gets used to deal with the ants, make sure to leave the area around the mound undisturbed for a period of time. After 24 hours if a DNI is done, you can enter the treated area, and you can enter the treated area immediately after a bait placement.
What About Other Pests?
There are other pests you might have to worry about in the Queensland area, but none that are as dangerous as the previously mentioned ants. It is worth noting that certain “timber pests” like to take up residence in people’s homes and businesses in Queensland. These are worth noting for a reason.
Timber pests are any bug that feeds on wood. This includes termites, but yellow crazy ants are known to do this as well. Exterminating timber pests requires a special license, as it is easy to damage the wood the timber pests are feeding on in the process of destroying them and their nests.
Fleas and Ticks
8 types of fleas exist in Queensland, and they are each about 1-8 mm long and can be a major source of discomfort for whatever they land on. They also breed fairly quickly and they can move easily through the fur and hair of whatever animal or human they choose to land on. Fleas love warm blooded animals and bodies, for both food and shelter. They often choose not to leave their host unless forced out and will continue to breed.
However, their bites are harmless and they don’t carry any diseases on them, but their bites do cause inflammation similar to a mosquito.
Ticks, in contrast, are visible unless covered by fur or hair. Their bites often cause minimal damage and discomfort to humans, but their main weapon is the diseases that they carry. They can transmit paralysis, tick born diseases such as Lyme disease, and can also cause allergic reactions in people and pets. Ticks mostly land on and bother animals, but they are spread across Queensland.
How Are They Treated?
Fleas and ticks will breed and can quickly become unmanageable if not dealt with right away. Calling on an exterminator is often the best course of action to handle these infestations, but if you cannot, here are some things you can do.
Most flea bites won’t do more than give you some itching and some red skin. If the swelling doesn’t go down on you or your pet, you need to seek medical help for the bite. The best way to handle tick bites is to catch the tick when it bites down. Try to get as close to the skin as possible with a pair of tweezers, then pull it out and discard the body.
Rodents
Rats and mice tend to be pretty common in Queensland. They are attracted to the food supplies in your home. All rodents are, and when they find food they can make a home and breed quickly. The gestation period for common rodents like the Asian Black Rat, Brown Rat, and Tree Mice is around 19 days. After that, they will start coming for your food.
How Are They Treated?
Rodents can cause a lot of damage to your home, your food supply, and they potentially carry diseases. The best way to treat rats is to make sure they don’t get into your home in the first place. Make sure to lock up any cupboards and seal any holes in the roof and walls. Also clean your kitchens and bathrooms thoroughly to pick up any food.
If you want to take a more proactive approach, you can use rat traps, poison balls, poison bait, and other traps to kill curious rats. Set them around areas you know that the rodents will come into, and then check the traps in a few days. You should find some dead rodents and can keep setting traps until they stop coming.
Working With An Exterminator
If you are dealing with an infestation of either garden variety pests or timber pests, do not hesitate to call an exterminator. Exterminators in Queensland do not need a license to operate. Instead, the licensing process is offset onto the specific tools of their trade.
As such, you will need to ask them if they are licensed to take the job you need to be done. This barrier of licensing can sometimes feel like suffocating bureaucracy but rest assured it is there to protect you, your property, and the exterminators working for these companies as well.
Licensing the equipment means no business can ask its employees to do work beyond what they are licensed to do. And that means that every exterminator you call will be a specialist. If you are not confident with handling the pests in Queensland, make sure to give one a call.