Crawling Insect Control across Cape Town

Across Cape Town the crawling pests we treat most are German cockroaches in kitchens and flats, larger American cockroaches coming up from sewers and drains, and the invasive Argentine ant, which forms huge connected colonies across whole streets. Fishmoths, both the common silverfish and the grey silverfish, live in bathrooms, cupboards and roof spaces and feed on paper and starch. African field crickets move indoors in autumn, and mole crickets tunnel through lawns in the Southern Suburbs and northern suburbs. In the drier edges of the Boland and on the Cape Flats we also get burrowing scorpions such as Opistophthalmus species, along with earwigs and millipedes that wander in after rain.

Start with where you found it

Crawling pests are easier to identify by where they turn up than by what they look like as they run for cover. Use this as a quick guide before you call, then follow the link for the pest that matches.

• Kitchen counters, behind the kettle or toaster, late at night: almost certainly cockroaches. Small and light brown means German; large and reddish means American. See cockroach control.
• The shower drain or floor trap: American cockroaches coming up from the sewer side, particularly on hot nights.
• A line along the skirting board, the window frame or a plug point: ants. Follow the line with your eyes to see which way it goes. See ant control.
• Inside books, linen cupboards or boxes of papers: fishmoths, especially if the item has been left untouched for months. See fishmoth control.
• Shoes, towels on the floor, the garage or under pot plants: scorpions, spiders or crickets. If it has pincers and a tail, read scorpion control before you touch anything.
• Curled up dead on the floor after rain: often millipedes or earwigs, which come in when the garden floods and usually die indoors without any help.

When you have more than one crawling pest

It is common to have several crawling pests at once, and it is rarely bad luck. They tend to share the same conditions. A slow leak under the bathroom basin can support fishmoths, cockroaches and millipedes in the same cupboard. A garage full of cardboard, firewood and a bright light by the door will usually have crickets, spiders and sometimes a scorpion living together. Fixing the condition reduces all of them at once, which is why our report focuses on what to change as well as what we treated. A kitchen with cockroaches often has ants on the same counter too, because both are after the same crumbs and spills.

It also means one visit can usually cover the lot. When you phone, list everything you have seen, even the things that seem minor. A technician who knows about the fishmoths in the roof as well as the cockroaches in the kitchen will plan the visit differently.

Common mistakes before people call us

Pouring bleach or boiling water down the drain

It kills the few cockroaches sitting in the trap, but the population lives further down the line, where nothing you pour will reach. Worse, bleach mixed with other drain cleaners gives off fumes that are a real danger to you.

Sealing everything the week before we come

Proofing matters, but sealing every crack before treatment hides the places we need to treat and traps insects in the walls. Seal afterwards, using our report as your list.

Treating only the room where you saw them

Crawling insects move through wall voids, roof spaces and plumbing ducts. The kitchen is where you notice them, not always where they live.

Mixing shop products

Three different sprays and a powder in the same cupboard make it hard to know what will work next and what the insects have learned to avoid. Tell us what you have already used, and when, so we can plan around it.

Throwing away the evidence

A dead cockroach in a jar or a photo of the ant trail saves time on the day. Keep one if you can, rather than flushing everything.

Reading the suburb list below

The suburb pages under this article each carry local notes on housing types, gardens and the crawling pests we see most there. Pick your area for advice that fits your street, from older Southern Suburbs homes with timber floors to newer sectional title complexes in the northern suburbs. Flats along the Atlantic Seaboard deal with very different problems from smallholdings in Philippi or homes on the sandy ground of Table View.

Quick answers

Crawling Insect Control by suburb