Flying Insect Control in the Cape Flats

The Cape Flats is the wide, flat sandy plain that stretches from the mountain towards False Bay, home to a huge share of Cape Town's people. Pest problems differ from suburb to suburb, but the common thread is sandy ground, a high water table in winter and a lot of homes built close together.

Flying Insect Control by suburb

We cover all 24 suburbs on our Cape Flats route. Each suburb page covers what we find there and what works for those streets and buildings.

The local picture in Cape Flats

Houseflies follow refuse that waits too long for collection, especially in the heat after a long weekend. Mosquito pressure is heaviest from spring into summer in homes close to the vleis, the canals and the farm dams of Philippi.

The Flats were once dunes and wetlands, and in winter the water table rises, flooding yards and low streets. The Philippi Horticultural Area, the vleis like Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei, and the canals that feed them breed mosquitoes and shelter rodents. In summer the South-Easter blows sand and litter across the open land.

Worth knowing

For landlords, flying insect complaints often come down to maintenance: a cracked drain, a missing window screen or a bin area that floods. Fixing those is cheaper than repeat treatments.

Signs to look for

How we handle flying insect control in Cape Flats

We start by identifying the insect properly, because a drain fly needs a completely different fix from a house fly or a mosquito. Breeding sites come first: drains are cleaned out and treated with a larvicide or bio-enzyme product, standing water is tipped or treated, and waste areas are sorted out. Only then do we use residual sprays on resting surfaces such as window frames and wall tops, fly bait stations away from food, and ULV fogging where a large space needs a quick knockdown. In commercial kitchens and food stores we install insect light traps with glue boards so there is constant monitoring between visits. Wasp nests are treated with a dust or spray directly into the nest and removed once the colony is dead.

Want the full step-by-step? See how our flying insect control service works.

Keeping them out afterwards

• Check eaves, carports and garden furniture in early spring for small paper wasp nests while they are still easy to deal with.
• Store flour, cereal and pet food in sealed containers so pantry moths have nothing to breed in.
• Pour boiling water down slow drains weekly and scrub the inside of the drain pipe with a brush, since that slime is where drain flies breed.
• Tip out pot plant saucers, birdbaths and anything else that holds water for more than a few days.
• Keep wheelie bins closed, rinse them out in summer, and park them away from the kitchen door.

How much will it cost?

The price depends on which insect we are treating, because a single wasp nest is a very different job from a fly problem in a large food factory. The size of the property, how many breeding sites there are and how hard they are to get at, such as roof voids or sealed drains, all affect the time on site. Commercial sites with light traps and scheduled visits are usually best quoted as a contract, and we give free quotes once we know what is flying.

Fly swatters, screens and a good bin routine handle a lot of household fly problems, and we would rather you did that than empty a can of spray into the kitchen. Where DIY falls down is when the source is hidden, like a dead rat in the ceiling, a broken drain under the floor or a wasp nest in a wall cavity. If you are still seeing the same insects two weeks after cleaning up, the breeding site is somewhere you have not found yet.

Questions we get asked in Cape Flats

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