Flying Insect Control in the City Bowl

The City Bowl is the CBD and the older residential suburbs packed into the bowl formed by Table Mountain, Devil's Peak, Lion's Head and Signal Hill. Pest work here is a mix of restaurant and office contracts in town and older homes and flats up the slopes, with rats tying the two together.

Flying Insect Control by suburb

We cover all 26 suburbs on our City Bowl & Atlantic Seaboard route. Each suburb page covers what we find there and what works for those streets and buildings.

• Bantry BayFlying Insect Control
• Bo-KaapFlying Insect Control
• Camps BayFlying Insect Control
• CliftonFlying Insect Control
• De WaterkantFlying Insect Control
• ForeshoreFlying Insect Control
• FresnayeFlying Insect Control
• GardensFlying Insect Control
• Green PointFlying Insect Control
• HiggovaleFlying Insect Control
• Hout BayFlying Insect Control
• Imizamo YethuFlying Insect Control
• LlandudnoFlying Insect Control
• Malay QuarterFlying Insect Control
• Mouille PointFlying Insect Control
• OranjezichtFlying Insect Control
• Schotsche KloofFlying Insect Control
• Sea PointFlying Insect Control
• TamboerskloofFlying Insect Control
• Three Anchor BayFlying Insect Control
• University EstateFlying Insect Control
• Upper WoodstockFlying Insect Control
• VredehoekFlying Insect Control
• Walmer EstateFlying Insect Control
• WoodstockFlying Insect Control
• ZonnebloemFlying Insect Control

City Bowl: what drives flying insects here

Fruit flies are a constant behind bars and coffee counters, and houseflies follow the bins in the lanes. Clothes moths are a quiet menace in older homes with wool carpets and rugs.

The mountain rises right behind the suburbs, with the Company's Garden and the slopes of Table Mountain National Park providing green corridors. Winter rain runs hard down the slopes, and the South-Easter brings the famous tablecloth and blows litter around the streets. The heat traps in the bowl on still summer days.

A note from the field

With small children and pets in the house, we lean heavily on physical fixes, baits placed out of reach and drain treatments, and keep spraying to the places that really need it.

Tell-tale signs

1. Small flies hover over the fruit bowl, the recycling bin or the drip tray under a bar tap.
2. Paper wasps are coming and going from the same spot under the eaves, a gutter or a garden umbrella.
3. Flies keep gathering around the same window, light or rubbish area even after you have cleaned and sprayed.
4. You hear whining at night and wake up with fresh bites on exposed arms and ankles.

Our process, step by step

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.

Stopping a repeat visit

• 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.
• Keep wheelie bins closed, rinse them out in summer, and park them away from the kitchen door.
• Tip out pot plant saucers, birdbaths and anything else that holds water for more than a few days.
• 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.

Pricing, honestly

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.

Frequently asked questions

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