Flying Insect Control Montague Gardens

Montague Gardens is mostly warehouses, showrooms and distribution yards, so the calls we get here are about stock, loading bays and compliance rather than bedrooms. A rat in a food warehouse is a bigger problem than a rat in a garage, because one gnawed pallet can mean a rejected consignment.

The local picture in Montague Gardens

House flies and blowflies gather around skips and waste bays, especially in hot weeks with the wind down. Stored product moths can fly between pallets in a dry goods store.

The ground is flat and sandy, sitting between the Diep River and Rietvlei wetland side of Milnerton and the busy N7 and Montague Drive routes. The South-Easter blows dust and litter through the yards in summer, and winter rain pools in low corners of loading areas. Open stormwater channels and vacant plots nearby give rats easy cover between buildings.

A note from the field

A common myth is that flies come in from outside and that is the end of the story. In a lot of homes the flies are actually breeding indoors, in a drain, a forgotten bag of potatoes or the bottom of a bin.

What gives them away

1. Small flies hover over the fruit bowl, the recycling bin or the drip tray under a bar tap.
2. You hear whining at night and wake up with fresh bites on exposed arms and ankles.
3. Small moths flutter out of the pantry or out of a cupboard full of woollens.
4. A sudden swarm of large blowflies appears indoors, which often points to something dead in the roof or wall.
5. Tiny moth-like flies sit on bathroom walls near the shower or basin drain.

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.

Keeping them out afterwards

• Keep wheelie bins closed, rinse them out in summer, and park them away from the kitchen door.
• Fit fly screens on kitchen windows and keep a self-closing door or strip curtain on back doors that open onto bins.
• Check eaves, carports and garden furniture in early spring for small paper wasp nests while they are still easy to deal with.
• Tip out pot plant saucers, birdbaths and anything else that holds water for more than a few days.
• Store flour, cereal and pet food in sealed containers so pantry moths have nothing to breed in.

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.

Flying insects peak from about October to March, when hot weather speeds up breeding and a fly can go from egg to adult in around a week. The south-easter keeps numbers down on the exposed side of the city but pushes flies indoors in sheltered suburbs, and mosquitoes often surge after the last winter rains leave water lying around. Wasps build their nests in spring and are at their most defensive in late summer when colonies are biggest.

Flying Insect Control questions from Montague Gardens

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