Simon's Town is a historic naval town on False Bay, with steep streets climbing the mountain behind St George's Street. Old buildings, the sea air and the mountain on the doorstep make for a very particular set of pest problems.
Flying insects in Simon's Town: what we see
Flies gather around restaurant bins and the harbour, and wasps nest in sheltered eaves on the hillside.
The town sits between False Bay and the mountains of Table Mountain National Park, with Boulders and its penguin colony on the southern side. Winters are wet and windy, and the South-Easter blows hard in summer. The mountain edge brings rodents, baboons and insects, and the sea air keeps buildings damp.
Rats and mice from the mountain edge and harbour are the main issue. Fishmoths and wood borer show up in old, damp buildings. Bed bugs are a risk in guesthouses, and gulls and pigeons are constant along the waterfront.
How to tell you have a problem
- Small moths flutter out of the pantry or out of a cupboard full of woollens.
- Paper wasps are coming and going from the same spot under the eaves, a gutter or a garden umbrella.
- A sudden swarm of large blowflies appears indoors, which often points to something dead in the roof or wall.
- You hear whining at night and wake up with fresh bites on exposed arms and ankles.
A note from the field
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.
How the treatment works
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.
- 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.
- 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.
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 Simon's Town
Do you come out to Simon's Town for flying insect control?
Yes. Simon's Town is part of our regular South Peninsula route, along with Glencairn, Fish Hoek, Scarborough. Most bookings are done within about 48 hours, and after-hours visits can be arranged.
Can you treat a whole business, not just a house?
Yes. Restaurants, food factories, warehouses and offices usually go onto a contract with scheduled visits, monitoring and a report for each service.
Is fogging safe for my pets and children?
Fogging is only used where it is needed, and people and pets stay out until the product has settled and the room has been aired. We tell you exactly how long to wait before we start.
Can you treat old heritage buildings in Simon's Town without damaging them?
Yes, we choose methods that don't harm old timber, plaster or stonework, and we focus on proofing gaps carefully. We'll talk you through the plan before starting.
What are the tiny flies around my bathroom drain?
They are almost always drain flies, also called moth flies. They breed in the gel-like film inside drains, so cleaning the pipe properly works far better than spraying the walls.
Do rats in Simon's Town come from the harbour or the mountain?
Both. Homes near the waterfront tend to get rats from the harbour, while houses higher up get them from the mountain slopes.
Office 021 012 5825 · WhatsApp us
