Plumstead Mosquito Control

Plumstead is a settled, leafy suburb with long-standing families, a lot of oak and jacaranda shade and older homes that have been added onto over the years. That patchwork of old and new building is what keeps us busy here.

Plumstead: what drives biting insects here

Fleas are common in homes with pets, especially in older houses with wooden floors and gaps between boards. Bird mites can come through ceilings when pigeons or mynas nest in the roof.

Plumstead sits below the Constantiaberg on the wetter side of the peninsula, so winters are properly damp. Mature trees and established gardens give squirrels and roof rats easy highways from one property to the next. The railway line between Wynberg and Diep River also acts as a corridor for rodents.

You'll find solid brick semis, 1940s and 1950s bungalows with suspended wooden floors, and blocks of flats closer to Main Road. Many houses have extensions, outside rooms and converted garages, and the joins between old and new are classic entry points. Under-floor voids in the older homes hold damp, which suits cockroaches and fishmoths. Shops and takeaways along Main Road bring their own rodent and cockroach pressure.

Roof rats and squirrels in ceilings are the most common call, followed by German and American cockroaches in kitchens and drains. Fishmoths show up in older homes with damp under-floor spaces. Summer brings ants and wasps.

A note from the field

Electric bug zappers attract plenty of insects, but studies have shown that very few of them are mosquitoes. Screens and source reduction do far more.

Signs to look for

1. A high-pitched whine near your ear just as you fall asleep.
2. Itchy, raised bites on arms, face and feet that were left outside the covers.
3. Wriggling larvae, sometimes called wigglers, in pond edges, buckets, bird baths or pool covers.
4. Day-time bites on the ankles while sitting in the garden, which points to Aedes breeding nearby.

How the treatment works

Source reduction always comes first: we walk the property and find every place water collects, from gutters and drains to ponds, water features, plant saucers and covered pools, and tell you which ones to empty, fix or cover. Water that cannot be removed, such as ponds and drains, can be treated with a larvicide or insect growth regulator that stops larvae becoming adults. Adult mosquitoes rest in cool, shaded places during the day, so we apply a residual spray to the undersides of shrubs, hedges, eaves, patio ceilings and other resting areas. For events or heavy problems, ULV fogging can knock down adult numbers quickly, but it only works properly when combined with dealing with the breeding sites.

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

Keeping them out afterwards

• Keep pool water circulating and treated, and drain the water that collects on top of pool covers.
• Empty pot-plant saucers, buckets, bird baths and pet water bowls at least once a week, because larvae develop into adults in about a week in hot weather.
• Clean gutters after winter so they do not hold water through summer.
• Stock ornamental ponds with small fish that eat larvae, and keep water features running.
• Store old tyres, tins and containers under cover or throw them away.

Pricing, honestly

Cost depends on the size of the property, how many breeding sites there are and whether larger water bodies such as ponds or drains need treating. A once-off treatment is priced differently from a programme of visits through the summer season. Fogging for an event is quoted on the size of the area, and the quote itself is free.

Mosquitoes start building up once the weather warms in October and peak from December to March, especially after a wet winter has filled ponds, vleis and gutters. Calm, humid evenings are the worst, while the strong south-easter actually keeps them down on windy days. Numbers drop sharply when the cold, wet winter sets in from about May.

Questions we get asked in Plumstead

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