Thatch Treatment 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.

Thatch Treatment 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.

• AthloneThatch Treatment
• BelharThatch Treatment
• Bishop LavisThatch Treatment
• BonteheuwelThatch Treatment
• CrawfordThatch Treatment
• DelftThatch Treatment
• Electric CityThatch Treatment
• Elsies RiverThatch Treatment
• Grassy ParkThatch Treatment
• GugulethuThatch Treatment
• Hanover ParkThatch Treatment
• KalksteenfonteinThatch Treatment
• KhayelitshaThatch Treatment
• LangaThatch Treatment
• Lavender HillThatch Treatment
• Lotus RiverThatch Treatment
• ManenbergThatch Treatment
• Mitchells PlainThatch Treatment
• NyangaThatch Treatment
• Pelican ParkThatch Treatment
• PhilippiThatch Treatment
• Samora MachelThatch Treatment
• StrandfonteinThatch Treatment
• Valhalla ParkThatch Treatment

Timber pests in Cape Flats: what we see

Borer is not usually the first worry here, but the pine trusses in older council houses can be affected where roofs have leaked for years. A beetle certificate is often requested when a house is sold.

Housing ranges from older council semis and flat blocks to RDP homes, backyard rooms and informal structures. Where walls and roofs are shared, rodents and cockroaches move between households quickly, and informal structures with gaps at the base are hard to seal. Waste collection and stormwater that cannot cope after heavy rain make the job harder, which is why community-wide approaches work best.

Rats and mice are the biggest worry, followed by German cockroaches, flies and fleas. Mosquitoes are worst near vleis and canals. Bed bugs spread in crowded homes and through second-hand furniture.

Tell-tale signs

1. Droppings on beams or along the top of walls under the thatch.
2. Fine powder dropping from the poles or laths onto floors and furniture below.
3. Small round exit holes in the poles, especially in the paler sapwood.
4. Insects such as cockroaches or spiders falling from the ceiling.

Borer in the poles and laths weakens the timbers that carry the weight of the thatch, which is heavy, and serious damage can mean replacing structural members. Rodents nesting in thatch chew electrical cables, and in a thatch roof that is a fire risk to take seriously. Insects dropping from an open thatch ceiling are a nuisance in homes and a real problem in guest lodges and restaurants. Bird nests in thatch can bring mites into bedrooms below.

Something most people miss

Borer damage in thatch is often blamed on the reed, but the reed is rarely the problem. It is the poles and laths holding it up that the beetles are after.

Our process, step by step

We start by inspecting the underside of the roof, the poles, the laths and the eaves, looking for borer exit holes, frass and rodent or bird activity. Affected poles and laths are treated with a borer spray or injection designed for timber, applied to the wood rather than soaked through the thatch. For insects living in the thatch, we use a targeted residual treatment on the underside, keeping it as light as will do the job. Rodents are handled with traps and tamper-resistant bait stations placed at wall plates and entry points, and we advise on bird netting or proofing at the eaves. Fire safety of the thatch itself, such as retardant treatment, is a separate specialist job and we will tell you if it looks overdue.

Want the full step-by-step? See how our thatch treatment service works.

Prevention that actually works

• Have electrical wiring in the roof inspected regularly, especially if you have had rodents.
• Fit bird netting or wire at the eaves if birds keep pulling reed or nesting there.
• Ask your thatcher to check the poles and laths for borer whenever the roof is being repaired or re-combed.
• Do not store firewood or boxes against the walls under the thatch, as they give insects and rodents cover.
• Have open thatch ceilings in lapas and lodges checked once a year, since problems are easy to see early.

How much will it cost?

The price depends on the size of the roof, how much of the structure is exposed and how many poles and laths show borer activity. A small lapa with an open underside is a very different job from a double-storey home with a closed ceiling. Rodent and bird work is added where needed, and timber that is too damaged to treat has to be replaced by a builder or thatcher.

Spraying the underside of your own thatch with a garden insecticide does very little for borer, which lives inside the poles, and soaking thatch in products not meant for it can do more harm than good. We would leave borer and rodent work in thatch to someone who does it regularly. Keeping the roof clear of overhanging trees is the one thing every owner can do themselves.

Questions we get asked in Cape Flats

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