Thatch Treatment 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.

Thatch Treatment 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 BayThatch Treatment
• Bo-KaapThatch Treatment
• Camps BayThatch Treatment
• CliftonThatch Treatment
• De WaterkantThatch Treatment
• ForeshoreThatch Treatment
• FresnayeThatch Treatment
• GardensThatch Treatment
• Green PointThatch Treatment
• HiggovaleThatch Treatment
• Hout BayThatch Treatment
• Imizamo YethuThatch Treatment
• LlandudnoThatch Treatment
• Malay QuarterThatch Treatment
• Mouille PointThatch Treatment
• OranjezichtThatch Treatment
• Schotsche KloofThatch Treatment
• Sea PointThatch Treatment
• TamboerskloofThatch Treatment
• Three Anchor BayThatch Treatment
• University EstateThatch Treatment
• Upper WoodstockThatch Treatment
• VredehoekThatch Treatment
• Walmer EstateThatch Treatment
• WoodstockThatch Treatment
• ZonnebloemThatch Treatment

City Bowl: what drives timber pests here

Victorian and Edwardian houses in the bowl often have Oregon pine floors and old roof timbers with past borer damage. An inspection tells you if it is still active, and a beetle certificate is a normal part of transfer.

In the CBD you have office towers, heritage buildings, hotels and hundreds of restaurants and cafés. Up the slopes are Victorian and Edwardian semis with wooden floors and corrugated iron roofs, along with newer apartment blocks. Old buildings have gaps, voids and old drains that rodents and cockroaches use, while flats share ducts and refuse rooms.

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.

What gives them away

1. Rustling or scratching in the roof at night.
2. Small round exit holes in the poles, especially in the paler sapwood.
3. Tunnels or loose patches in the thatch where rodents have been moving.
4. Fine powder dropping from the poles or laths onto floors and furniture below.

From the technician

If you have a pool or pond next to a lapa, mention it. We plan treatments under thatch so nothing drifts into the water.

How we handle thatch treatment in City Bowl

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.

Keeping them out afterwards

• Do not store firewood or boxes against the walls under the thatch, as they give insects and rodents cover.
• 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.
• Keep trees and creepers trimmed back from the thatch so rodents cannot step straight onto the roof.

Pricing, honestly

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 City Bowl

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