Pest control

Try these ideas to help avoid an ant infestation in your home or building.

Keep it clean

Regularly clean and maintain a high level of sanitation and hygiene. This means wiping down surfaces, sweeping floors and keeping things tidy.

Dispose of rubbish

Remove rubbish and food scraps from benches, tables, cupboards and floors promptly. Ants are attracted to leftover food, so keeping things clean helps prevent them from gathering.

Store food properly

Store food in sealed containers. Ants can easily find their way into open food packages, so sealing packaged helps keep ants out.

Wash up after meals

Wash utensils, crockery and cooking items soon after use. Ants are drawn to food residue, so cleaning up promptly reduces their interest.

Seal entry points

Check for gaps and cavities around doors and walls. Seal these openings to prevent ants from sneaking in.

Here’s how to deal with an ant infestation

Nest treatment

Direct treatment of the nest provides the most effective long term control of ants. Follow the trail to locate the nest.

Chemical barriers

Alternatively, create chemical barriers between the nest and potential food sources.

Expert help

If the infestation is overwhelming, consider seeking assistance from a pest control expert. They can inspect and treat the nest effectively.

• They contaminate food, utensils and various areas with droppings, dead cockroaches and vomit marks on surfaces.
• They can carry diseases, especially food poisoning organisms such as salmonella.
• Many people are scared of cockroaches due to their fast unpredictable movements and spiky legs.
• A substantial cockroach infestation can create an unpleasant odour.
• Some people are allergic to cockroaches, including skin reactions in sensitive people.
• They have been known to bite people.

Avoid a cockroach infestations in your home or building by:

• maintaining a high level of sanitation and hygiene
• removing rubbish and food scraps, including leftover pet food
• storing food in sealed containers
• washing utensils, crockery and cooking items soon after use
• sealing gaps and cavities around doors and walls.

You can also use insecticides such as surface and space sprays, insecticidal dusts or baits and traps to eliminate cockroaches.

If you do have a cockroach infestation you can use insecticides such as surface and space sprays, insecticidal dusts or baits and traps to eliminate the insects.

If the infestation is out of control, you may need the help of a pest control expert.

Discouraging wasps

To deter wasps from coming onto your property, you can:

• keep compost heaps and rubbish bins covered at all times
• remove old or damaged fruit if you have any fruit trees in your garden.

Preventing nest development

European wasps make their nests in sheltered areas around buildings, rubbish heaps, rocks, trees or shrubs. The nests look like grey cardboard and are usually the size of a football. You can often locate a nest by the constant stream of wasps flying to and from one particular location.

In winter the queen wasp will hibernate, usually in firewood, stacked materials or in roofs and sheds. In early spring, the queen will fly around looking for a new nesting site. This is a great opportunity to prevent a nest being developed. Queen wasps are large and slow moving, making them an easy target for insecticidal spray.

The only effective way to control a European wasp problem is to destroy the nest.

Local laws requires residents to ensure a wasp nest does not remain on their premises.

The safest way to remove a wasp nest is to contact a pest control expert to treat the nest, as the wasps can become extremely aggressive if the nest is attacked.

Here are some tips to avoid getting stung by a wasp.

• Never drink directly from a can or bottle outdoors, as wasps can crawl inside unnoticed and sting the throat, causing swelling and possible choking. Instead pours cans of drink into a glass or use a straw.
• Check each mouthful of food when eating food outdoors.
• Wear shoes when walking on grass.
• Don't swat or annoy wasps that are hovering around food, as wasps are attracted to moving objects.

If stung, apply an ice pack to the sting.

If an allergic person is stung, apply pressure to the limb or sting area and seek medical help immediately. Ventolin may help to treat breathing difficulties.

Swarming is a natural behaviour for honey bees, as part of the reproductive life cycle.

Honey bees usually swarm in warmer weather during spring and summer. The swarm may remain on the move for several days in search of permanent nesting site.

If a swarm settles on your property, keep your family and pets away from it.

You shouldn’t attempt to move a bee hive or swarm by hosing it, poking it, throwing stones or any similar action, as this will only aggravate the honey bees to defend themselves.

We recommend you use a registered beekeeper to remove a bee hive in the first instance.

Beekeeper

If you find a hive in an open and accessible area, you can ask a beekeeper to come and remove it. The Victorian Apiarist Association can help with hive removal. Their Swarm Catcher Locator helps find beekeepers near you who can help.

Pest controller

If you find a hive is found in confined space or hard to access area, you can ask a licensed pest controller to treat and destroy it, but this should be a last resort because bees are very important to our environment.

What to do if you're stung by a bee

• If there are more bees, quickly get away to a safe place to avoid any further stings.
• Remove the sting as quickly as possible to reduce the effect of the bee venom, do this by sliding or scraping your fingernail across it, rather than pulling at it.
• Wash the wound with water and apply a cold compress with ice to reduce the swelling.
• Use a sting treatment to relieve pain.

Allergic reactions

If you experience any of the following symptoms, you may be suffering an allergic reaction to the bee sting, known as anaphylactic shock:

• wheezing or difficulty with breathing
• tightness in the throat or chest
• swelling of the lips, tongue or face
• dizziness or fainting
• nausea or vomiting.

If you know you are allergic to bee stings and carry an EpiPen, use this straight away. Don't wait for allergic symptoms to appear.

To treat an allergic reaction to a sting, apply pressure to the wound and immobilise the limb or sting area and seek medical help immediately. You can also use Ventolin to help treat breathing difficulties.

Try these ideas to keep Indian mynas out of your garden.

• Don’t feed them.
• Clear away food scraps when eating outside.
• Feed pets indoors or throw away leftover food after they finish eating outside.
• Block holes in the roof and eaves to prevent them creating a nest.
• Install bird netting to block access to roosting or nesting areas.
• Install bird spikes to prevent them from roosting on ledges.

Tips to deter foxes from coming onto your property.

Try deterrents

Use animal deterrent scents, or experiment with movement sensor ultrasonic noise devices or movement sensor water sprinklers.

Don't feed them

Never feed foxes or treat them as domesticated animals.

Clean up

Dispose of food scraps, pet food left outside and excess fruit dropped by fruit trees. Don’t leave objects for foxes to climb over onto neighbouring properties. Remove rubbish lying around and secure bin lids.

Compost care

Always cover your compost heap or use a compost bin.

Weed control

Remove blackberry thickets and other weeds that provide cover for foxes.

Secure coops

If you have chickens, ducks, guinea pigs or pet rabbits, lock them up in secure, roofed coops, especially at night. If a roofed coop isn’t feasible, use 1.5 m high fences with an outward-facing flexible or rigid overhang. This prevents foxes from scaling the fence. Wire netting should be buried at least 450 mm underground or attached to a concrete or wooden floor to prevent foxes from digging underneath. The wire fence and roof netting should have a gauge of at least 0.9 mm, with mesh no larger than 40–50 mm to prevent foxes from pushing through.

Restrict access

Block access to underneath your house to prevent foxes from seeking shelter.

Community awareness

If you spot a fox in the area, inform your neighbours so they can take appropriate action.

Report fox sightings

Visit the Feralscan website to report your sighting. Recordings will contribute to the collection of data on fox locations and hotspots, which informs the Australian Pest Animal Strategy. Reported fox sightings will not result in the control or removal of a sighted fox in that area.

Controlling foxes

It’s the responsibility of the landowner to take all reasonable steps to control fox activity on their property and to prevent its spread. If you’re experiencing problems with foxes on your property, you should contact a qualified pest control company.

If you're a rural landowner and you'd like to know more about fox control within the City of Whittlesea, visit our fox control page.

Rats and mice are considered pests because they:

• are a health hazard
• can spread diseases through their droppings and urine
• can eat and contaminate food for human consumption
• can destroy walls, pipes and household goods
• can cause electrical problems within the house.

Mice come out at night in search of food and are rarely seen during the day. Rats appear during the day and night.

Signs of rats and mice in the house include:

• gnawing
• mice droppings
• holes in walls.

A 20 mm hole may indicate the location of a mouse’s nest, while an 80 mm hole may indicate the location of a rat’s nest.

Discourage mice and rats by:

• throwing out all food scraps
• keeping all food packaging sealed
• using plastic containers with lids to store grains, cereals and flour.

You can use poison bait to control the spread of mice or rats within your home. You can buy this from your local hardware store or supermarket. Ensure you follow the guidelines on the product packaging.

Important: Ensure people and pets do not eat the bait, and take extra care when children are in the house.

Common fruits and vegetables targeted by QFF include:

• apples
• capsicums
• cherries
• chillies
• choko
• citrus fruits
• eggplants
• feijoa
• grapes
• olives
• quince
• strawberries
• tomatoes.

For a full list, visit the Agriculture Victoria website.

• Start your control program at least six to eight weeks before fruit is ripe for picking. QFF can lay eggs inside hard, green fruit, so it’s important to start early.
• Prune host plants regularly to a manageable height so all the fruit can be easily picked and the trees can be netted with exclusion netting if needed.
• Harvest all ripe fruit and ‘fruiting vegetables’ from the host plants before it has a chance to fall onto the ground.
• Collect fallen fruit immediately and dispose of it in the general waste (not compost).
• Suspected infested fruit needs to be treated (cooked or frozen) before disposal.
• Remove your unwanted or unmanaged host plants including blackberries and unmanageable ornamental fruiting plants.
• Carefully examine fruit for pests and diseases before sharing and swapping fruit with friends. Movement of fruit from place to place is how pests and diseases are most spread.
• Avoid transporting any fresh produce into the area from known QFF areas such as northern Victoria, NSW, and QLD. This prevents new incursions.
• Traps that are designed to attract, catch and monitor QFF in your garden as well as bait sprays, gels and insecticides are commercially available. You can also make your own trap.

More information on Queensland fruit fly

For more information, watch these short videos produced by our neighbours at Nillumbik Shire Council and Darebin City Council: