Rachelanna

Goodness what a fuss about a few insects! You need screens for your windows and doors. Try salt for the ants; sprinkle it in their path and along window sills etc. Cockroaches may require baits. They are not harmful.

BEVS

Well, thank you for that.

I defy you to use the sprinkle salt method for the ants that come into my home. They don't come in via windows and doors. These ones use other entry ways. They can harm electrical cabling as I have stated in a previous post. They also quite like the teeny gaps along water pipes.

Screens might be a possibility for some properties & some properties do have them. Could be useful for doors but pretty miserable to have all doors, ranch sliders and windows permanently screened during the better months of the year.

For flies we have the house sprayed every 18 months like most everyone does around here.

Rachelanna

Well, to be honest I live in Sydney, near the water. Cockroaches, flies and ants are the least of our problems. I have had a red bellied black snake come right into our hall and I cannot do any gardening in the afternoon as I get so bitten by the mossies and sandflies. Then there are the spiders; I had a fungal infection for months last year from a bite. At least things are not so bad in NZ!
I have had a lot of success with salt for ants but occasionally I have had to use Ant Rid.
Almost everyone in Sydney gets the odd cockroach and where we used to live we did have to get the place sprayed because the sandy soil seemed to make them worse. But thankfully here I find the baits quite effective.
Screens are the norm here and demanded by tenants. I would have thought that would be in case in NZ as well.

BEVS

...and that's why we wouldn't wish to live in many parts of Australia & so do not. Doesn't mean we should not wish to be rid of infestations though.

No. Screens are not all encompassing here & certainly not for rentals. I know of one property with a screen door.

Erm . Nopes.

I can sympathise with the sand flies. I have never gained immunity to them. Miserable little critters.

fish.01

Do the type of screens you have there block the breeze BEVS or did you mean something else ?

Bo-Jangles

Some places have these security screen doors but they are more of a security thing so that you can have front door open for a bit of 'indoor outdoor flow' and not having small children wander off or even bigger creatures wandering through to steal your stuff.

Rachelanna

They are the type of screens that we all have in Oz. Checked with my husband who works in asset management in public housing; door screens always required and provided, as is window screening. At our place we don't have screens on all the windows but we only open the windows that do.
NZ is obviously are more gentle place; I took no notice of screens when we were last there!
And live in the suburbs of Sydney. You should hear the stories from my friend on a property in north WA! Crocodiles in sheds, bites by redbacks.

BEVS

Um. No.
I meant what I wrote. Pretty miserable to have a screen lockdown all over a property for the summer months. We've a pal who screened in a patio area outside of their lounge because of sandflies ( it's built low on an old river bed next to rural paddock) & it's a bit sad sitting there looking out at the hills through the mesh.

I'm quite tempted to take a photo of the 'social housing' here Bo-Jangles.

Anyway, best of luck in Sydney Rachelanna.


Back to pest control .

I had wondered if having a house part on piles was part of the problem. We also store our log burner wood under the house . However, it seems not. The weeny ants do seem worse after rains though. I think one of my kitchen light switches has been infested again.

Anyone had an extra problem with rodents this year because of the beech mast?

We did. For the first time ever we needed to trap for mice. Pals of ours were sitting in their lounge ( new build house) and a mouse ran across their posh lounge floor. Incidentally, same people that screened in their lounge.

Bo-Jangles

That's only if you have a very long lens and can get close enough without risking your life, eh ? Would not like to think of you having to negotiate your way past the pitbull, the five cars that are on brick and the assorted beer drinking bogans that will be lurking on the driveway.

We have a rental across the way to us and they have no care for insects and creepy crawlers in the house, they practically live out on the deck drinking and smoking all day. Maybe that's the way to go, can't beat em then may as well join 'em (the insects and rodents I mean).

fish.01

Well yes it was clear you stated it would be miserable in the better months but it wasn't at all clear why. Certainly not clear enough to justify the tone

BEVS

There was no tone . It was my entitled response to Rachelanna declaring -

"Goodness what a fuss about a few insects" and "You need screens for your windows and doors."

Then seeking to negate the NZ thread by referencing Sydney horror stories like some Monty Python 4 Yorkshiremen sketch.



.


So , I'd suggest Rachelanna owns the 'tone'. ............ wink.

fish.01

So I was just an poor innocent caught in the crossfire then...I'll take more care to survey the battlefield before wading in next time Dangerous pastime these forums

Rachelanna

Ok, I'm dead then! Will retreat and shut up!!

BEVS

Not really. No.

Us NZ forumites were simply discussing getting rid of infestations when Rachelanna walked in with her denigration of our discussion. I responded to her and then you turned up to defend your girl, for whatever reason.

Please don't try to make this into something it was not. Rachelanna freely chose to enter our quiet discussion , not only to scoff but also to make an untrue statement. You chose to try to have a pop on her behalf.

Hers and now yours, to have and to hold entirely.

Now if you don't mind can us NZers return to our own creepy crawlies & how we deal with that here in NZ.

Thanks .

fish.01

Well your assumption couldn't be more wrong though I can now see where your attitude came from. I have no idea why you seem so certain I would be interested in defending someone I have never heard of, who expressed an opinion in a way I don't even agree with (yes I have now gone back to read it after the fuss you have made).

You have that game totally wrapped up. As you were.