frequently asked questions
We provide all residential customers with dos and don’ts prior to servicing. All of our services are performed in line with relevant acts, legislation’s and best practices.
I have a cat, a dog and a bird – is it going to be safe for them if you are spraying my house?
We ask that any pets be removed from the area that is being treated. If we’re spraying the inside, put them outside and vice versa. Once the chemical is dry, it is safe to bring your pet back. Depending on the weather, this can take up to an hour.
What about my fish, I can’t move them?
Of course not, we wouldn’t expect you to. In the case of fish, we ask that the tank be covered and the filter turned off whilst that room is being treated. The same goes for any other pets that live in tanks such as turtles and lizards.
Do I have to empty my kitchen cupboards like I used to?
No, not at all. No more messy powders in the kitchen cupboards, these days we use a much more targeted approach for cockroaches by treating cracks and crevices and gel baiting inside your cupboards.
What if it rains on the day of the treatment?
Think of the residual insecticide as a bit like paint, provided the product gets a chance to dry it will adhere to the surface; the products we use are designed to endure typical weather conditions and will not get rinsed off by the first rain event. However if the surface is already wet or it rains before it gets a chance to dry it can affect the treatment. Our Technician will assess the conditions at the time of the treatment and reschedule the external work if need be.
How toxic are the chemicals you use?
The products we use are recognised as being the safest available on the market. However, that being said, they must be used in accordance with the product label, that is, the rate of application and areas of treatment. So, using them the way they should be used, they are considered very safe to be used in and around domestic homes. These are the same products which are registered for use in hospitals and schools.
Do I have to vacate the house while you spray?
Not really, we just ask that you are out of the room while we are treating. The easiest way is for you to stay inside while we treat the outside and stay outside whilst we do the inside. If there are young children at home, it would be best that they are not at home at the time of the treatment.
How often should I get my house treated?
Every house and every client is different. We have clients that don’t want to see a single living pest and we treat their houses inside and out every six months. We also have clients that prefer to have their house treated every few years. But the majority of our clients get it done annually and this is the minimum recommendation for keeping the pest population at bay.
Are the products you use natural?
The term “natural” is used a bit misleadingly in the pest management industry. A very popular and common group of insecticides referred to as “pyrethroids” are based upon the naturally occurring insecticide “pyrethrum” which is produced by chrysanthemum daisies. The problem is pyrethrum is essentially non-residual, and provides no long-term control, therefore these pyrethroids have been synthetically modified to provide residual protection against insect pests whilst still maintaining that low toxicity of pyrethrum. So technically synthetic pyrethroids are not natural products however some pest control companies do like to exploit their naturally occurring origin to have you believe that they use safer products than everybody else. There seems to be an assumption that “natural means safe” when in fact some of the most toxic products on the planet are naturally occurring substances. Arsenic is a perfect example of an extremely toxic natural by-product whereas a lot of the synthetic pyrethroids are even less toxic than the natural form of pyrethrum.
We want to pressure wash our house, how long after the treatment should we wait?
Pressure washing is designed to clean surfaces back to their original condition, and this of course can remove any residual insecticide we have applied. It is therefore recommended that pressure washing is carried out prior to your next treatment.
Can I mop my floors after you have treated?
The first time you mop or vacuum, will not remove the product completely, but it will gradually remove the product each time you do. Therefore, we do ask that you avoid mopping the edges of your floors at least for a couple of weeks. That way we are hitting any pest activity in your home at full strength and speeding up that control process for you. You can mop in the middle of the floors or sweep, just don’t mop the edges for a while.
What areas do you treat?
A normal general pest treatment is an internal/external treatment including the roof space. But we essentially target our treatment to areas which will maximise the products exposure to the pest but is also safe to do so. These areas typically include skirting boards, cornices, beneath and behind fridges and dishwashers, kitchen kickboards, full perimeter of the outside of the building, edges of footpaths, sub floors, garden edges, around windows and behind downpipes, beneath carports and pergolas just to name the main areas. Our technician will discuss with you on the day in more detail and address any questions or concerns you may have.
You sprayed my house last week but I’m still seeing pests?
Unfortunately, the pests will not disappear overnight and they don’t just simply hit the product and die on impact, we need to allow time for the pests to come into contact with the product and for the product to actually work on the pest. For this reason, we normally say if you can please just tolerate any pest activity you might see over the next 3-4 weeks to give the treatment a chance to do its thing. Having said that though, if at any stage after this but within our free service period we have offered you, you feel the treatment isn’t working as good as you expected, or as it has done previously, please feel free to give us a call.
You sprayed my house a few months ago but I still get the occasional spider or cockroach, is this normal?
Yes, as much as we would love an invisible force field around our house which would stop every creepy crawly in its tracks, pest treatments don’t work that way unfortunately. Insects don’t just simply hit the treated zone and die on impact or get repelled away, they have to track across the treatment first, picking up tiny traces of the product and then crawling off to die some 24 hours later (for instance, if you see a cockroach during the day, it will only be because it is sick and effected by the chemical). The aim of the treatment is to stop pests from taking up residence and multiplying in your home. You often see good evidence of this when you clean out your garage and you find a myriad of dead spiders and cockroaches behind all the stored goods. These are pests that have wandered into your home and have been controlled by the treatment without you even knowing. If however you feel you are seeing more than the occasional pest then please give us a call, we can’t fix a problem unless we know there is a problem.
If you bait the rats in my roof, won’t they just die up there, why can’t you just trap them?
Unfortunately, trapping rats tends to only trap the young and dumb ones and is a very long and tedious process. The baits we use are designed to have a gradual effect on the rodents; the rodent will feel unwell, feel uncomfortable and get the wanders, once out of the building, they will get disorientated and die elsewhere. The reality is however that 80-90% will die elsewhere and 10-20% may die within your roof space. So, it depends on the size of the rat population in your roof, if you have just one or two rats living in your roof, you would be unlucky to get a casualty, however if you have 10-20 rats living in your roof, chances are you are going to get a casualty in your roof. But with 10 or 20 rats living in your roof you are going to have bigger concerns than the chance of a carcass in your roof.
What if my dog eats a rat bait or one of the poisoned rats?
Rat bait is extremely toxic to dogs therefore whenever we bait outside of the roof we always ensure the bait is secured inside tamper resistant stations which are designed to prevent kids and pets from accessing the bait. For a dog to suffer secondary poisoning from consuming a poisoned rat it would have to consume multiple poisoned rats, so although it is theoretically possible it is very unlikely. Dogs cannot get secondary rat bait poisoning from simply licking or mouthing a carcass.
You baited the rats in my roof late last week but they still sound like they are having a party up there!
We typically advise you to allow 1-2 weeks to gain control of the rat population, the reason being is we need to allow time for the rats to find the bait and then for the bait to actually work. We even sometimes hear an increase in noise after we have baited due to rats fighting over the bait and sick rats getting chased out by other healthier rats.