Sunday 20 January 2013

The top pests for December were.......

There's been a big change in pest activity leading up to the Christmas break.


The holiday break always see's a big increase in calls about;


Number 1: Fleas
These are always a major problem over the Christmas break and it's because Kiwi's love to go away on holiday.

Why flea problems? Well, fleas always prefer to live on your pet but when you're off on holiday you tend to put the fur babies into a cattery/kennels or confine them to the yard. The problem with this is there's nothing for the fleas to feed on while your away......and when you get home they're going to be very, very hungry and not  to picky about their food source. So you'll come back from holiday, walk in door and get covered in fleas as the vibrations of your feet bring them out of hibernation.

It's all to do with the flea life-cycle, for more information click on our blog post here.

Number 2: Flies
Fly populations always explode as the weather warms up, this is due to an increase in their food supply. As the temperature increases so do the calls about fly control.

Treatments for flies are one of the most common requests over the Summer. We're actually very lucky because of our temperate climate. This makes these treatments a very effective means of fly control. In most countries where there are major fly problems, fly treatments aren't effective as temperatures are generally greater than 28 degrees. Temperatures higher than this allow the flies to pass the treatment through their system (metabolise it) before it has a chance to take effect.

Number 3: Spiders
Same as flies, the increase in the spider population over the Summer months is due to an increase in the food source. This year has been no different with spider control coming in at number 3 on the top pest for December list.

There have been reports of an increase in white-tail spider activity (see the New Zealand Herald article here) but at Bug King we're seeing the same level of enquiries as past years.

It's been a very, very busy few months for the team at Bug King and it looks like continuing into January, February. If you're having problem with any of these pests (or any others) don't hesitate to give the team at Bug King a call.

The team at Bug King/Chimney King