Although they don’t bite humans, cockroaches are able to transmit a range of nasty diseases and germs from one place to another.

This is because they live and feed in sewers, rubbish bins and other unsanitary places which are brimming with bacteria, viruses and parasites. These harmful organisms can accumulate and then be passed on through cockroach droppings and saliva. Some can even hitchhike to other places by latching onto the cockroach’s legs.

If you happen to ingest food or drink that has been in contact with a cockroach, it could well be contaminated and cause potentially serious illness. This is particularly problematic not just for homes, but also for hospitality businesses.

Skilled at surviving in different environments, cockroaches can be just as comfortable living in your rubbish bin as they are in your pantry or bathroom. However, this means that they can contaminate once-sterile surfaces and places and cause a wide range of illnesses and diseases. This includes diarrhoea, food poisoning, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and leprosy.

With sharp teeth and strong jaws, they can chew through plastic, fabric, furniture, books and leather goods.

Cockroach droppings also contain pheromones which attract more cockroaches to the same area.

Some people may even experience allergic reactions to cockroach droppings, shed skins, and saliva. Those with asthma may need to take extra precautions.

We recommend keeping cockroaches out of your home or business in the first place, as well as reducing available food sources and hiding spots.

Cockroaches will eat almost anything, including meat and vegetables, sweet or greasy foods, paper, leather and fabric. This means that it’s essential to store all food tightly and keep your kitchen and dining areas clean. Wipe away spills and grease, wash cutlery and keep sinks and drains clear. Practice good hygiene when handling food—clean tables and benches as well after use. Don’t forget to tightly seal and cover rubbish and discard pet waste.

Regular building maintenance also plays a key role in keeping cockroaches away. Being small and flat, they can crawl through small gaps to gain entry, so you’ll need to carefully check for all potential entry points and seal them with gap filler or expanding foam.

Leaking pipes and drains create a damp environment for cockroaches to thrive, so we suggest checking for leaks and repairing them as quickly as possible.

At Allstate, we understand that the last thing anyone needs is an outbreak of cockroaches in your home or business while you’ve been away for holidays. But thankfully, with the right treatment, you can have the problem under control quickly.

Since 1986, we have been providing pest control services to all suburbs of Adelaide. With a 24/7 availability, our highly trained team can provide advice for urgent enquiries in residential, commercial and industrial settings. Rest assured that our treatments are non-toxic to children, pets and the environment.

All our services come with competitive warranties and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. We can even provide finance options, allowing you to access our effective cockroach management treatments easily and without delay.

Summer is the peak time for many insects to emerge from winter hibernation in order to reproduce and look for food. Hungry spiders are no exception.

With plenty of food sources around to support their mating season, you’ll tend to notice spiders around the place more often as they sneak indoors to escape the heat.

While there are an estimated 10,000 species of spiders living in Australia, most of them aren’t harmful to humans. Although they’ll most likely bite when they are disturbed, these bites aren’t usually venomous or painful. They might just leave a mild, itchy bump on the skin for a short time.

However, spiders with more potent venomous bites can cause more serious illness requiring immediate medical attention. The good news is that antivenom treatments are readily available, so you should be fine if you see a doctor quickly.

You’ll find them living beneath leaf litter and piles of vegetation in your garden, as well as underneath tree bark and rocks.

Males grow up to 12mm long and females up to 20mm long.

Often confused with funnel web spiders, mouse spiders have a distinctive bulb-shaped head and jaw.

You’ll find them in burrows that can be more than 1m deep, so they are more reclusive than aggressive by nature.

They are mainly black or dark blue but can have bright red or orange-red coloured jaws or around their eyes, as well as a light grey to white patch on top of their abdomen. Adult mouse spiders vary from 10 to 35mm in length.

A common sight around the home, black house spiders spin fine, lacy webs in zig zag patterns that aren’t sticky. However, they do leave behind old sheets which become messy.

They grow up to 15mm long and are dark brown to black, with a textured velvet appearance.

Black house spiders prefer dry habitats and secluded locations such as window frames, gutters, eaves, bricks, garages, sheds, and even toilets. Outdoors, you may encounter them among rocks, underneath tree bark, or inside tree trunks and logs.

The best way to keep spiders away from your home or business is to seal off entry points, reduce the number of hiding spots and remove all potential food sources.

Regularly cleaning inside, such as sweeping, wiping and mopping can assist with removing insects that attract spiders, and clearing away cobwebs and spider eggs. Don’t forget to check behind the furniture, window corners and other less frequented areas.

We also recommend regular garden and yard maintenance, such as trimming back plants and trees that are growing close to your building to reduce access and mowing lawns. Dispose of litter piles, such as leaves, and move wood piles away from your building. Keep compost and rubbish bins well secured. However, please wear gloves when gardening in case you disturb some hidden spiders!

You can also purchase insect repelling night light bulbs from your local hardware store.

Coming into summer, the last thing you need to worry about is deadly spiders lurking around when you just want to relax and enjoy outdoor activities.

That’s why at Allstate, we’re available 24/7 for urgent advice to all suburbs of Adelaide. No matter if you’re in a commercial, residential or industrial building, our fully equipped technicians are ready to assist with spider outbreaks of all sizes.

Since 1986, we have offered pest control services with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, backed by competitive warranties. With our new payment plans, we can promptly address your spider issues using innovative, long-lasting treatments. Our expert team is ready to help you now.

While it’s not unusual to notice more mosquitoes in warm weather, here’s some ways that you can tell if you have a full-blown infestation:

You frequently hear buzzing sounds

Due to the rapid beating of their wings during flight, mosquitoes give off a persistent, characteristic high pitched buzzing noise.

Install screens over windows and doors
Having a mesh or wire screen as a physical barrier is always helpful, but it’s best to avoid leaving doors and windows open if possible.

Remove breeding sites
Fill ditches and holes in the ground to prevent water from accumulating as this becomes a potential breeding habitat. Inspect your yard and ensure that there is adequate drainage for pooling water. Consider filling pot plant saucers with sand to absorb excess water.

Regular property maintenance
Make sure that the plumbing and water drainage system at your property is working efficiently, with no leaking pipes and blockages.
Keep your yard clean and tidy, taking care to trim trees and vegetation to limit overgrowth and hiding spots for mosquitoes. Dispose of fallen fruit and vegetables.

Prevent mosquitoes from following you into your home
If possible, limit outdoor activity during peak active times, or use mosquito nets to keep them out of your space.

When you’re heading outdoors, wear insect repellent that contains diethyltoluamide (DEET) or picaridin. You can also use natural alternatives such as eucalyptus or lemon oil, citronella, tea tree oil, but these will need be applied more frequently.
Wear protective clothing and a hat to limit any potential mosquito contact. Bright coloured clothing is known to be less appealing to mosquitoes than darker shades.
You can also consider purchasing electronic repellent devices that are available from hardware stores.

Avoid leaving potential food sources outside
Where possible, keep food items covered and consider using a water dispenser for pets instead of leaving an open water bowl.

Turn on the fan
The moving air current disrupts mosquitoes in flight and disperses carbon dioxide, which attracts them to human hosts.

After an assessment of the outbreak and the layout of your property, your Allstate pest control technician will often use a combination of the following treatment methods:

Larvicides
For ponds and standing or stagnant water areas which are common breeding sites for larvae, we apply highly targeted larvicides to prevente all mosquito larvae. You can be confident that these chemicals have minimal impact on other aquatic organisms.

Adulticides
When there are a large amount of active adult mosquitoes, we’ll need to use a different approach that covers a greater area, that may need to be applied multiple times. This can include:

• Fogging
  During active times (mainly dawn or dusk), we’ll apply an airborne spray that contains either a natural or synthetic pyrethroid chemical to the entire affected area. These chemicals disrupt the mosquito nervous system and cause paralysis. Fogging is usually effective for 2-3 days.
• Residual barrier treatments
  We use this for smaller, more targeted areas, aiming to stop adult mosquitoes from entering your home by lingering on surfaces where they may land. We commonly apply this treatment to fences, eaves, walls, vegetation or foliage and it is known to last for up to 6-8 weeks.

Bees play a key role in sustaining our natural environment as they pollinate plants to help with fertilisation and reproduction. So, as your garden begins to bloom in spring, it’s perfectly natural to notice more bees around.

That’s because they come out from a long winter hibernation and become more active during October to December. They are hungry and looking for places to fill their bellies with floral nectar.

Bee outbreaks can quickly get out of control as they have a short reproductive cycle and Queen Bees can lay plenty of eggs to boost the colony in a short time.

Most of us dread encountering a noisy bee swarm and being met with a persistent buzzing sound that can be quite distracting and disruptive.

As they forage for food sources in different places, their fine hairs can pick up germs and spread diseases. Not to mention, they’ll leave behind messy and sticky honey stains wherever they go and attract other pests as a result.

Bees can certainly be dangerous as they will sting if they feel threatened. These stings are painful and for some people, can even trigger swelling and allergies.

If you have flowers and plants in your backyard, it’s likely that you’ll be visited by bees at some point. But, are there ways from stopping these casual visitors from becoming a swarm? Absolutely!

We recommend starting off with removing all potential food sources from the garden, including fallen fruit which is high in sugar and a real treat for hungry bees. Dispose of uneaten pet food and avoid leaving food and drinks uncovered, especially meat and dairy products and sweets.

Where possible, we recommend choosing more gentle, natural bee deterrents. This way, the bees are safe from physical harm. This includes using ultrasonic electronic bug repellent products which are readily available from hardware stores.

You can opt to populate your garden with plants that bees are less keen to frequent, such as mint, eucalyptus, citronella, marigold and geranium.

As bee antennae are highly receptive to scents, you can use products with strong smells which are unpleasant to bees. Scented candles and mothballs are useful, as well as sprays made with water mixed with essential oils or herbs. This includes lemon, lime, vinegar, lavender and peppermint. It’s thought that sliced cucumber laid on aluminium sheets also has an off-putting odour as well.

The first recommendation we make to all clients who enquire about pest bees is to not disturb the hive and aggravate the bees. Do avoid making sudden movements.

Since bees play an important role in the environment, we prefer to relocate pest beehives to a safer location rather than relying on extermination where possible.

Our team will first locate the beehive and try to identify the species of pest bee to determine the level of danger posed to you and your family.

If we’re unable to remove the beehive, our technicians will apply a targeted control dust into the beehive cavity to prevente the colony. This will deter new colonies from occupying the hive. To ensure that the treatment is effective, we’ll continue to review it if needed.

If the outbreak is severe, we may even call in local professional beekeepers for assistance.

Don’t forget, we have a 24/7 emergency bee removal service to help you at any time.