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European fire ant helping spread of invasive plant

December 31, 2014 10:16 am / Leave a comment

The European fire ant, Myrmica rubra, is invading southern Ontario. They can deliver a painful nettle-like sting. A study shows they may be helping with the spread of an invasive plant species.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that our yards and parks are being taken over by a species of ants with a painful sting, now researchers say that these invasive insects are also helping the spread of an invasive plant species.

It is a double whammy, says Megan Frederickson, University of Toronto evolutionary biologist and one of the authors of the study to be published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B Wednesday.

The results of the study of Myrmica rubra, the fire ant native to Europe that was first discovered in Ontario in 1970, suggest that “invasional meltdown could be happening right under our noses, here in Ontario,” said Frederickson.

“Invasional meltdown” is the idea that one invasive species could help the spread of another invasive species, making it more common in an eco-system than if it were invading a new place on its own.

“We don’t have a lot of examples,” said Frederickson. “But I think it is more common than we think it is.”

Research for the study was conducted at U of T’s field station, the Koffler Scientific Reserve, where the team created artificial ecological communities inside 42 small plastic children’s swimming pools. Each pool was filled with soil and planted with four species of spring wildflowers — three native species and one invasive.

Researchers then collected colonies of either the European fire ant or a native woodland ant and added them to the pools. The ants picked and moved seeds of these plant species as the researchers watched.

“The pools with the invasive ant were overrun by the invasive plant, but pools with the native ant had lots of native plants,” said Kirsten Prior, an ecologist and co-author of the paper.

The invasive ants moved lots of seeds of all four plant species but the invasive plant, greater celandine, took advantage of being dispersed more than the other species.

Greater celandine, the invasive plant species that the ants spread the most, is a weed commonly seen in Ontario that grows rapidly. It multiplies quickly in the same places where wildflowers like trilliums grow.

Traditionally people have studied invasive species in isolation, said Frederickson. “But it now seems that we have a lot of invasive species all arriving in new environments and they interact with each other. And those interaction help how fast they are able to take over.”

What is really worrying for the study’s authors is that if this kind of interaction between two invasive species is common, it could result in there being invasive species everywhere all the time and that invasive species could spread really fast.

How exactly the tiny reddish-brown fire ants — notorious for their painful, burning stings — travelled to North America isn’t clear but Frederickson says most invasive insects get to new places “because they are brought in with agriculture shipments . . . like crops. They are accidentally moved around the world.”

In Toronto, the ants, which seem to prefer moist areas, have become a lot more common in the past decade, say researchers. They are all over the Islands, parks like the Tommy Thompson Park, the Cherry Beach and the Don Valley ravine.

“Why it has taken this long for their populations to grow . . . isn’t clear,” said Frederickson.

Raveena Aulakh

Consumer report: Ant poison

August 24, 2014 3:39 pm / Leave a comment

(shutterstock)

I’ve got ants. Well, not “I,” as a personalised, privately owned individual, per se, as such. What I mean to say is: I have been inundated with an outpouring of ants, in and around my house. Lots of them.

Now, in this country, our democratic freedom of movement is guaranteed by the Preambling Constipation of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. By law, our ants are allowed to move onto and into any open area, building, farm, or vacant plot. Once they have moved in, or on, they become known as “resident ants.” They then proceed to demand “seevass deelee varry.” Without paying a cent.

Very similar to our squatters and their “informal settlements.”

Trying to get rid of them, or evicting them, is a very different kettle of another fish altogether. You have to provide them with what is known in the traditional isiXhosa lingua franca as: “alternative housing.” The squatters, that is, not the ants.

If all else fails, you send in the Red Ants. Which, in my case, I cannot do. I have a problem getting rid of ants in the first place. Sending in more ants will not ameliorate the problem.

So, after giving the matter serious thought and considerable consideration, praying to Wakan Tanka for guidance, and checking my options on Google, I decided to poison the lot of them.

Not the squatters, you understand? That would be unconstitutional; I’m talking about my ants.

The squatters are voters, and like the taxi drivers, they are above the Law. What little there is left of the Law; if any. Anyway, the squatters outnumber the ants.

At my local Pick ‘n Pay, on the Weapons of Mass Destruction shelf, I found enough poisonous substances to kill all the Tea in China. I selected a spray bottle with a label which reads: Reg. No. L6399 Act No. 36 of 1947.

This sounded like good stuff. The bottle was of a good vintage – one year older than what I am. I can respect that. It’s come a long way. Just like me.

As an Ant Bully of some ill repute, I decided to conduct an unbiased test on the product. Here are my test results:

Name of Product: DYNEST Extended control. Slow release microcapsules.

Product Claims: DYNEST contains deadly microcapsules which attach themselves to insects, slowly releasing insecticide. The special formulation allows the microcapsules to cling to insects – even when they crawl up vertical surfaces.

DEADLY TO CRAWLING INSECTS, INCLUDING: Cockroaches, ants, bedbugs, fishmoths, moths, fish and chipmunks, etc. Insect control will be noticed within 6 hours, 5 minutes, and 14 seconds after spraying DYNEST, and will continue for months. A shorter period of control (6 hours, 5 minutes, and 13 seconds), can be expected if DYNEST is applied outdoors.

WARNINGS:

Never point the spray gun at anybody. Toxic to fish and cows and geese (especially to ganders). Store away from food and feed and fie and foe and fum. Keep out of reach of children – unless you want to get rid of them.

Do not allow humans or pets near treated areas until spray has thoroughly dried – approximately three years. Do not eat, drink, or sleep, for two weeks after using the spray. Destroy empty container, and those who saw you using it. Dead fish floating in fish tanks, and bloated cows, and flightless ganders, should only be removed by fully qualified Hazmat personnel.

INDOOR PROTECTION: Spray where insects are found, including cupboards, where skeletons are stored, and inside government buildings.

OUTDOOR PROTECTION: Create a kill zone. Spray on the ground around the house, in a 10km wide band.

REMARKS: The DYNEST spray gun fits nicely into the hand – making for a lightning fast draw. It has a double-action, hair trigger, which is easily accessible, even for left-handed gunslingers.

The weapon comes in gunmetal grey, with a red nozzle and trigger. The nozzle has two settings: Off and On. Ensure that you know and understand the difference: On means it’s On. And Off means it’s NOT On.

Lastly, the gun has a curse, written in the ancient language of the Apartheid Aztecs, on its side. It consists of just one word: “SKADELIK.” According to an Entomologist, who specializes in prehistoric languages at the University of Mpumalanga, it means: “Prepare to meet thy DOOM, all ye who use this product.”

CONCLUSION: This product is much too dangerous for use by someone as unskilled, incompetent, and untrained in the use of lethal weapons, as I. Its long-term impact on the environment can be catastrophic.

I fired only one test shot in my garage, and since then, my neighbour has been unable to get his car started. A man has threatened to jump from the 23rd floor of the Cape Town Civic Centre. The water in Mothutlung, in the North West, has become undrinkable. A polar bear has died in the Joburg Zoo. Same-sex marriages have been banned in Nigeria. Two tourists have been attacked by an elephant in the Kruger National Park. Justin Bieber is still alive.

The list goes on and on.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t buy DYNEST. I’m just saying that you should be VERY careful with the stuff. You might accidently poison our squatters and taxi drivers. That’s all I’m saying.

In the meantime, I’ve got ants. Well, not “I,” as a personalized, privately owned individual, per se, as such. What I mean to say is: I have been inundated with an outpouring of ants, in and around my house. Lots of them…

Swimming ants don shades to save their eyesight

January 12, 2014 1:08 pm / Leave a comment

The Swimming Ant, Polyrhachis sokolova; image courtesy Ajay Narendra, ANU

Australia’s unusual swimming ants take their own ‘sunglasses’ when they go to the beach – to shield their sensitive eyes from bright sunlight.

Scientists at Australia’s Vision Centre (VC) have discovered how the world’s only swimming ants manage to cope with extremes of light and darkness, and how they navigate between their nest and food sources.

“These ants are found in North Queensland, where they establish nests in the mangrove swamps where ocean and land meet,” says Dr Ajay Narendra of The VC and the Research School of Biology (RSB) at the Australian National University (ANU).

“They are the only ants that we know of whose daily activity is tidal-dependent. Instead of relying on temperature or light intensities like most ants, their foraging activities are based on the tides.”

Dr Narendra says the ants are active during low tides with most ants returning to the nest before the water level rises: “So they’re faced with the task of being active at a wide range of light intensities and as a result, developed striking visual adaptations to cope with it.”

The researchers first found that the ants’ eye structure is similar to those of strictly night-active ants. To capture more light, they developed larger lenses and wider vision cells compared to the day-active ants.

Due to their wider vision cells, the swimming ants also have a special way to protect the cells from burning out when they are active in bright light during the day, Dr Narendra says.

“In bright conditions, they restrict the amount of light that reaches their retina,” he says.

“The cells in their eyes move closer, forming a 0.5 micrometre wide aperture – 500 times thinner than a human hair. This makes their eyes less sensitive during the day.

“And at night, the cells move away, opening up the aperture to nearly 5.0 micrometres in width, making their eyes more sensitive at low light.”
Dr Narendra says that the formation of such a narrow aperture for the swimming ants is quite extreme, and scientists know of no other ant that does the same.

“This method is similar to how humans protect their eyes,” he says. “Our pupils dilate in the dark and narrow when it’s bright. “Something similar happens in the ants’ eyes. This technique is crucial for all animals that experience a wide range of light intensities to protect their vision.”

The group is at present studying the swimming behaviour in these ants.

Ants sent into space

January 12, 2014 1:00 pm / Leave a comment

About 800 ants are being launched into space to examine their foraging patterns. File photo
Image by: SUPPLIED

About 800 ants are being launched into space to examine their foraging patterns.

Eight ant habitats, each carrying about 100 ants, were to form part of the payload of an unmanned Cygnus cargo spacecraft when it leaves Nasa’s flight facility in Wallops, Virginia.

The aim is to see how ants’ behaviour changes in microgravity.

“When ant densities are high, each ant thoroughly searches one small area in a circular, ‘random’ walk,” said Stefanie Countryman, the programme director of the experiment. “When ant densities are low, each ant searches by walking in a relatively straight line, allowing it to cover more ground.”

The Cygnus will also carry 28 mini-satellites, no bigger than a bread tin, known as Doves, that will produce images of earth from space at a faster rate than existing satellites.

Army Ants

October 20, 2013 8:28 pm / Leave a comment

Army ant is a name that people use for ants that move in a line killing every insect and small animal in their path. People use other names for these ants, including Driver Ants, Legionary Ants, and even Visiting Ants.

Scientists describe army ants as ants that have two characteristics: migration or nomadic lifestyle and group predation. There are actually several different species of ants that behave this way. Some live in Africa and some live in South and Central America.

Army ants live in temporary nests. They seldom make underground burrows like other ants. The temporary nests, or bivouacs, are places where the ants rest between their hunting raids. The bivouac might be inside a hollow log, or it might be out in the open.

The ants often make the bivouac hanging from a tree limb. Thousands of workers will link their legs and their mandibles (jaws) and make an enclosed hammock for the queen. Sometimes the workers enclose the immature ants inside the hammock as well.

The army ants stay in the bivouac for a few weeks. Once queen comes out of the resting place and the colony starts to migrate.

Some species of army ants migrate in line. Other species migrate in a fan-shaped wave of ants. Many thousand ants move at once. The soldier ants march at the side of the column to defend the queen.

During the march, some of the workers carry the immature ants. Other workers gather all the food that they can find. As they go, the workers kill every insect, spider, snake, and lizard in their path. Birds and animals hear the ants marching and try to get out of the way.

As they march, the ants can climb trees or shrubs. They have been known to go through houses during the march. The residents of the houses scramble to safety when the column of ants comes in. The people remove their poultry and livestock to a place of safety.

If there is a benefit for the people, it is that when they return home, there are no roaches or other insect pests in their houses! The ants eat everything that does not run or fly away.

Scientists are studying these ants to find out what causes them to migrate as they do. Scientists once thought that the army ants migrated when there was no food left in the area. Now some scientists think that the timing of the migration might be linked with the development of the eggs and the immature ants in the colony. They suspect that there is a connection between the queen’s egg production and the colony’s movements.

Fun ant facts

September 15, 2013 8:37 pm / Leave a comment

(shutterstock)

Like all insects, ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints.
The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.
Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.
An ant brain has about 250,000 brain cells. A human brain has 10,000 million so a colony of 40,000 ants has collectively the same size brain as a human.
The average life expectancy of an ant is about 40-60 days.
The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid.
The ant has two eyes, each eye is made of many smaller eyes.
The job of the queen is to lay eggs which the worker ants look after.
The Army Ant (Ecitron Burchelli) of South America, can have as many as 700,000 members in its colony.
At night the worker ants move the eggs and larvae deep into the nest to protect them from the cold.
The queen ant lays all the eggs in the anthill.
 Wood ants squirt acid from the end of their abdomens.
 Wood ant workers live seven to ten years.
 Wood ants make anthills out of twigs, leaves and soil.
 The queen ant lives up to ten or twenty years.
 The wood ant can threaten the enemy with open jaws.
 There are thirty-five thousand kinds of ants in the world.
 The male ant has wings for a short while.
 There are sixty species of ants in North America.
 The queen ant has wings.
 The army ant bites and stings any bug that comes toward it.
 The army ant can even bite a huge snake.
 Ants have two stomachs one for them and one to feed others.
 Some ants sleep seven hours a day.
 The queen licks the eggs to make them hatch.
 The queen feeds her eggs her own saliva.
 Some ants can have up to three queens.

10 Frightening Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Ants

September 4, 2013 4:39 pm / Leave a comment

We all know ants are incredibly capable creatures. They live in vast, interconnected colonies, can lift several times their own body weight, and coordinate their activity with incredible precision.But many of the things that make ants impressive would also make them formidable foes. Perhaps it’s time we took a look at some of these strengths in greater detail. Remember: it’s important to know your enemy – erm, I mean your new insect overlords.

10) Ants are as old as the dinosaurs
In 2006, Scientists from Harvard and Florida State University collaborated to conduct a massive genetic analysis on ants from 19 out of 20 known subfamilies. Their findings suggested that ants first arose in the mid-Cretaceous period — about 110—130 million years ago. And yes, that means:

9) Ants have already survived a mass extinction event
The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (still commonly referred to as the Cretaceous-Tertiary — or “K-T” — extinction event) is thought to have occurred approximately 65 million years ago following an absolutely massive impact event. Widely regarded as the downfall of the dinosaurs (and, incidentally, the rise of mammals), the years following the KT-extinction event are actually believed to have been a time of incredibly rapid speciation and worldwide expansion for ants, marking what researchers Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson — authors of the Pulitzer-prize winning book The Ants — call “a rise to ecological dominance.”

8) Ants have conquered almost the entire globe
The success of the ants all those millions of years ago continues to this day. In an article published in a 2000 issue of PNAS, entomologist Ted Schultz calls the rise of the ants “arguably the greatest success story in the history of terrestrial metazoa” ( i.e. pretty much any multicellular animal on Earth — and yes, that includes humans), and rightfully so.

With the exception of Antarctica, the Arctic, and a handful of islands, just about every piece of land on Earth harbors at least one native ant species; the ones that don’t host invasive species. Take the Hawaiian islands, for instance — not one of their more than 50 established ant species is believed to be native to the archipelago.

7) One group of ants conquered six continents
Take the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, for example. In 2000, biologists Andrew Suarez and his colleagues at UC Davis reconstructed the invasion history of the L. humile. The team revealed that in the last century alone, the species has become established in at least 15 countries throughout the world — including a number of isolated, oceanic islands (including Hawaii) — spanning six continents. Shown here is the world distribution of the Argentine ant.

6) The total ant population makes our 7 billion look weak
In their Pulitzer-prize winning book The Ants, researchers Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson estimate that there are upwards of 10,000,000,000,000,000 individual ants alive on Earth at any given time.

5) Some ants are quite large
Of course, even at numbers exceeding 10,000 trillion, ants are small, right? Well, that depends entirely on what you consider small. The largest ant ever discovered was actually a fossilized specimen belonging to Titanomyrma giganteum, was about 2.4 inches long and had a wingspan of almost six inches. Granted, T. giganteum isn’t around anymore, and many ants are less than a millimeter long — but there are still species like the African driver ant, Dorylus wilverthi, that exceed two inches in length. Does that sound small to you?

4) Ants have a hive mind
Truth be told, it doesn’t matter if it sounds small to you or not. When 50-million of them come together to form a single, eerily coordinated superorganism (and yes — large, self-organized ant colonies are commonly referred to as “superorganisms”) you can bet your ass you’ll think it looks a lot bigger than a single, 2-inch ant.

3) In some regions of the world, ants can account for over a quarter of the animal biomass
But a 50-million ant superorganism, believe it or not, doesn’t even begin to capture the true extent of the global ant presence. We’re talking about worldwide ant domination, after all — so how much of the Earth’s biomass do ants really account for?

In an article published in 2000 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, entomologist Ted R. Schultz writes that on average, ants “monopolize 15—20% of the terrestrial animal biomass, and in tropical regions where ants are especially abundant, they monopolize 25% or more.”

Granted, it would be misleading to say that ants have the largest biomass of any individual species on Earth (ants are actually a taxonomic Family that comprises over 20,000 known species) — but that’s not to say they couldn’t potentially set aside their interspecies differences. After all:

2) Ants cooperate with other species
There are over 200 known species of so-called fungus growing ants. Scientists had long assumed that fungi cultivated by these ants were simply passed on between generations within individual species. But in a study conducted in 2000, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin discovered that the ants’ cultivars are occasionally transferred between species, as well.

Interspecies cooperation would be one of the biggest hurdles along the path to establishing a global ant empire — but if fungus-growing ants can get along, perhaps other species could as well.

Then again, maybe cooperation wouldn’t be necessary, because:

1) Ants practice slavery
Many species of ants are known to raid neighboring colonies and steal eggs or larvae in a practice known as “dulosis”. The forcibly acquired young are then either eaten or put to work.

Species that practice dulosis are called, quite simply, “slave-making ants,” and they rely on this practice to support their colonies. In fact, some species of ants are thought to be incapable of feeding themselves in the absence of slave labor — to pillage and enslave is all they know.

Robert T Gonzalez

For Bio friendly Pest Control in the Gauteng Region contact the Ohoty Bird on office@ohoty.com

September 4, 2013 4:18 pm / Leave a comment

10 Fascinating facts about Ants

April 15, 2013 7:54 pm / Leave a comment

In many ways, ants can outwit, outlast, and outplay humans. Their complex, cooperative societies enable them to survive and thrive in conditions that would challenge the individual. Here are 10 fascinating facts about ants that just might convince you they’re superior to us.

1. Ants are capable of carrying objects 50 times their own body weight with their mandibles.
Ants use their diminutive size to their advantage. Relative to their size, their muscles are thicker than those of larger animals or even humans. This ratio enables them to produce more force and carry larger objects. If we had muscles in the proportions of ants, we’d be able to heave a Hyundai over our heads!

2. Soldier ants use their heads to plug the entrances to their nests and keep intruders from gaining access.
In certain ant species, the soldier ants have modified heads, shaped to match the nest entrance. They block access to the nest by sitting just inside the entrance, with their heads facing out like a cork in a bottle. When a worker ant returns to the nest, it will touch the soldier ant’s head to let the guard know it belongs to the colony.

3. Certain ant species defend plants in exchange for food and shelter.
Ant plants, or myrmecophytes, are plants with naturally occurring hollows where ants can take shelter or feed. These cavities may be hollow thorns, stems, or even leaf petioles. The ants live in the hollows, feeding on sugary plant secretions or the excretions of sap-sucking insects. What do the plants get for providing such luxurious accommodations? The ants defend the plant from herbivorous mammals and insects, and may even prune away parasitic plants that attempt to grow on the host plant.

4. The total biomass of all the ants on Earth is roughly equal to the total biomass of all the people on Earth.
How can this be?! Ants are so tiny, and we are so big! But scientists estimate there are at least 1.5 million ants on the planet for every human being. Over 12,000 species of ants are known to exist, on every continent except Antarctica. Most live in tropical regions. A single acre of Amazon rainforest may house 3.5 million ants.

5. Ants sometimes herd or tend to insects of other species, like aphids or leafhoppers.
Ants will do just about anything to get the sugary secretions of sap-sucking insects, called honeydew. To keep the sweet stuff in close supply, some ants will herd aphids, carrying the soft-bodied pests from plant to plant. Leafhoppers sometimes take advantage of this nurturing tendency in ants, and leave their young to be raised by the ants. This allows the leafhoppers to go raise another brood.

Learn More: Mutualism Between Ants and Aphids

6. Ants will enslave other ants, keeping them captive and making them do work for the colony.
Quite a few ant species will take captives from other ant species, forcing them to do chores for their own colony. Some honeypot ants will even enslave ants of the same species, taking individuals from foreign colonies to do their bidding. Polyergus queens, also known as Amazon ants, raid the colonies of unsuspecting Formica ants. The Amazon queen will find and kill the Formica queen, then enslave the Formica workers. The slave workers help her rear her own brood. When her Polyergus offspring reach adulthood, their sole purpose is to raid other Formica colonies and bring back their pupae, ensuring a steady supply of slave workers.

7. Ants lived alongside the dinosaurs.
Ants evolved some 130 million years ago during the early Cretaceous period. Most fossil evidence of insects is found in lumps of ancient amber, or fossilized plant resin. The oldest known ant fossil, a primitive and now extinct ant species named Sphercomyrma freyi, was found in Cliffwood Beach, NJ. Though that fossil only dates back 92 million years, another fossil ant that proved nearly as old has a clear lineage to ants of present day. This suggests a much longer evolutionary line than previously thought, leading scientists to estimate the appearance of ants on Earth as somewhere around 130 million years ago.

8. Ants started farming long before humans.
Fungus farming ants began their agricultural ventures about 50 million years before humans thought to raise their own crops. The earliest evidence suggests ants began farming as early as 70 million years ago, in the early Tertiary period. Even more amazing, these ants used sophisticated horticultural techniques to enhance their crop yields. They secreted chemicals with antibiotic properties to inhibit mold growth, and devised fertilization protocols using manure.

9. Some ants form “supercolonies,” massive communities of ants that can stretch for thousands of miles.
Argentine ants, native to South America, now inhabit every continent except Antarctica due to accidental introductions. Each ant colony has a distinctive chemical profile that enables members of the group to recognize each other, and alerts the colony to the presence of strangers. Scientists recently discovered that massive supercolonies in Europe, North America, and Japan all share the same chemical profile, meaning they are, in essence, a global supercolony of ants.

10. Ants follow scent trails laid by scout ants to gather food.
By following pheromone trails created by other ants from the colony, foraging ants can gather and store food efficiently. A scout ant first leaves the nest in search of food, and wanders somewhat randomly until it discovers something edible. It will then consume some of the food and return to the nest in a straight, direct line. It seems these scout ants can observe and recall visual cues that enable them to navigate quickly back to the nest. Along the return route, the scout ant leaves a trail of pheromones, special scents that will guide her nestmates to the food. The foraging ants then follow her path, each one adding more scent to the trail to reinforce it for others. The workers will continue walking back and forth along the line until the food source is depleted.

insect.about.com

Natural ways to deter bugs & mozzies

March 8, 2013 12:27 am / Leave a comment

The summer months bring sunshine, heat and unfortunately insects. They invade homes faster than you would believe and once they settle in, they can be difficult to get rid of.

However, there are a few precautions you can take to deter insects from becoming uninvited house guests…

Ants

Ants are a common problem in households as they find their way in despite the best of efforts. However, ants communicate primarily through scent, so this can be used against them.

Placing cinnamon sticks and fresh garlic cloves near their point of entry will confuse them and stop them from coming over the threshold. Another option is to sprinkle black pepper where they climb in. If you do this while the ants are still crawling around, watch where they scurry off to, as this will show you where the nest is.

Pour boiling water into the anthill. This may seem cruel, but it will flush the ants and any eggs out and does far less damage than an ant poison. Also, mix a solution of white vinegar and water and keep it in a spray bottle. Spray down the areas the ants tend to stick around to stop them from coming back.

Tip: Ants can’t stand the smell of sage, peppermint, pepper, cinnamon and coffee. You can use these to seal a perimeter round your house to stop ants from wandering in.

Mosquitoes

Nothing kills a summer mood more than the whine of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. The most common time for mosquitoes to come into a house is around dusk, so make sure to keep as many windows and doors closed around that time.

Citronella candles are a sure way to rid any rooms of mozzies and they come in some funky colours so you can make a feature out of them. Place one or two within your immediate area, but be sure to blow them out as soon as you leave the room.

Try wearing long sleeves made from lighter fabrics, such as bamboo or organic cotton. The less skin you show, the less likely you are to be bitten.

Flies

Flies are attracted to rotting meat and organic waste, so keep your garbage in a closed container and regularly wash it out with disinfectant.

Flies and other flying insects are not big fans of smoke. Lighting sticks of incense and candles will help deter them from entering your home.

Tip: Invest in an eco-friendly insect screen over your windows. These will let you keep your fresh air wafting through without bringing the bugs with it.

Cockroaches

These little pests are drawn into your house when there is food left out, so make sure to put all leftovers in airtight containers and pack them away into the fridge or cupboard. Wipe down your kitchen cupboards and counters regularly to get rid of crumbs and spills.

Like with flies, cockroaches are attracted to your garbage, so make sure that it is sealed and kept outside. Try to avoid having any damp areas in your house, as they like to breed in dark damp spaces. Also inspect your house and seal up any cracks in the walls or foundations right away, as these can be the way they are getting in.

Make an insect screen

You can make your own insect screens at home using a sheet of fine wire mesh. The finer the mesh the better, as fewer bugs will be able to slip through. Measure your window accurately and head to your local Builders Warehouse.

You can attach Velcro strips to the mesh and to your window frames so that you have the option of taking the screens down when you need to.

If you have metal window frames and don’t want to use Velcro, you can use magnetic strips. Attach the strips to the mesh with epoxy glue.

Remember that at night, insects are attracted to the lights you have on in the house, so only have the lights on in the room you are in. Some of the methods using scent as a deterrent may not work instantly, but with diligence they will make a difference.

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