The house has been closed since Easter. You'll arrive tired, with a car full of children and groceries. A bit of organising from a distance means you open the door to a clean house, not a smell.
Book a pest check for about three to four weeks before you arrive, and send your caretaker the checklist below for the week before. Between them, they deal with what a closed house usually collects over winter: rats in the roof, a wasp nest over the front door, fleas in the carpet, fishmoths in the linen cupboard. The rest of this guide is a countdown, so you can see what needs doing when.
October: line up the people
Most of the work is arranging access, and that's easier with weeks to spare.
- Confirm who has keys: a caretaker, a neighbour, a rental agent
- Book the pest visit for early to mid November. Our holiday home pest control page explains what the visit covers
- If you know of a loose tile, a broken vent cover or a gap under the kitchen door from last season, ask a handyman to look at it now. They tend to get busy as the holidays approach
- Ask someone to clean the gutters. Blocked gutters hold water for mosquitoes and rot the fascia boards that keep rats out
Three to four weeks out: the pest visit
This timing is deliberate. If there are rats in the roof, bait needs a couple of weeks to do its work, and you want the activity over before the family arrives, not during. If we find a gap that needs closing or a wasp nest that needs removing, there's time to sort it out.
You can be a thousand kilometres away. Whoever holds the keys lets us in, and you hear from us afterwards about anything we came across and any repairs to arrange.
The week before: a checklist for your caretaker
Copy this into a message. It takes about an hour.
- Open every window for a few hours to air the house
- Run every tap, flush every toilet, and pour a bucket of water down each floor drain and outside gully. Traps that have dried out let drain smells, and sometimes cockroaches, come straight up
- Switch on the fridge and freezer so they're cold when the family arrives
- Look in the kitchen cupboards and drawers, the pantry and behind the stove for small dark droppings
- Open the linen cupboard and look for small holes in sheets and towels, a fine dust of grit on the shelves, or tiny pale insects on the books. Those are the signs of damp-loving pests; our guide on fishmoths, booklice and damp homes explains them
- Walk around the outside and look up under the eaves, the carport and the braai area for grey papery wasp nests. Don't knock any down. Photograph them instead
- Check the pool, pond, water feature and pot plant saucers for standing water and empty what can be emptied
- Make sure the pet door, if there is one, is closed
- Send you photos of anything odd
If anything on that list turns up a problem, you still have a week.
Arrival day
- Unpack groceries on the counter and put the cardboard boxes straight outside in the recycling. German cockroaches like to travel in boxes from busy stores and warehouses, and a warm holiday kitchen suits them perfectly. See our German cockroach profile for what to look out for
- Wash bedding and towels that have been folded in a cupboard for months before using them
- If you brought firewood from home, keep it outside and away from the house. Old timber can carry wood-boring beetles
- If you're travelling with a dog or cat, make sure their flea and tick treatment is up to date before you leave home. Our guide to flea season with pets covers what else helps
During the holidays
A full house in summer produces a lot of food scraps, and that's what draws pests in.
- Bins. Keep the lids shut, rinse them out once a week and don't let bags pile up next to them waiting for collection day. Flies, rats and the neighbourhood's dogs all go for overflowing bins
- The braai. Scrape the grid and clear scraps the same evening. Wasps and flies find a dirty braai quickly the next day
- Fruit. A bowl of ripe fruit on a hot counter breeds fruit flies fast. Keep it in the fridge
- Water. Empty buckets, toys and saucers that collect water every few days. A summer of rain and warm nights turns a forgotten bucket into a mosquito nursery, as our mosquito control page explains
- Outside lights. Switch them off when you're not using them. They bring in insects, and the insects bring geckos, spiders and frogs to the doorway
If you let the house out over December
Your guests won't know the house's habits. A short page in the welcome folder helps: where the bins go, keep food sealed, don't leave food out overnight, and who to call if something turns up. If the house is busy back to back, consider a quick check between the first and second half of the season. One guest finding a cockroach in the kitchen is more trouble than the visit.
January: locking up again
When you close the house, take all food out, empty and prop open the fridge, and leave no water standing anywhere. The full list of what to do when you leave is on our holiday home page, and scratching in the ceiling when you're back at Easter is the subject of rats in the roof in autumn.
Holiday homes along the coast
We look after houses everywhere from Mossel Bay to Plett. Town pages for Plettenberg Bay, Knysna and Sedgefield cover the local picture.
Phone 044 012 5011 or book the pre-season visit, and tell us the date you'll arrive and who has the keys.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should I book a pest check for December?
Aim for October or early November, for a visit three to four weeks before you arrive. That leaves time for rodent bait to work and for any repairs to be done.
What should my caretaker check the week before we arrive?
Air the house, run all the taps and drains, switch on the fridge, look for droppings in the kitchen, check the linen cupboard and the eaves, and empty any standing water. Our checklist above is written to be forwarded.
Can groceries bring cockroaches into the house?
They can. German cockroaches and their egg cases travel in cardboard boxes and packaging. Unpack on arrival and put the boxes outside.
There's a wasp nest above the braai. Can we leave it?
A small nest well out of the way can sometimes be left, but one above the braai, a door or a play area should be removed. See our wasp removal page, and don't try knocking it down yourself.
Why does the house smell of drains when we open it?
The water in the plumbing traps dries out over months, leaving an open path for sewer air. Run every tap and pour water down floor drains and the smell should clear quickly.
Should the dog be treated before we travel?
Yes. Get your vet's flea and tick treatment done before you leave, so your pet arrives protected and doesn't carry fleas into the holiday house.