Hartenbos pest control, from the holiday flats to the family home

What do you do when you've treated your Hartenbos flat for cockroaches and they're back a month later? Usually, the answer is to look beyond your own front door. In a block of holiday units, pests move through shared walls, pipe ducts, roof spaces and bin areas. Treating one flat in isolation is often why the problem never quite goes away.

How Hartenbos is different

Hartenbos is a holiday resort town next to Mossel Bay, and it works on a very particular cycle. Over December the holiday flats, caravan parks and resort fill up, and the population jumps. Then most of it empties out again. That swing affects pests in a few ways:

• Cockroaches travel in with luggage, grocery boxes and second-hand appliances, then spread between units through plumbing and electrical ducts.
• Rats and mice follow the rubbish. Overflowing bins, braai areas and outdoor eating spots in season give them more food than they'll find all year.
• Ants move into closed-up units and find whatever was left in the cupboard.
• Flies build up around bins and braai areas in the warm, busy months.

Outside the season, the empty units give rodents somewhere quiet to nest, often right next door to permanent residents who then get the blame, or the problem.

If you live in a block or complex

For body corporates, managing agents and owners in sectional title schemes, the most effective approach is a building-wide treatment. We inspect the common areas, including roof voids, service ducts, refuse rooms and gardens, then treat the affected units and the shared spaces together. It is usually simpler than everyone calling separately, and it works better, because the cockroaches have nowhere left to retreat to.

If you're a single owner and the rest of the block isn't on board yet, we'll still treat your unit properly and make it as hard as possible for pests to come back in, especially around pipes and gaps under the front door.

Our process

First we find the source. In a flat that might be a cockroach colony behind the stove, a gap where a pipe passes through the wall, or a bin room on the ground floor. In a house, we look at roofs, eaves, garages and gardens.

Then we treat. Gel baits and an odourless, non-staining residual spray for cockroaches. Ant baits carried back to the nest, plus a protective barrier inside and out. Lockable bait stations, traps or tracking powder for rodents, placed so that children, pets and holiday visitors can't get at them.

Finally, we tell you what will stop the problem returning. For rodent jobs we come back to check, and once activity has stopped we can sanitise the affected areas.

For a normal treatment there's no need to empty cupboards or leave the flat. Once surfaces are dry, it's safe for kids and pets.

Signs worth taking seriously

• Cockroaches in the kitchen during the day, which usually means a large population
• Pepper-like droppings along cupboard shelves and hinges
• Rodent droppings in the bin room or behind the geyser
• Gnaw marks on doors, skirting or packaging
• Scratching in the ceiling of a top-floor unit after dark

Prevention for holiday units

The local habit that helps most in Hartenbos: before you lock up a holiday unit after the season, take every food item out, including the half-packet of rice and the sugar bowl, empty and rinse the bin, and put a towel or draught strip along the bottom of the front door. Shared buildings get a lot of foot traffic in the corridors over summer, and a sealed, empty unit simply isn't worth a cockroach's time.

For body corporates, keep bin areas closed and washed down regularly through the summer, and make sure bins are emptied often enough to cope with the extra holiday rubbish.

The thing most people get wrong

Thinking that because the unit is only used a few weeks a year, a quick spray before the holidays is enough. Pests are busy all year. A treatment done in good time before the season, with checks afterwards, does far more.

How much will it cost?

The cost depends on the size of the unit or house, how many units are involved, how established the pests are and whether follow-ups or proofing are needed. A single flat with an ant problem is a small job. A whole complex with cockroaches through the ducts, or a caravan park with rodents around the ablution and braai areas, is a bigger one and usually best handled on a regular contract. We'll explain exactly what's included before we start.

Sometimes DIY is enough. A few ants after a rainy day can be handled by wiping the trail and closing the gap. Cockroaches breeding in a kitchen, or rodents in the roof, need a professional.

For more detail on specific pests here, see cockroach control in Hartenbos and rodent control in Hartenbos. If you're just down the road, see pest control in Mossel Bay.

Call 044 012 5011 to talk it through. We're SAPCA registered, our treatments come with a 3-month guarantee, and we've worked in the Garden Route for more than 25 years.