Does your Knysna property need fumigating? Start here

You need fumigation when insects are living inside something: deep in timber, inside a piece of furniture, or through bags and boxes of stored food. If they're on the surface, in cracks or running across the floor, a normal spray or bait treatment is the better choice, and much less disruptive. Fumigation means sealing the space and keeping everyone out until it's cleared, so we only recommend it when nothing else will reach the insects.

Three questions that usually settle it

1. Can you see where they live? If you can see a cockroach run under the fridge or an ant trail along the skirting, they're reachable with bait and residual sprays. If all you can see is small holes and fine powder, the insects are inside, and that's where fumigation earns its place.
2. Is it something you can throw away? A single bag of flour with weevils goes in the bin. A storeroom full of stock, a dining room suite or a roof full of timber doesn't.
3. Can the space be sealed? Fumigation only works if the gas is held in for the full exposure time. A room, a container, a storeroom or a tarped stack can be sealed. Some buildings need more preparation than others, and we'll assess that on site.

What we fumigate in Knysna

Timber and furniture with wood borer

Knysna has a long history with wood. Many homes are timber, many have wooden floors, beams and decks, and plenty of families own old furniture made from indigenous hardwoods. Wood-boring beetles lay eggs in timber, and the larvae can feed inside it for a long time before the adults emerge. The signs are neat round exit holes and small piles of fine, powdery dust, called frass, on the floor beneath. Fresh, pale frass means the beetles are still active.

A borer-infested piece of furniture can be fumigated on its own, and so can a sealed room or, where it's needed, a structure.

Stored food in restaurants, shops and warehouses

Knysna has a busy food and hospitality trade, and anywhere that keeps flour, grain, rice, spices, dried fruit, nuts or pet food in bulk can pick up weevils, flour beetles or pantry moths. Once they're through the stock, cleaning shelves won't fix it, because the eggs and larvae are inside the packaging. Fumigation kills every stage at once.

Household goods

Boxes of books, stored furniture or household goods that have picked up an infestation in storage can also be treated before they come back into the house.

What happens on the day

We begin with an assessment: what's infested, how big the space is and how well it can be sealed. Then we prepare. Doors, windows, vents and gaps are sealed, or the items are covered with gas-proof sheeting. We apply a registered fumigant such as phosphine, and the space stays sealed for the exposure time the label requires, which is often a few days. Finally we ventilate and test the space before anyone goes back in.

Please note: gas fumigation is not like a spray treatment. The sealed area must be vacated by everyone, including pets, and nobody may enter until we've cleared it. Fumigant gases are dangerous to people and animals. It's a job for trained, registered operators only.

Getting ready

• We'll tell you exactly which area is being sealed and for how long, so you can plan where to stay or how to run your business around it.
• Take out pets, plants and any food or medicine we advise you to remove.
• If it's a business, plan your stock and staff around the closed period.
• Let neighbours know if they share a wall or a ventilation route, so nobody is caught off guard.

What fumigation won't do

This is the honest bit that a lot of people don't hear. Fumigation kills what's there on the day. It doesn't leave a protective layer behind. Bring in a new piece of infested furniture or a new pallet of infested stock and the problem can start again. So the follow-up matters: check deliveries, rotate stock, keep store floors clean and inspect old timber pieces before you bring them indoors.

The Knysna-specific tip: damp timber is far more attractive to many wood-boring insects than dry timber, and with the forest around town and plenty of moisture in the air, wood stays damp easily. Keep gutters clear, fix leaks quickly and make sure subfloors and roof spaces are ventilated. Dry timber is your best long-term defence.

How much will it cost?

Fumigation is priced on the volume being treated, how easily it can be sealed and how much preparation is involved. A single item of furniture under sheeting is a much smaller job than a full storeroom or a sealed room in a timber house. We'll assess the job first and give you a free quote that includes the exposure time and what you'll need to do on the day. If we think a spray, bait or a simple clean-out will solve your problem, we'll tell you that instead.

For insects that don't need fumigation, see insect control in Knysna. Rodents in the roof? See rodent control in Knysna. You can also read about fumigation in George.

To book an assessment, call us on 044 012 5011. We're SAPCA registered and we've been working in the Garden Route for more than 25 years.