Bay Pest Services owner-operator Chris Brunel. Photo / File
Bay Pest Services owner-operator Chris Brunel. Photo / File
Pest control services are being kept busy as creepy crawlies and insects come out of the woodwork, their activity boosted by the hot temperatures.
Resolvit Pest Control owner Paul Corkin told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend with all the heat it had been a frantic, busy time.
He saidthere was more activity from pests in general in hot conditions, so as temperatures increased they had been busier and busier.
"When temperatures get over 20C consistently, pests breed and are more active. Their metabolism speeds up, there's more around for spiders to eat and more decaying material for flies."
Corkin said fleas had been a big issue with the humid weather. People had been coming home from holiday and realising they had a flea problem.
"It's been pretty disturbing for people; we've seen some bad infestations."
They had also been consistently receiving calls about ants. Many people said they had always had ants in the garden but never had to deal with them inside until now, he said.
He said he had been in the supermarket and noticed all the fly spray was gone, which might be an indication of how much people were having problems with some pests.
"With flies, hygiene is a big thing - such as cleaning up after pets, making sure the compost is covered, and disposing of food scraps."
Paul Corkin, owner of pest control company Resolvit, dusting for ants and cockroaches. Photo / File
Tauranga Pest Control Ltd owner Karl Downes said he had been very busy so far this summer - a lot busier than last year.
He also said a reason for this could be the heat, as more breeding occurred in high temperatures.
Downes said he was still experiencing a lot of rodent activity, which was unusual for this time of year.
He said white-tailed spiders were a pest he had been getting many calls about: "A lot of people are finding them inside their house".
He encouraged people to make sure they asked for the qualifications of those doing their pest control job and to ask all the right questions.
Downes said he had spent a lot of time and effort building a new website which was chocka full of information about what pests there were and how to control them.
He had been getting a lot of comments from people who were blown away by the information, he said.
Joel Dunn, from Proactive Pest Solutions, all geared up. Photo / Andrew Warner
Proactive Pest Solutions Ltd co-owner Rhiannon Mitchell said they had been really busy so far this summer, and had been inundated with jobs for fleas and ants, which were loving the warmth this year.
"Ants have been a really big one this summer, everyone is struggling with ants.
"We've had a customer who has been living in their house for 50 years and never had a problem with ants, but have been this year."
This was a problem they had been seeing throughout the Bay of Plenty, she said.
They had also noticed that calls around wasps were starting to pick up.
At this time of year, her main piece of advice was not to have a 'she'll be right' attitude to start off with.
"People leave the problem and then it's an expensive fix. If you call earlier it's cheaper."
Bay Pest Services owner Chris Brunel also said they had been steady so far this summer.
"It's been extremely hot, so that always promotes the activity of insects. We have noticed quite a few more wasps, and we even think some of the wasp nests are wintering over as we are finding that a few of them are really established."
He said he had been in this business for 31 years and so had seen a lot of the insects' patterns.
However, he thought some insects were starting to show unusual patterns, among them wasps.
Brunel said if people did discover a wasp nest, even though it might seem like a simple exercise, get a professional in and don't attempt to remove it yourself.
