Surge in 'crazy' pest problem plaguing Aussie homes: 'They're gaining strength'
The Sydney woman said 'mounds of dirt' have been popping up ever since she moved in.
A woman dumbfounded by the mysterious appearance of “little mounds of dirt” in her Bondi bathroom says she’s too worried to complain in case her landlord puts the rent up. But it turns out the piles of dirt are far more common than she realised, with experts warning the problem is rife thanks to Australia's recent unpredictable weather.
The 50-year-old woman told Yahoo News Australia she moved into the Curlewis Street property a year ago, and since then has been discovering brown piles on her tiles, which she assumed was dust.
“I would hoover them up and clean and mop the floor,” she said. “But they kept appearing behind the door.”
However she said the problem has now got worse, all thanks to a bathroom renovation.
“I have just had the shower refitted and obviously this has disturbed whatever they are, as they are appearing in another place but much more, and bigger mounds are left for me to Hoover,” the tenant explained.
“Where I thought it was just dust there, I can now see it’s small insects.”
But the woman, who’s now been without a shower for eight days while the work is carried out and has been told it’ll be another eight days of work, is still afraid to speak to her real estate agent about the situation.
“If I complain about this pest problem, the rent goes up,” she said. “The worry is to complain too much and you will be homeless.
What insects are responsible for the mounds of dirt?
While it’s difficult to tell what pest has invaded the Bondi resident’s bathroom, Garth Martin from Atrapp Pest Control North Bondi told Yahoo News Australia it does look like ants have been crawling out of a little hole in the floor.
And he is not surprised.
“Like the last three summers, it was raining the whole time,” he said. “It’s summer, it's raining and sunny, raining and sunny, raining and sunny. Well pest activity is gaining strength. That's what they do and the ants are going crazy. And not just in Bondi but everywhere. Rosehill, Balmain, Maroubra.
“Ants are going crazy at the moment, all over the place, and talking to other pest controllers they’ve been seeing the same thing.”
As for the dirt, Martin said it’s likely they “punched” it out. “It’s obviously come from that hole [in the tiles] because there's nowhere else.
“They’re subterranean pests. They just walk around looking for food and water and harbourage, and they crawl up our wall cavities and inside cracks in windows to make their way to a food source. That's what they do. That's ants.”
He urged the resident to buy Permethrin dust from Bunnings and “blast it in that hole” to get rid of them.
“You can dust a bit of Permethrin dust in there, or gels work really well. But it depends on the situation. You have to go there and have a look. But if you can find the nest and dust it, you've got half a chance of getting rid of them.”
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