Pest control in Auckland Park, from student digs to family homes

Pest control in Auckland Park mainly deals with bed bugs and German cockroaches in shared student houses and flats, roof rats in the older homes, and booklice and fish moths among the books and papers. We inspect, treat every affected room together, and help landlords keep the problem from returning with the next intake of tenants.

A suburb that changes tenants every year

Auckland Park is home to the University of Johannesburg's Kingsway campus and the SABC, and that shapes it more than anything else. A lot of the older houses, many from the first half of the twentieth century, have been divided into rooms for students, and there are blocks of flats and digs a short walk from campus. Alongside them are family homes on quieter streets, small offices and media businesses, and the open ridge of the Melville Koppies a little to the north-east.

Every January and February, hundreds of people move into the area with mattresses, couches, microwaves and boxes, a lot of it second-hand. That is exactly how bed bugs and cockroaches spread. By the middle of the year, landlords who didn't treat between tenants are often calling us about the whole house, not one room.

Bed bugs in shared houses

Bed bugs don't care how clean a room is. They hitch a ride in luggage, on second-hand bed bases and in the seams of couches. Look for small itchy bites in a row, tiny dark spots along mattress seams and in the screw holes of the bed frame, and pale shed skins. In a digs house, rooms sit side by side and bugs walk along skirting and through plug points to the next bed. That's why we treat all the sleeping rooms in one visit, followed by a second visit to catch the eggs that hatch afterwards. Our bed bug treatments across Johannesburg explain how tenants should prepare.

Cockroaches in shared kitchens

A shared kitchen with six or eight people cooking at different times, food left out and a fridge nobody owns is cockroach heaven. German cockroaches hide in kettle bases, microwave vents, fridge motors and the hinges of cupboard doors. Spraying makes them scatter into the rooms. Gel bait in the right spots, plus a cleaning routine the house actually sticks to, is what clears them. Read more on our cockroach control in the Northcliff area page.

Rats, booklice and fish moths

Older Auckland Park homes have big trees, roof spaces with gaps under the eaves and the odd broken air brick, so roof rats are a regular winter call. We bait outside in locked stations and trap in the ceiling.

Books, lecture notes, archives and boxes of paperwork in cool, slightly damp rooms attract booklice, which are tiny, pale and easy to miss, and fish moths, which nibble paper, wallpaper paste and fabric. Students and offices both find them. Lowering humidity and a targeted treatment of shelving and cupboard voids sorts them out; see booklice treatment in Johannesburg.

For landlords: treat between tenants

The single most useful thing an Auckland Park landlord can do is book a treatment in the gap between one set of tenants leaving and the next arriving, while rooms are empty. It's quicker, cheaper and more effective than treating a full house in May. We can also put you on a regular schedule and give you a service record for each visit, which helps if a tenant complains or a dispute comes up.

How we treat

We inspect each room, the kitchen, bathrooms, roof space and garden. Tenants don't need to move out for insect treatments, though for bed bugs we'll give everyone a short preparation list: bedding washed hot, clothes bagged, floor cleared. Our sprays are odourless and don't stain, and people and pets should stay off treated surfaces until dry.

A common mistake

Throwing out the mattress. It feels like the answer to bed bugs, but the bugs are also in the bed frame, the skirting and the curtains, and a new mattress just gives them a fresh meal. Treat first, then replace anything that's really damaged.

An Auckland Park tip

If you're a student buying a second-hand couch or bed base, check the seams, joints and underside with a torch before it goes into your room. Ten minutes of looking can save a whole house from bed bugs.

What it costs and why

The cost depends mostly on the number of rooms and the pest. A single kitchen with cockroaches is a small job. A digs house with bed bugs in every room needs two visits and more time, so it costs more, though treating all the rooms at once is still far cheaper than treating one room at a time over months. Rats depend on the number of stations and follow-ups. Guide "from" prices are on our pest control pricing page, and we'll quote on site.

Auckland Park is served through our Northcliff area pest control, and we work regularly in neighbouring Melville too.

Combat Pest Control is owned by Jason van Heerden, who has worked in pest control for 25 years. We're registered with SAPCA and the Department of Agriculture (Act 36), we can be with you within 24 hours, and our general treatments come with a 3-month guarantee. Call 084 200 2700, or WhatsApp us a photo of the bug you've caught.