Pest control in Melville, for homes, guesthouses and 7th Street

Pest control in Melville covers a suburb where hospitality and homes overlap. We treat bed bugs in guesthouses and rentals, German cockroaches in restaurant kitchens, roof rats in older houses, scorpions and spiders on stands that back onto the Melville Koppies, and subterranean termites in old timber. Each needs its own approach, and we explain it plainly.

Melville in pest terms

Melville is one of Johannesburg's best-known older suburbs, laid out more than a century ago on the slopes beside the Melville Koppies nature reserve. Its streets are lined with early twentieth-century houses, many with verandahs, tin roofs and timber floors, mixed with flats, student rentals and a good number of guesthouses. 7th Street is the suburb's restaurant and nightlife strip, with bars, cafés and small shops, and the University of Johannesburg is just across the way in Auckland Park.

Guests and students arrive with luggage; restaurants produce food waste; the Koppies bring rocky veld right up to the back walls of some properties. Put it together and you get pests from three directions: carried in, fed by waste, and walking in from the reserve.

Guesthouses and short-term rentals

Bed bugs are the guesthouse owner's biggest worry. They come in in a guest's suitcase and settle in bed frames, headboards, mattress seams and the backs of picture frames. One bad review can follow a business for years, so speed matters. We inspect each room, treat affected rooms and the rooms on either side, and come back for a second visit to catch the eggs. Housekeeping staff can be shown what to look for when they change linen. Our bed bug treatment in the Northcliff area covers preparation in detail.

Restaurants, bars and cafés

Commercial kitchens on 7th Street, as anywhere, deal mainly with German cockroaches and rodents. Cockroaches hide in dishwashers, ice machines, coffee machines and the gaps behind stainless-steel splashbacks. Rats and mice come in through delivery doors and around drains at the back. A scheduled programme with gel baits, monitors and lockable stations, plus a written record of every visit, keeps both under control and keeps the health inspector satisfied. We work before opening or after closing.

Older homes

Roof rats

Tin roofs on old Melville houses leave gaps under the corrugations at the eaves, and the big trees give rats a route up. Bait outside, traps in the ceiling and then closing the gaps is the answer.

Termites in old timber

Suspended timber floors, old door frames and built-in cupboards are vulnerable to subterranean termites, which work up from the soil in mud tubes. Our termite control around Northcliff treatments carry a 5-year guarantee and a certificate. If what you're seeing is fine powder and small round holes rather than mud tubes, it's more likely wood borer, which we also treat.

Living beside the Koppies

Stands that back onto the Melville Koppies, or have rocky gardens of their own, see more scorpions, spiders and centipedes than flatter suburbs. Most local scorpions are the thin-tailed, big-pincered type whose sting hurts but isn't dangerous; the thick-tailed ones deserve more caution. A barrier around the house, treatment of rock walls and a tidy garage keeps them outside. See scorpion control in Johannesburg for more.

How we work in Melville

Homes get an inspection and treatment in one visit wherever possible. Guesthouses and restaurants get a site plan and a schedule. Our insect treatments are odourless and don't stain linen, floors or furniture, so rooms can be back in use quickly once sprayed surfaces are dry; nobody needs to move out, and pets and children simply wait until surfaces have dried.

What guesthouse owners get wrong

Treating only the room the guest complained about. Bed bugs travel along walls, plug points and on housekeeping trolleys. If one room has them, check and usually treat the rooms either side and the linen store as well.

A Melville tip

Put a luggage rack in every guest room and ask guests to use it rather than putting suitcases on the bed or carpet. It keeps travelling bed bugs away from the places they like to settle, and makes them easier to spot.

What it costs and why

A house treatment depends on the pest and the size of the home. Bed bug work is priced per room and always includes a second visit. Restaurant and guesthouse contracts are priced on the premises, the number of stations and how often we visit. Termite work is quoted on the building's perimeter and the amount of timber involved. For guide "from" prices, see the Combat pest control prices page; we confirm on site.

Melville is part of our Northcliff pest control service area, and we also look after neighbouring Auckland Park.

Combat Pest Control is owned and run by Jason van Heerden, who has 25 years of experience. We're SAPCA registered and registered with the Department of Agriculture under Act 36, we offer service within 24 hours, and our general treatments are backed by a 3-month guarantee. For a guesthouse emergency or a home inspection, call 084 200 2700, or WhatsApp us a photo of the bug.