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A broken down pipe is not only a drainage issue, termites are attracted to damp areas. This home is also constructed on a slab with high soil levels concealing the slab edge, which can allow termites to enter the house undetected. The combination of these factors significantly increases the risk of termite attack to this house and the period of time that may lapse before activity and damage is noted. Fixing or replacing broken down pipes is a small cost when compared with treating termites and replacing damaged timbers, or the loss on the value of your property when termite damage is found while selling your home.

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Ever seen one of these? Don't let the spider webbing on the outside fool you, this is a nest that belongs to a Willie Wagtail. They use the spider web in the construction of the nest and line the inside with hair or fur. The location of this one is a little unusual, being perched on top of an exterior wall light.

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This is a White Tailed Spider found on a wall in Quakers Hill. These spiders are very commonly found on walls inside homes and in leaf litter outside. This is not generally an aggressive spider, but will bite if provoked or touched.

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Happy 2017 everybody! We're back today. We appreciate your patience, and now's the time to give us a call. We've still got plenty of appointments available for January, so no need to put it off any longer.

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Thank you to all our valued clients for again choosing us this past year. We'd like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Our office will be closing from 12pm on Friday 23rd December and re opening on Monday 9th January 2017. As usual, emails and messages will be checked during this period. If you have any urgent matters, get in touch with us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Have a look at the termite in the middle of the screen, he's a soldier and it's his job to defend the colony - usually against ants, and he's shaking his head. This makes a clicking kind of sound and when there's hundreds of termites doing the same thing it can be heard through a wall. The white termite just below the soldier that starts moving after about 10 seconds is a worker termite, apart from the colour difference, their heads and mandibles are smaller and his job is to collect food and repair the nest. The species in the video is Coptotermes which can cause large amounts of damage, especially in the warmer months when they are much more active.

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While borer activity is not as commonly seen as it once was, they are still out there. This home in Mosman had borer damage to a floor board. Treatment for this type of borer is required every year for 3 years due to the borers life cycle to ensure they are controlled. So if you are looking to buy a home (or furniture) that has this sort of marking on the timber, ask for proof of treatment because without it borers must be assumed to be still active.

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I usually like to eat small snakes, rodents, lizards, worms, beetles and sometimes fish, but I'll also help with your spiders and other insects outside. As the weather gets warmer, insect and spider populations start to increase and natural predators are looking for extra food for a new generation. When nature isn't keeping on top of the problem as much as you'd like outside your home, give us a call. A treatment now will get infestations under control before the really hot weather starts.

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This system really seems to work keeping possums from using overhead wires as a highway to your roof. We don't install these ourselves, but the large disks are too big for the possum to get around and because they spin on the wires, they can't be climbed over either. A simple and brilliant solution.

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A new client in Pennant Hills contacted us to do a termite inspection for her home. Termite bait stations were positioned around this house, but had not been checked or maintained for over 5 years and the results in the roof were telling. Just because bait stations were installed at some point, gives you no ongoing protection unless they are checked and maintained regularly and annual termite inspections are always a must. Now as well as the cost to bait the termites, there will be timber replacement costs as well. If there is this level of damage to the roof, you can be sure there is more damage to concealed areas such as in the walls.

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These termites were found between stacked planks of wood in a shed. Did you notice they're all facing the same direction and wondering why do they do that? This is typical behaviour for termites which have been disturbed, in this case the top pieces of timber which were concealing them were removed. Shortly there will be no visible active termites in this location, and is why we advise when you've found termites, not to remove the damaged timber thinking you'll get rid of the problem. You won't be helping, in fact you'll make the situation worse. These termites will go back to the nest and look for alternative food sources which can increase the time taken to eliminate the colony and also mean the damage to your property could be more widespread. Even though it's winter termites are still around. They might be less active, but they are still causing damage. If it's been over 12 months since your last inspection, give us a call for your own piece of mind.

Photos from Livermore & Son's post

Are all large cockroaches the same? Large cockroaches in Sydney can live outside, but are also found in wall cavities, subfloor spaces and roof voids because they like the dark, damp or humid conditions. The most common type is the American cockroach and is found inside more often than the Smokybrown and Australian cockroaches. The Smokybrown cockroach prefers food that is of plant origin and because of this is often found in gardens and greenhouses so infestations in a home are less common than the American cockroach, she will live for 6-12 months producing up to 520 eggs. (Shown below on the carpet) The Australian cockroach has different markings to the Smokybrown, but otherwise has very similar preferences, her life cycle is a little shorter at 4-8 months as is her egg laying capacity, producing up to 480 eggs in that time. (Shown below on the tree) The American cockroach will eat anything from decaying organic matter to paper and soiled clothes and produces up to 800 eggs in her 6-12 month life. So on to treatment... Does it differ? No, not really. As detailed on our website there are chemical and non-chemical ways to prevent cockroaches, but once an infestation has occurred, treatment is the only way to go. The cockroaches you see are only the tip of the iceberg because they are mostly nocturnal creatures who like the security of their tight little hiding places. If you've seen them then there's usually quite a large population in hiding. Their life cycles slows down in winter which means it's a great time to get them under control before the warm weather arrives, so give us a call.