What you need to know about:
ants
  • Image of red ant(Oecophylla smaragdina) on the branch. Insect. Animal.
  • Little ant charging with food in its mouth
  • Many ant are walking on plaster walls. While there are men's hands pointing.
  • ants-carry-food-walking-tree-nature-black-dark-background (1)
rodents
  • homemade little black Dzungarian hamster eats fresh cherries
  • The brown rat climbs the temple fence.
  • decorative-cute-black-white-rat-sits-center-heap-ripe-cherries-close-up-rodent
  • Pet rats on a wooden background
cockroaches
  • Close up Cockroaches are eating the white cream of the cookie, the blue background words. The Cockroaches are carriers of the disease.
  • Free stock photo of animal, backdrop, background
  • Dead cockroach on the floor after being hit by pesticides
  • Dead cockroaches on floor zooming by magnifying glass , pest control service. Top view
ants
  • The most common ants in South Africa are the Black house ants and the Coastal brown ants. Black house ants are attracted to sweet foodstuffs and are regarded as a nuisance as they scavenge in kitchens, garbage, and dog excrement. The coastal brown ant prefers to feed on meat products and grease.
  • Some queen ants can live for many years and have millions of babies.
  • The colony, also called a formicary, is made up of one or more egg-laying queens and a large amount of female “worker” ants who tend to her, build and maintain the nest, forage for food and care for the young.
  • Depending on the type of ants you have the queen can lay from 1 500 to 30 000 eggs a day.
  • Some nests have multiple queens so even more eggs are produced daily.
  • Using only spraying makes it impossible to get rid of a nest.
rodents
  • Rodents breed all year round. Females of breeding age come into heat every 4 to 5 days, unless they are pregnant, and even then, they may come in heat once or twice early in the pregnancy.
  • A female rodent can give birth every six weeks to as many as 12 pups.
  • Rats reach sexual maturity after 4—5 weeks, meaning that a population can swell from two rats to around 1,250 in one year, with the potential to grow exponentially.
  • The gestation period is about 19–21 days.
  • One female can have 5 to 10 litters per year, so the mouse population can increase very quickly. Breeding occurs throughout the year.
  • On average, you are looking at least 32 to 56 pups each year from one female mouse.
  • The mother can mate immediately after giving birth.
  • With an average lifespan of 18 months, and an average of 10 babies per litter, a single female mouse can produce more than 300 offspring in her lifetime.
  • Common areas for nesting are behind or inside the motor compartment of appliances, inside cabinets, or voids in walls behind cabinets. Inside the back of a refrigerator or dishwasher is a common nesting area as well as inside roofs.
  • Having mice in your house does not necessarily mean it is dirty. Mice do not take cleanliness as a factor when looking for shelter or a breeding place, so you find them in the most spotless homes.
  • Mice spread disease, such as hantavirus, salmonellosis and listeria through their urine, droppings, saliva and nesting materials.
  • The average mouse nest can be home to between a dozen and two dozen mice, depending on their age and the presence of other mice in the vicinity. Because mice nest in order to raise their pups, they seek out warm, dry areas that are well protected and close to a food source.
  • Baby mice grow up very quickly. After just six days, they have fur and can move and squeak. After 18 days, they are ready to leave the nest. Female mice can start having babies when they are just six weeks old. They can produce 10 litters every year, with up to 12 babies in each litter.
  • Baby mice may appear harmless, but they're also an indicator of a mouse infestation in your home. For where there is one baby mouse, there is a litter. And where there is a litter of baby mice, there are full-grown adult mice that require your attention.
cockroaches
  • A cockroach can live for a week without its head. This is because it breathes through little holes in its body and not through its mouth. It dies after a week because it needs its mouth to drink water.
  • A cockroach can hold its breath for 40 minutes.
  • It can survive under water for half an hour.
  • Cockroaches can run up to 4.8km in an hour.
  • Cockroaches can carry 33 kinds of bacteria, six different types of parasitic worms and seven known pathogens.
  • They can also cause allergic reactions such as asthma. If roaches live in your home and you have allergies or asthma, you might notice that your symptoms worsen due to a sensitivity to roach droppings, shells, or dead roach bodies.
  • Cockroaches can live without food for one month but will only survive one week without water.
  • South Africa has 3 main types of cockroaches, the American, the Oriental and the German.
  • The American cockroach lays about 16 eggs in one case.<
  • The Oriental cockroach lays about 16 eggs in a case just like the American cockroach.
  • German roaches are the worst of them all and lays up to 50 eggs in one egg sac.
  • Typically eggs hatch in 24 to 38 days but this is influenced by temperature and they will not hatch until the temperature is correct.
  • Female lays 300 plus eggs in a lifetime of a year..
  • Female American cockroaches can produce one capsule a week after mating, although they can produce two in one week.
  • Cockroaches eat almost anything. meat, sweets soap, toenails, grease, starch, beer, leather, glue and even hair.
  • Cockroaches eat the corpses of dead cockroaches.
  • Cockroaches eat the faeces of other cockroaches.