Wasp nest near the door?
Keep people and pets away and leave the nest alone. Noisy breathing, a swollen tongue or throat, wheeze, dizziness or collapse after a sting means 000. First aid advice is on 13 11 26, the Poisons Information Centre.
Council land or your land?
| On council land | On your land | |
|---|---|---|
| European wasps | Report the nest, with its exact location | No council service: a pest controller, at your cost |
| Bees | Removed if they're a risk to public health and safety | Yours to manage, through an apiarist or pest controller |
| Snakes | Council responds on its land and in its buildings | A snake catcher, if one's indoors or has gone into a shed |
| Inch ants and bull ants | Report nests on reserves where children play | A pest business, if they're a problem around the home |
Morphett Vale in detail
Rats stay with the owner
Onkaparinga says owners and occupiers are responsible for rats on their own property. It looks into properties with large rubbish piles or squalid conditions, but not individual sightings or rats drawn to your fruit trees and vegetables.
Christies Creek runs through
The council's Christies Creek Linear Trail follows the creek for 7 km, from Christies Beach to Wilfred Taylor Reserve in Morphett Vale. Inch ant or bull ant nests in a reserve along the way are for the council, so report them rather than treating them.
Bee rules have fine print
On council land, hives more than 2 metres above the ground generally stay put, and swarms are left alone unless they've settled for at least 48 hours. So a swarm on a reserve may not get an immediate response.
Pools and tanks
The council says mosquitoes breed in calm, still water, mainly in summer, and names unused pools and rainwater tanks as common sites.
Possums in Morphett Vale
Onkaparinga says you need a permit from the Department for Environment and Water before any trapping, and that handling or interfering with a native animal without one is illegal. Its cages can have waits of up to four weeks, and they're only for permit holders.
Under the state rule, the possum goes back on the same property, within 50 metres, within 24 hours and after dusk. A permitted possum controller can handle it, and proofing the roof is what stops it happening again.
When rats are the problem
The council's own advice is to bring in a professional pest contractor if you can't get on top of them. Before that, clear what's feeding them: pick up fallen fruit, keep food in closed containers and store timber at least 30 cm off the ground, as the City of Adelaide suggests. A pest business will want to know where you've seen droppings or heard movement.
If it were our Morphett Vale home
We'd work out first whether it's on our land or the council's, because that decides who acts. If it's ours, tell us what you've seen and your postcode. If it's in a reserve, give the council the exact spot.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
