If there's a nest or someone's been stung
Stay away from the entrance and keep kids and dogs inside. Wash a sting with soap and water and hold a wrapped ice pack on it for 15 minutes. Call 000 for noisy breathing, a swollen tongue or throat, a wheeze, a change in voice, dizziness or collapse.
How Oakleigh differs
An old, tightly built centre
The City of Monash's heritage history calls Oakleigh the biggest and oldest of its traditional station shopping centres, and describes a tight grid of small shopping streets and a covered market. Close buildings share walls and back lanes, which suits mice and rats.
Where Monash says to look for wasps
Wasps are more common in summer, council says, with nests in the ground, in rubbish heaps, at the bottom of trees and shrubs, and in roofs, walls and under eaves. On private property council doesn't remove them.
Rats from next door
If mice or rats keep coming from a neighbour's place, Monash says you can talk to your neighbour or contact its Public Health Unit, and an officer will visit to advise them. That's a more useful first step than a treatment on your side alone.
Poison and wildlife
Monash warns that poisons can cause significant risks for wildlife, and says rodenticides should be avoided completely or only used for approved purposes. Ask your technician what they plan to use, and why.
Mosquitoes, mynas and possums
Monash says many mosquitoes prefer still, standing water, and that we can all reduce breeding by removing containers that collect water and keeping gutters clear. A blocked gutter on an older roof is an easy one to miss.
Council calls the Indian or common myna an introduced pest bird whose population is spreading rapidly. Possums are different: they're protected from harm or capture under the Wildlife Act, and Monash suggests a tree guard or possum band to protect an overgrazed tree, as a temporary measure. For a possum in the roof, proofing is the job, and any catch and release has to follow Victoria's rule of the same property, within 50 metres, after sunset.
On termites, we couldn't confirm a Monash designation. Its Property Information Certificate shows whether a property is termite prone, which is worth having if you're buying an older place here.
An Oakleigh walk around
- Look along the back fence and shared lane for rubbish and old timber.
- Check gutters and any roof valley for standing water.
- Look for gnawed cardboard or droppings in the garage and laundry.
- Watch for a steady line of wasps going to one spot, from well back.
The first thing we'd do
Talk to the neighbours, because in streets this close a shared problem needs a shared fix. Then tell us what you've found and your postcode.
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.
