Does the council remove wasp nests in Mount Gambier?

We couldn't confirm the City of Mount Gambier's current wasp policy at its own website. Ask the council first; if they don't cover it, a pest business can treat the nest.

Who do I tell about an unusual plant pest?

The Exotic Plant Pest Hotline takes reports from anywhere in Australia and passes them to the state agency.

Do you cover Port MacDonnell and the Limestone Coast?

Yes. The form takes any Australian postcode, so tell us where you are and what you've seen.

Pest control Mount Gambier: bees, wasps and termites

After a sting

Scrape out a bee sting with a fingernail or card, wash the spot and put a wrapped ice pack on it for 15 minutes. Call 000 for noisy breathing, a swollen tongue or throat, wheeze, dizziness or collapse, and use an adrenaline autoinjector straight away if the person has one.

What's different in Mount Gambier

Bees and wasps are regular call-outs

In April 2022, the City of Mount Gambier's General Inspectorate said it quite often gets called out for bees and wasps, along with roosters and sheep. So you're far from the only household dealing with a nest.

European wasps: call a pest controller

South Australia's environment department says European wasps are known to be highly aggressive if disturbed, and to contact a pest controller holding the right licence if you find a nest on your property.

Possums are native and protected

The department says backyard possums are most likely common brushtail or common ringtail possums, both native and protected, and both capable of some damage. In SA, catch and release needs a permit or a permitted possum controller, and the possum stays on your property.

A swarm, a hive or a wasp nest?

A ball of bees hanging from a branch or fence is a swarm looking for a new home, and usually a job for a local beekeeper. Bees flying steadily in and out of a gap in a wall or roof have moved in, and that's a pest business's job. Our form sends the second, not the first.

Wasps are different again. A European wasp nest is usually hidden in the ground or a cavity, with yellow and black wasps using one hole. A paper wasp nest hangs in the open under eaves or branches. Both are worth treating when they're close to doors or play areas.

Termites in the south-east

CSIRO's broad pattern is that termite risk on the mainland rises the further north you go. Mount Gambier sits in the far south-east of the state, but that's a trend, not a clean bill of health: Adelaide Hills Council lists four termite species known to damage buildings in South Australia.

Most people find termites through damaged timber or mud tubes, not flying termites. If you see either, leave it undisturbed and book an inspection. Buyers should get a timber pest inspection alongside the building inspection; they're different jobs.

Pest licences in South Australia

The business needs a Pest Controller's Licence.
Every employee applying pesticides needs a Pest Management Technician's licence, issued by SA Health under the Controlled Substances Act 1984.
Ask to see it, or check with SA Health's pest licensing team.

Where we'd start with pests in Mount Gambier

Bees or wasps near the back door? Work out which one it is from a safe distance, then tap A wasp nest or Bees. Swarm on the fence? Ring a beekeeper. And if your house has never had a timber pest inspection, that's worth putting on the list.

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.

What have you seen?