What the lakes bring
18 wetlands on the midge list
The City's Local Planning Policy 1.10, adopted 12 May 2026, lists lakes including Bibra, North, South, Yangebup, Kogolup, Thomsons, Manning and Lake Coogee. It says the City gets complaints every year from residents within 1 km of affected wetlands.
It can be on your title
The City doesn't support new residential rezoning or subdivision within 500 m of an affected lake unless midge can be prevented. New lots between 500 m and 800 m carry a notification that the land may be affected by midge. If you're buying near the water, read the title.
Thomsons Lake and Ross River
The policy records a large number of Ross River virus cases in Cockburn in summer 2011/12, and Department of Health advice of a heightened risk for people living near Thomsons Lake. That's public health advice. A pest business can't change it, but you can cover up and use repellent.
Natural lakes aren't treated
The City says it doesn't chemically treat any natural lake or wetland for mosquitoes. It treats breeding in man-made water bodies only.
European wasps at Bibra Lake
DPIRD names Bibra Lake among its hot spots for new nests, and Cockburn is on its list for the 2025 to 2026 season. Stay away from any nest and report it to DPIRD or through MyPestGuide Reporter. It isn't a job for a pest business.
Living near a lake: what you can do
You can
- Keep windows and doors closed when midges are swarming, and use electric light traps.
- Cut outside lighting, or switch to yellow or motion-sensor lights.
- Empty pot plant bases weekly, or use sand to soak up the water.
- Clean birdbaths and ornamental pools weekly, and maintain the pool.
Leave to a pest business
- Ants, spiders and cockroaches around the house.
- Rats and mice in the roof or walls.
- Termite inspections, which WA's Building and Energy recommends at least once a year.
- Paper wasp nests, as opposed to the European kind.
If bees swarm in the yard
Left alone, a swarm is generally no danger and will usually move on once it's found a new nesting site, says the City of Cockburn. Don't hose it, throw things at it or use smoke.
Bees on private property are the owner's or tenant's responsibility. If a swarm's a safety concern or sits on Council-managed land, contact the City. Our Perth bees page covers who to call when they've moved into a wall.
If we lived near the lakes
We'd treat midge as a lighting problem and mosquitoes as a water problem, because they need different fixes and only one of them bites. Then we'd book the yearly termite inspection. For anything else, tell us what you've seen 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.
