Bees swarm from mid spring, through summer. Usually swarming takes places because the colony (hive) has grown too large, and some bees will divide off and leave to find another site to establish a new colony. There will be a queen and a good few hundred (at least) workers. It may be the old queen, if the hive has decided she is not producing brood as well as expected, or if the existing queen is still vigorous, the queen may be new.

Often the air will turn dark with swarming bees. They will seek temporary respite, often clustered in the branches of a back yard shrub. Although they are usually “intoxicated” with nectar and not interested in attacking or stinging, it is best to leave them well alone, and call a beekeeper.

During the time they are clustered outside, scouts will be looking for a more permanent home. In the wild, this will often be in the hollow of a tall tree. However, with much clearing of native forests for housing and other development, it can sometimes be difficult to find suitable tree hollows, and a decision may be made to establish the colony inside cavity walls of houses.

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Snails & Slug Repellents

I guess snails and slugs have some purpose in the grand scheme of things, but when they start destroying vegetable crops, ornamentals and leaving silvery trails, it becomes difficult to see just what good they may serve.

There are a few natural cures that have some success, although I once knew an organic vegetable grower who used to rise early and collect snails from his crops using a torch and a bucket, declaring this was still the most effective method of control.

Chalk

If protecting a small area, surround the area with a circle of powdered chalk. It has been suggested that snails and slugs will not cross the chalk.

Fizzy Drink

The owner of this suggestion insists that the brew must be Coca Cola. Coke poured into jar lids and dispersed around the garden will, because of it’s sugary content attract these molluscs. It seems the acids in the soft drink will destroy them when they slither onto the

lids (It does this to snails and we drink this stuff?)

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From time to time we often get people asking how to keep possums away, so we decided to offer a few tips and ideas on how to keep these noisy night time creatures away from your home.

Blood and Bone - place at the base of plants

Egg Powder - Mix 200g dried egg powder per litres of water with wetting agent,

then spray plants.

Quassia Chips - add 100g of chips to 400ml boiling water. Stand 5 minutes, add

one litre of cold water and allow to soak for 24 hours. Strain, add a wetting agent,

(Wettasoil) and spray onto plants.

Unpalatable Plants to Brushtails

Brushtails tend to dislike plant species that are prickly and spiny, such as Grevilleas and Hakeas. Also consider tough and woody plants such as Banksias and Melaleucas.

Brushtails also tend to avoid strong smelling foliage plants such as Chrysanthemums, Mint Bushes, Geraniums and Daisies.

If you don’t mind Mrs Possum and her baby visiting, you may consider installing a possum house in a back yard tree or pole. Generally, possums only invade the roof void of houses is that there is a scarcity of suitable, safe accomodation for them due to removal and clearing of their native habitat.

POSSUM HOUSE-nesting boxes now avialable from our Buy Pest Control Products www.ridpest.com.au/buy-pest-control-products.php

This is our first post to our new blog, Scorpions are the topic so here we have a little bit of information about scorpions.

Scorpions are widely distributed throughout Australia.

They tend to be larger in the warmer northern areas. On a world scale, Australian scorpions are relatively innocuous, with very few, if any reliably documented deaths having been recorded.

Local pain and swelling are the major clinical problems following Australian scorpion stings. First aid consists of the application of iced water and analgesia if required. The scorpions of central and south America and Africa are much more dangerous, with thousands of fatalities and serious illnesses occurring every year in these areas in relation to scorpion envenomation.