Pest control can be done safely in a home with pets, babies and young children when a licensed technician uses a registered product chosen for the pest, follows the label, and the household stays out of treated areas until they have dried and aired. The NSW EPA page Engaging a pest management technician puts it as Risk = Hazard x Exposure, and it names young children, pregnant women and the elderly as the people to keep away while a pesticide takes effect.
What makes a treatment safe around kids and pets?
Who applies it, what is applied and where it goes. In NSW, a person doing this work for a fee must hold a pest management technician licence issued by the EPA, and licensed technicians may only use registered pesticides covered by a label or permit. The label signal word tells you the hazard level. "Caution" means a low potential for harm, and "Dangerous Poison" means a high one.
The Victorian Better Health Channel's guide to pest control in the home advises keeping surface sprays off furniture and other places the family touches, and using them only in out of the way spots such as along skirting boards.
Redbacks build tangled webs in dry, sheltered spots such as gaps under outdoor furniture, junk piles and pool fence posts. In Kareela, 57.3% of families at the 2021 Census were couples with children and nearly nine in ten homes were separate houses. A redback web under a Kareela cubby house or sandpit lid calls for spider control in Kareela, with the technician shown exactly where the children play before any treatment starts.
What should you ask before the technician arrives?
Ask for the full product name of each pesticide and its safety data sheet. The EPA says a pest controller must provide the safety data sheet on request, and both help if anyone later worries about their health. Then ask:
- Where will the product go: inside, outside, the roof void or the subfloor?
- Will baits be laid, and where will they sit relative to pets and children?
- What does the label say about pets, fish, birds and re-entry?
- Does the product have an odour, and for how long?
Ask to see the technician's photo licence card too, and check the photo and the expiry date.
Illawong sits between the Georges and Woronora rivers, and more than half its families had children at the 2021 Census. An ant trail running from the garden to a dog's bowl on the back step and into the kitchen is a reason to book ant control in Illawong and ask where the product will go relative to the bowl and the lawn the kids play on.
How should you prepare rooms, pets, fish tanks and pet bowls?
The EPA and Better Health give the same core steps:
- Cover or remove bird cages and fish tanks, and move other pets out before spraying. Many pesticides are extremely toxic to birds and fish.
- Put away food, cooking utensils, toys and other personal items, and cover kitchen benches. Wipe benches down before preparing food again.
- For outdoor work, take in pet bedding and food and water bowls, cover fish ponds, barbecues and vegetable gardens, and close doors and windows.
- If you have a rainwater tank and residue could wash in from the roof or gutters, divert the inlet pipe until after the next rain.
German cockroaches hide in the warm gaps around fridges, dishwashers and stoves. Yowie Bay sits on the north shore of Port Hacking, and 55.2% of its families at the 2021 Census were couples with children. A family there with a baby starting to crawl who keeps seeing cockroaches in the kitchen at night should book cockroach control in Yowie Bay and ask that treatment go into the cracks and hinges where the cockroaches shelter, not across the open floor.
When can everyone go back inside?
When the label or permit and your technician say so. There is no single waiting time that fits every product. The EPA advice is to leave the treatment area while the pesticide takes effect, and before going back in, make sure the area has dried and been well ventilated. Do not eat or drink in a treated area until it is safe to do so. Open the windows when you return.
In apartment blocks, notice is compulsory. Under the EPA's common area prior notification rules, residents must be told at least five working days before pesticide goes on common areas, and the notice must include any re-entry requirements on the label or permit.
Better Health notes that surface sprays and termite treatments can stay in the environment for days, weeks or longer. Tell the technician if a dog digs along the fence line or the house edge.
Why can shop bought sprays be the bigger risk?
Supermarket pesticides are still toxic. Better Health warns that careless use can affect the user, their family and their pets, that repeated use may do more long term harm than the pests themselves, and that baits left out in the open may miss the pest while putting family members and pets at risk. Any cans already in the house belong in their original containers, locked up high.
Better Health also says not to set traps or baits where children, pets or native animals can reach them. Alfords Point is almost entirely surrounded by bushland of the Georges River reserve, and 98.8% of its homes were separate houses at the 2021 Census. A household there with a dog and rats under the deck is better served by booking rat and mouse control in Alfords Point than by scattering bait blocks along a fence the dog patrols every day.
Before you book
List every animal in the house, including birds, fish, reptiles and backyard chooks, and note where children sleep and play. Mention anyone pregnant, a rainwater tank, a fish pond or a vegetable garden. Note which pest you have seen, in which rooms, and when. Send those details when you contact our team for home pest control in the Sutherland Shire: call Sutherland Shire Pest Control Pro on 02 8360 3033 or email [email protected], so the technician can plan where each product goes before arriving.