Pest Entry Points And The Trades That Close Them

A pest treatment kills what is in the building today. It does nothing about the openings that let them in, which is why the same apartment gets treated every year.

Most of those openings are things a builder, a plumber or an electrician left behind, and closing them is a maintenance job rather than a pest control one.

Where they actually get in

Service penetrations. Every pipe and cable entering an apartment passes through a wall or a floor, and the gap around it is frequently unsealed. Under a sink, behind a washing machine, at the meter box, through the ceiling. These are the main routes for cockroaches and for rodents.

Gaps under doors. A gap large enough to see light through is large enough for a mouse. Entry doors, balcony doors and doors to service cupboards.

Damaged or missing flyscreens. Obvious and constantly ignored, and it is the reason for most insect complaints in warmer months.

Weep holes without covers. Brick veneer buildings need weep holes for drainage, so they cannot simply be filled. Vermin-proof covers keep the drainage and close the entry.

Roof and eave gaps. Where possums and birds get in. Often at the junction between the roof and the gutter, or where a section of soffit has come loose.

Subfloor and basement openings. Vents without mesh, gaps at service entries, and doors that no longer close properly.

Bin room and waste chutes. The room with the food is the room that needs the tightest seal and usually has the worst one.

Rodents need very little

A mouse gets through a gap the width of a pencil. A rat needs not much more.

Which means the standard for sealing is tighter than most people assume, and a gap that looks trivial is a doorway.

The materials matter too. Rodents chew through expanding foam and silicone. Sealing has to use steel wool or mesh packed into the gap before any sealant, or a rigid material.

Cockroaches follow water and warmth

They live in wall cavities, in service risers, and behind appliances, and they travel between apartments through the same penetrations.

That is why treating one apartment in a strata building rarely holds. The population is in the shared cavities, and the individual apartment is being recolonised.

Sealing the penetrations in each apartment is what breaks the movement, and it is a building-wide job rather than a unit-by-unit one.

Moisture is the invitation

Almost every pest problem is worse where there is water.

A leaking tap under a sink, a subfloor that holds moisture, a shower leaking into a wall cavity, a blocked drain. Fixing the leak removes the reason they are there, and it is frequently the whole solution.

This is why a pest report that keeps recurring in the same apartment is worth treating as a plumbing investigation.

Termites are a separate category

Termites are a structural risk rather than a nuisance, and they need a licensed inspection and treatment rather than sealing.

What maintenance can do is remove the conditions: keep subfloors ventilated and dry, keep timber out of ground contact, keep garden beds and mulch away from the building, and fix leaks. Almost every termite issue we see alongside is in a building with a moisture problem.

What to do in a building you manage

Walk the common areas and look specifically for gaps: bin room, risers, basement, roof access, service cupboards.

In apartments, the standing items are under-sink penetrations, behind the washing machine, and door seals.

Do the sealing as one pass across the building rather than reactively, and do it after the treatment rather than before, so what is inside is dealt with first.

We handle penetration sealing, door seals, screens, weep hole covers, roof and eave repairs and the plumbing that removes the moisture, across building, carpentry and plumbing. Book the sealing round after your next treatment.