Burpengary is one of the last places around here where you can still buy a proper block, and that is exactly what shapes the pest work. Big yards, long fence lines, established trees, and a shed on most properties. Burpengary East across the highway runs bigger again, with homesites measured in thousands of square metres rather than hundreds.
Sheds are the part people underestimate. A colourbond shed with stored timber, cardboard, feed or machinery in it is shelter, food and harbourage in one building, and it is usually the thing sitting closest to the back fence and the bush. Rodents, spiders, wasps and ants all set up there first and move to the house second.
Then there is the creek. Lower Burpengary Creek is prone to erosion and to high flow in heavy rain, and when it runs, rodents come out of the burrows and drains along it looking for somewhere dry. That is why the calls spike in the days after a big rain event rather than during it.
On a small suburban block the house is the job. On a Burpengary block the house is one building out of three or four, and treating it on its own leaves everything that matters untouched.
Stored timber, cardboard, feed and machinery. Rodents, spiders and wasps set up here first and move to the house second.
Homesites running to thousands of square metres. Long fence lines, dams, paddock edges and a lot more ground for rodents and ticks.
Bestow, Alkina and the newer pockets. Slab on ground with a barrier put in at construction that is worth knowing the details of.
The original stock on the low ground. Damp, established gardens, and first in line when Burpengary Creek runs after heavy rain.
A perimeter treatment on a big block is a longer job than the same treatment in an estate, and that is the whole point of it. The chemical goes into the soil around the full perimeter of the house, along the garden beds and at every point where soil, mulch or a raised bed sits hard up against the wall.
On acreage the extras are what get missed. Retaining walls, timber sleepers, a deck with its bearers close to the ground, firewood stacked against the house, and garden beds that have been topped up until the ground sits above the slab edge. Each one of those is a covered run past the edge of the building.
Firewood is worth singling out. A stack against the wall or under the deck is the single most common thing we see on a block out here, and it is about the best termite habitat you could build on purpose.
Most people book a termite inspection for the house and never think about the shed. On a Burpengary block that is the wrong way round more often than not.
A shed usually sits on a slab poured separately and later, often with no barrier at all, frequently with timber stored directly on the ground inside it, and almost always closer to the back fence and the bush than the house is. It is the easiest building on the property to get into and the one nobody looks at.
What happens next is the problem. A colony established in the shed has a short, sheltered run to the house, and by the time anything shows up inside the house it has had a long head start. Inspecting the outbuildings is not an upsell, it is where the evidence usually is.
Whatever gets done, it needs checking. The Australian Standard treats twelve months as the maximum gap between termite inspections, and termite damage generally sits outside standard home insurance, which is the part people tend to find out afterwards.
That is a standard three bedroom home, treated inside and out for ants, cockroaches, silverfish and webbing spiders, including your external shed or garage and the roof void.
Out here a lot of properties are not a standard three bedroom home. Acreage, a second dwelling, multiple sheds, stables or a machinery shed all get quoted on what is actually there rather than on bedroom count, and honestly that is the right way round on a block this size. Ring and describe the property and you will get a real figure rather than a range.
Kitchen, bathrooms, living areas and internal skirtings, treated for ants, cockroaches, silverfish and spiders.
External walls, eaves, window frames, weep holes and the perimeter, which is where most of it comes in from.
Your external shed or garage is part of the standard treatment, not quoted as an extra afterwards.
Included as standard. It is where spiders and rodents set up, and it is the part most quotes leave out.
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