Garden Facts & Hints No 5 - Unwanted Wildlife

Your garden is not just an empty void at your home, it's a place were you relax, the kids play, where you admire the fruits of your toil, the place were the missus hangs the washing and a place of safety and security. Or is it?

If you leave your yard looking like a jungle, be prepared to have regular visits from jungle animals, not all cute and cuddly! If you live in a residential area, don't think you're safe. Animals are very adaptable and move around at night, and if the sun comes up, they just hide where they are at the time till night.

In my job I come across many an unwanted stranger daily, and I get bitten or stung regularly. Usually minor, but could potentially be very serious. I never let my guard down and never stop looking. Fortunately, I have a good idea what to look for, but you can't have eyes in the back of your head.

Now let's have a look at some of our migrating or resident friends, all common to our area.

Spiders

• Funnel webs live in sandy, rocky soil or leaf litter.
• The Tree Funnel Web lives under loose or stringy barks. If he is going to strike, he will rise up, so he or she can strike in a downward action. He can not jump or run, if he is scared, he will roll into a ball and will not move for sometime and can become very hard to find, so don't look!
• Red Backs live under rubbish, tin and the old dunny seat.

Snakes

Obviously, potentially very dangerous. 95% only to people who will not leave them alone. Out of all the creatures I come in contact with, I find snakes the least of my problems and the most predictable.

A few rules to obey.

1. Don't run on a bush track.
2. Don't step "over" a log or rock, step "on" the log or rock.
3. Don't walk through bush, stay on tracks only.
4. Make plenty of noise when in the bush areas, don't make surprises.
5. Always wear appropriate shoes and clothes.
6. If you are confronted, stop, look, listen and don't panic, you are bigger, smarter and faster.

If, God forbid, you were bitten by anything, the most important thing is to keep calm. You don't want to raise you heart rate. Do not run, but get help as fast as possible. It is very important to identify the attacker, but do not chase or try to kill him. He will bite again and again. One bite is enough to handle.

If you think you know your snakes, let's get rid of an urban myth. That harmless Python, yes, he is not venomous, but if he bites you, he will not let go in a hurry and you will have one powerful bite, albeit not deadly. That's how he gets a feed! If you have long grass, dense plants and rubbish, you will have rats, mice or frogs, they are actually the main course for snakes, and they will stay till the food goes.

Insects

Now the largest problem, the insects! These cause me continual drama.

1. Ants
   • Easily controlled with chemicals, but some can be quite dangerous.
   • In Sydney we have the Bull Ant and the Jumping Ant. I find him the worst, when he bits, you will have a welt for about two weeks as big as a fifty cent coin, provided you have not scratched it!
   • Did you know the only venomous ant in world is a Fire Ant, guess where it lives? NSW and Queensland!
2. The Scrub Tick or Paralysis Tick
   • These are everywhere these days. Long grass, bushes, trees and on every animal, even snakes. When bitten you can often have an allergic reaction and they have killed.
   • This parasite is not an insect, but a member of the spider family, probably the biggest killer of domestic pets. When she laches on to a host, she can swell up to 400 times, her original size, with sucked blood.
3. Leeches
   • Yuk! I get them all the time. They live in long grass or damp areas and latch on as you walk past.
   • She may take up to 20 minutes to fully engorge herself with blood, consuming as much as five times her own body weight.
   • When the leech bites, which you cannot feel, she pours in her saliva which contains an anti-clotting chemical, thus preventing the blood from clotting and keeping it liquid inside the leech's body. When she is full, she just falls off, and you keep bleeding for a while later.
4. Centipedes and Scorpions,
   • A lesser a problem than the others, but still very dangerous all the same.
   • If bitten, you can suffer as much as a wasp sting, and they live in the rubbish also.
5. Wasps and Bees
   • Both very important to the garden eco system, but when you stumble over a bees nest, take it really easy as you step backwards!
   • 50 bee stings will certainly put you in hospital.
   • Wasps! Instant pain, what more can I say? They get you everywhere, lips, ear, eyes and where only your mother kissed you, and they just keep coming.
   • Speaking from experience, nine moths ago I had 8 stings, and I blew up like a balloon.
6. The Blood Sucking Horse Flies.
   • She will hover around the victim for some time before landing, piercing the skin with her needle-like proboscis.
   • A single female fly can consume a considerable quantity of blood and also make a sizable hole, which usually oozes blood when the insect moves off. She attacks animals and humans. In Africa, even animals like thick skinned elephants, hippopotami and crocodiles are not spared.

   Mosquito


7. Mosquitos
   • And now we come to the most dangerous creature on the earth. Excluding wars and accidents, it's has been estimated that the Mosquito has been directly or indirectly responsible for 50% of all human deaths since the Stone Age.
   • After mating, the female finds suitable water, which can be from a jam tin to a pond, and lays between 150 to 350 eggs. That horny little female lays 5 or 6 times in her short lifespan of a few weeks.
   • Only females Mosquitoes suck blood, the male feed on nectars and sex. They mostly live in long grass and damp shady areas.

Now all I have to say to you guys out there:

Get out and clean up that mess, and mow that lawn!
If you can't do it, "RING ME!"

Remember, and don't ever forget those four words,

"Happy Wife, Happy Life"

....and if she doesn't get through to you, those blood sucking females out the back will!

Author: Neville O'Connor 2009 M: 0418 405 670

This article is brought to you by Neville O'Connor of United Home Services. Contact United Home Services for all your landscaping needs on Ph: 9838 0444 or 0418 405 670.

For more local information view our My Local Guide Business Directory listing in Garden Maintenance, Landscaping and Lawnmowing or the national website: www.uhs.com.au

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