If the recent run of stinking hot days and torrential rain have left you in a world of pain, then get ready Maitland because a whole new level of hurt is about to hit.
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While the dust has settled and the dams are full, the city has become a breeding and feeding ground for a variety of pests, some deadly, others scary and some that will make you sick.
Maitland has become the Club Med for mosquitoes, cockroaches, spiders, snakes and rodents that are living the dream, enjoying the hot, humid and wet conditions . . . and they are about to cause chaos.
The steamy environment and stagnant waters are providing just the right ambience for amorous spiders, particularly funnel webs.
The conditions also give mosquito larvae the perfect domain in which to hatch, with experts warning of an influx of the disease carrying insects in about a week.
Cockroaches and mice have been pushed to higher and drier ground and will start invading homes, sheds and barns, with snakes not too far behind.
After a lot of rain, Maitland’s frog population is about to explode, also providing a feast for snakes, particularly brown and red bellies, which only have a few months of the year to eat as much as they can.
Australian Reptile Park program supervisor Billy Collett said Maitland now had the foundations for a food chain unlike any other.
“Frog numbers have exploded after the rain and that will in turn bring out snakes which see frogs as delicacies,” he said.
“With the rain comes insects and spiders love insects, particularly funnel webs and other varieties of male spiders looking for females to breed with.”
Mr Collett said this was great news for the Australian Reptile Park because it relied on donations of funnel webs for its anti-venom program.
The reptile park has a video on its website showing how to safely catch a spider so it can be taken in for milking.
He said the big wet would push rodents to dry areas like houses and sheds, garages and barns.
“Snakes will start looking for them and they will also end up in homes and sheds, so we are expecting a lot of calls,” Mr Collett said.
He said the reptile park does not do call-outs and encouraged people who find snakes to ring their local wildlife rescue organisations.
He said cockroaches and mosquitoes, like the rodents, would move into buildings to get away from the water.
“Cockies can get food from just about anywhere and the mossies will take advantage of the stagnant water that’s around in paddocks, drains, gutters to lay their larvae which will probably hatch this time next week,” Mr Collett said.
“Our wetlands are all stocked up and there will be mossie larvae everywhere.”
Creepy crawly facts
- Cockroaches can live for weeks without their heads.
- Cockroaches can survive without food for long periods. Some species can go as long as six weeks without food.
- Cockroaches can run up to 4.8km/h.
- The world’s largest roach (South America) is 15.2cm long.
- There are more than 4000 species of cockroaches worldwide.
- There are about 3500 species.
- Mosquitoes can fly about 2.5km/h.
- Only female mosquitoes bite; males feed on flower nectar.
- An adult female mosquito consumes about five-millionths of a litre in a single blood meal.
- Mosquitoes have been around since the Jurassic period making the species about 210 million years old.
HUNTER VERMIN AND REPTILE CONTROL: 0401 092 200
