Borer and ant treatment in The Wood, Nelson
The Wood mixes Edwardian villas on Elliott Street with newer homes built on old market-garden land, and each brings its own pest: borer in the old timber, ants trailing in from the garden. Richard inspects free, then treats them where they are.
Richard under a house when the phone goes? Someone still picks up, and he calls you back.
Roof to subfloor
Under the floor: Richard goes over the piles, bearers and joists by torch for fresh borer holes and dust, and looks for droppings and nests where rats shelter.
- Where
- North-east of the city centre, by the Botanics
- Postcode
- 7010
- Common jobs
- Borer, ants, rats
What to send Richard
- A photo of the holes, droppings or nest
- Where you’ve seen them: roof space, inside, under the floor or outside
- How long it’s been going on
- Who’s home: kids, pets, or a business open to the public
- For borer: the rough age of the house
- Work
- Borer, rats and mice, wasps, household pests
- Area
- Nelson, Stoke and Richmond
- Experience
- 15+ years in pest control
- Quotes
- Free inspection and quote
- Phone, or fill in the formPictures of what you’ve spotted help.
- Richard rings youHe asks what you’ve seen, and where.
- Free inspection and quoteRoof space, subfloor and section, then a price.
- Treated where they’re workingThen he checks back that it’s done the job.
Borer, ants and rats in The Wood
In The Wood's older houses, borer is the slow problem nobody notices until the holes show, in the floorboards, along a skirting or up in the roof framing. Then there are ants: long lines up the walls and over the bench in spring and summer, hungry for sugar and protein. Richard treats both, along with rats and mice, wasps, fleas and cockroaches, for owners, tenants, and the landlords and property managers who look after The Wood's rentals.
For borer, Richard gets right under the house and into the ceiling space, the dark places where the beetles come out, and goes over the framing piece by piece. For ants, he follows the trail back outside to the nests and baits there, because bait outside the house does more than a spray on the kitchen bench. Both start with a free inspection and a clear quote, and both end with Richard checking that it has worked.
How Richard works in The Wood
Tell Richard what you’ve found
Call, or send the form with a photo of the holes, droppings or nest and where you saw it.
A free inspection
Richard comes out and goes through the ceiling cavity, the subfloor and the section, to find where they’re working and how they get in.
A clear quote
He shows you what he found and quotes the treatment before any work starts.
Treated where they work
Bait stations on the runs, the nest itself, the timber the borer is in: each pest is treated where it lives.
He checks in afterwards
Once the treatment has had time to work, Richard gets back in touch to see that it has.
Elliott Street villas and the old market gardens
Borer is the first question in The Wood's older streets. Elliott Street was surveyed in 1912 as the Winearls Settlement, the only workers' housing built in Nelson under the Dwelling Acts, and its first eight houses went up between 1913 and 1916 to an Edwardian villa design. Twenty-three of the original twenty-four still stand, among houses from the 1850s to the 1940s. Every one was framed before boron treatment began in 1952.
The flat ground around it was market gardens for generations, frost-free and worked by a sizeable Italian community, until most of the gardens were sold and built on late last century. Argentine ants are known in Nelson, and they don't keep to one garden: their nests link into supercolonies that run under fences between neighbouring sections, and potted plants carry them to new homes.
The Wood also has a good share of rented homes. Landlords must hand over a home free of pests at the start of a tenancy, so the gap between tenants is the moment to have borer checked or ants baited. Richard works with landlords and property managers as well as owners.
Prompt & thorough . Recommended
Tips for The Wood
- Argentine ants trail up walls and tree trunks. Bait outside along the trail instead of spraying the ones inside.
- Potted plants carry ant nests from garden to garden. Check pots before they come inside or move house with you.
- In an older villa, look inside wardrobes and under the hall runner: borer holes show first in dark, out-of-the-way timber.
The Wood questions
We own one of the Elliott Street villas. What does Richard check for borer?
The parts you never see: piles, bearers, floor joists, wall framing where he can reach it, and the roof timbers. He's looking for fresh exit holes and dust, shows you what he finds, and the inspection and quote cost nothing.
Our house went up on the old market gardens in the late 1990s. Can it still get borer?
Yes. Untreated kiln-dried framing was allowed in new houses from late 1995 until 2004, so a house from those years isn't automatically protected. Richard looks over the framing above the ceiling and below the floor and tells you plainly what's there.
The whole street has ants. Is it worth treating just our place?
Yes. Richard baits your section along the trails and around the house, going after the nests that feed the lines into your kitchen. Argentine ant nests join up under fences, so if a neighbour books at the same time, Richard can bait both sides of the fence.
We also work nearby in Maitai, Atawhai and Nelson South. All Nelson suburbs
A free inspection in The Wood
Tell Richard what you’ve found and where. A photo of the holes, droppings or nest helps him see it before he comes out.
What to send Richard
- A photo of the holes, droppings or nest
- Where you’ve seen them: roof space, inside, under the floor or outside
- How long it’s been going on
- Who’s home: kids, pets, or a business open to the public
- For borer: the rough age of the house
Richard will be in touch to talk it through, then come out, inspect and quote. If you go ahead, he treats them and checks in afterwards.
Rather talk? Call 0800 166 028
Thanks, we’ve got your details.
Richard will be in touch to talk it through and set a time for the free inspection.