Common Household Pests: Bees, Moths, Crickets, Fleas and Flies
Benefit Pest Management identifies common household pests across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter. We treat fleas, flies, moths and crickets. For bees, ring a beekeeper first. Each one gives itself away with a habit: flea eggs drop off the pet into its bedding and the carpet, and pantry moth larvae feed on flour, cereal and other dry food. Our head technician holds pest management technician licence 5083379, issued by the New South Wales EPA.
We get back to every enquiry within one business day.
Licence 5083379
NSW EPA, pest management technician
$10 million
Public liability
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Industry association
Pest Technician
of the Year 2025
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Pests we treat
Common household pests worth knowing by sight
You’ve found something in the house and you’d like to know whether it matters before you spend a cent.
The table below matches what you’re seeing to the most likely culprit, and each section after it takes one of the five in turn. Once you know which you’ve got, it usually tells you where the problem is coming from and what to do next.
Pest identification: what have you got?
| What you’re seeing | What it probably is | Where it’s coming from |
|---|---|---|
| A buzzing cluster of bees hanging off a branch, a fence or an eave | A honey bee swarm | A colony on the move, resting while scout bees look for a new home |
| Bees flying in and out of one gap in a wall or under the roof | An established colony | A nest inside the wall or roof cavity |
| Small moths in the pantry, and fine webbing through flour or cereal | Pantry moths | Larvae feeding in dry food |
| Holes in woollens, and small pale moths that keep to the dark | Clothes moths | Larvae feeding on wool, silk, fur or feathers |
| Loud chirping at night that’s hard to pin down | A cricket, most likely the black field cricket | Garden beds and cracks in the soil |
| Itchy bites on the ankles and lower legs, and a pet that keeps scratching | Fleas | The pet, its bedding and the carpet |
| Bites in a line across the arms or shoulders after a night in bed | More likely bed bugs than fleas | Mattress seams and the bed frame |
| Grey flies with dark stripes behind the head, around the bin or the kitchen | House flies | Rubbish, compost, manure or food scraps |
| Tiny, furry flies hovering around a shower or laundry drain | Drain flies | The sludge lining the inside of the drain |
One pest is worth ruling out straight away. A pale, soft insect inside damaged timber isn’t on this list at all: that’s a termite, still called a white ant by plenty of people, and our page on white ants explains why the name is wrong. Cockroaches, ants, spiders, silverfish, rodents and wasps each have a page of their own.
Bees, and the swarm on the fence
A swarm looks alarming, but swarming bees are usually not aggressive if they’re left alone. Swarming is how a honey bee colony splits in two. The queen leaves with a large share of the workers, mostly in spring, and the cluster you can see is the swarm sitting tight while its scouts go house-hunting.
Leave it alone while it’s there. Hosing it, throwing things at it or trying to smoke it out stirs the bees up and makes stings more likely, so keep children and pets inside until it has moved on.
Bees going in and out of one gap in a wall or under the roof are a different situation. That usually means an established colony nesting in the cavity, rather than a swarm passing through.
Whichever you’ve got, ring a beekeeper before you ring us. Bees are worth keeping, and a beekeeper can tell you whether the hive can be safely removed.
Sometimes a hive can’t be removed. Getting to the hive might mean knocking out bricks, which can cost more than the job is worth, or the hive might be too high for a beekeeper to work safely. That’s when we come in and treat it. We don’t like doing it, but the people living in the house come first. If a beekeeper can’t take it, ring us on 0467 561 548.
Moths in the pantry and the wardrobe
Indoors, the two moths you’re likely to meet are the pantry moth and the clothes moth, and their larvae eat completely different food. Either way, it’s the larvae doing the damage, not the moths you can see flying.
Pantry moths go for dry food. The larvae feed on flour, cereal, rice, pasta, nuts, dried fruit, spices and pet food, and they leave fine silk webbing through whatever they’re in. They can chew through cardboard and plastic, so a closed packet isn’t necessarily a safe one. The fix starts with finding the infested food and throwing it out, then scrubbing the shelves with soap and water and keeping dry goods in containers that seal properly.
Clothes moths go for wool, silk, fur and feathers, and the adults don’t feed at all. They keep away from light, so they live in the dark, undisturbed corners of a wardrobe and under furniture, and they’re drawn to fabric with sweat or food on it. Wash or dry clean what’s affected and put woollens away clean. That takes away what they came for.
A photo of the moth or the damage it’s left is usually enough for us to tell you which moth you’ve got, and we do moths too if clearing out the cupboard doesn’t fix it.
Crickets you can hear and never find
The black field cricket is the most common cricket in Australia: jet black, two to four centimetres long, and far more often heard than seen. It spends the day in garden beds and cracks in the soil and comes out at night to feed on rotting plant material and the remains of other insects.
Only the males sing, by rubbing their wings together, and they can make the call sound as if it’s coming from somewhere else, which is why the cricket you hear under the back step is never under the back step.
We do crickets too, so if the chirping is more than you want to live with, give us a ring.
Fleas spend most of their lives off the pet
The cat flea is the most common flea in Australia. It bites dogs and people as well as cats, and a large share of the fleas on dogs are cat fleas. The adults feed on the animal, but their eggs don’t stick to it. Most of them fall off within hours, into the pet’s bed, the carpet and the edges of the floor, and that is where most of a flea’s life is spent.
So getting on top of fleas means dealing with the pet, its bedding and the house at the same time. The pet’s treatment comes from your vet. For the house, vacuum the carpets, floors and upholstered furniture every day for at least a week. Empty the vacuum straight away each time, because the bag can hold live fleas.
We treat fleas, inside and out. Before we come, mow the lawn as low as it will go, so as much of the soil is showing as possible. On the day we spray the soil, the lawn and the gardens, the subfloor, the fly screens, and the carpets, couches and furniture where they need it. A re-check and a second spray generally follow seven to ten days after the first treatment.
Our general treatments are water-based and safe once dry. The detail on kids, pets and the veggie patch is on our residential pest control page.
Flies, and where they're breeding
House flies are grey, with four dark stripes behind the head and red eyes, and they breed in rotting organic matter: food scraps, rubbish, compost and manure. They can carry germs on their bodies that cause illness, and they can contaminate food.
The fix starts outside the kitchen. Lids on the bins, rubbish out regularly, compost kept covered and flyscreens on the doors and windows take away both the breeding ground and the way in.
Tiny, furry, moth-like flies around a shower or laundry drain are a different insect with a different fix, covered on our drain flies page.
When a common pest needs a professional
If flea bites keep coming after you’ve treated the pet, washed its bedding and vacuumed daily, WA Health and Victoria’s Better Health Channel both point people to a licensed pest technician. Our head technician holds that licence.
Bees in a wall or under the roof are a job for us when a beekeeper can’t take them.
Moths and house flies usually go once their source is gone: the packet at the back of the pantry, the jumper that went into the wardrobe unwashed, the bin without a lid. If that’s the answer at your place, it’s the answer you’ll get from us, and it won’t cost you anything to hear it.
One photo up close, one of where you found it
A photo puts a name to whatever you’ve found without anyone picking up the phone, and you can send one at eleven at night, when nobody wants to ring anyone.
Get as close as your phone will focus, with something beside it for size, such as a coin. Then take a second photo of where you found it, because where it was tells us as much as what it looks like. Email both to admin@benefitpest.com.au, or attach them to the form on our contact page.
Send us a photo and we’ll tell you what it is. We get back to every enquiry within one business day.
Where we do this
We work from our base at Caves Beach across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Hunter, Port Stephens and the Central Coast, with no call-out fee.
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FAQ
Quick answers on bees, fleas, moths and flies
Will a bee swarm move on by itself?
Most swarms move on within one to three days, once their scouts have found somewhere permanent. If bees are still coming and going from the same spot after that, they may have moved into a wall or the roof. Ring a beekeeper first. If the hive can’t be safely removed, ring us.
Why have fleas turned up after we got back from holidays?
Footsteps woke them. Adult fleas can wait in their cocoons until vibration tells them someone is home, and the young stages can sit in a carpet or along the edge of a floor for up to a year. A house that has been empty for a while or one where a pet used to live can have fleas waiting for whoever walks in next.
Does freezing kill pantry moths?
Yes. A week in the freezer kills every stage of a pantry moth, eggs included. Finding the infested food and clearing it out is still the first job.
Will clothes moths eat cotton?
Cotton blended with wool, yes. Their larvae live on wool, silk, fur and feathers, and they’ll eat linen blended with wool as well. Sweat and food stains draw them in.
How fast do house flies breed?
Fast. In warm weather the whole cycle, egg to adult, takes about seven to ten days. A bin that sits for a week in summer can produce its own generation of flies.
Can you really tell what it is from a photo?
Yes, from a sharp, close photo. A shot with something beside it for size is usually all it takes to name it. What a photo can’t show is how many there are or where they’re getting in. That’s when we come and look.
Next step
Found something else entirely
If what you’ve found isn’t on this page, we’d still like to see it. Half the job is knowing what you’re dealing with, and a photo usually tells us.
A quote costs nothing, and neither does the advice.
