Pest control in Mpumalanga

Indoor spraying in Ehlanzeni

In September 2024 the Mpumalanga Department of Health began a spraying programme, set to run until March 2027, that covers about 79,000 structures in the City of Mbombela, 377,960 in Bushbuckridge and 300,000 in Nkomazi, The Citizen reported. The insecticide is DDT, applied to the inside walls of homes, where mosquitoes rest after feeding. The department employed 400 spray operators: 175 in Nkomazi, 165 in Bushbuckridge and 60 in Mbombela.

Health officials have urged residents to let the spray operators into their homes. If you're planning renovations, it's worth timing them around the spray visit rather than straight after it.

Why washing or repainting sprayed walls matters

A study just across the border, in Mozambique's Maputo Province, shows what happens when households change their walls after spraying. Researchers publishing in PLOS Global Public Health in 2022 found residents painting, plastering, washing and brushing sprayed surfaces, mostly mopping with water and detergent to remove the smell or stains, and adding new, unsprayed rooms.

In the district where modifications were common, these changes, combined with a long, drawn-out spray campaign, cut effective coverage from an assumed 97% to just 39%. The authors estimated a 43% increase in daily mosquito bites per person. In the neighbouring district, where few households altered their walls, coverage only fell from 96% to 91%.

• Ask the spray operator how long to leave the walls before washing, plastering or painting.
• If you build an extra room after the spray round, ask the health department whether it can be sprayed.
• Tell any private pest control company that your walls have been sprayed before it treats indoors.

The Asian house rat

The Asian house rat was only discovered in South Africa in 2011, when a genetic survey recorded it at 13 sites in four provinces, Mpumalanga among them. Daily Maverick reported in 2026 that in Gauteng and Mpumalanga it lives in more rural settings. University of Pretoria researchers, publishing in 2022, predicted suitable habitat mainly in inland Gauteng and Mpumalanga. SANBI says it looks almost identical to the black rat and often nests in ceilings, roofs and wall gaps.

For a homeowner the treatment is the same as for any roof rat. What helps most is closing the way in: gaps under roof sheets, open eaves and holes where pipes enter the walls.