Keep Your Outdoor Feast Bug-Free

It’s difficult to enjoy a meal on your new outdoor setting if bugs are making a meal of you or your food. Knowing what attracts common outdoor insects and how to repel or avoid them can help you to create beautiful brunches, lunches and dinners without fear of insect interruption.

Keep Outdoor Dining Setting Bug Free

The Flies Are the Limit

Bushflies and blowflies can quickly make nuisances of themselves at outdoor meals. Unfortunately, they appreciate many of the same foods you do, so it’s not unusual for them to show up at your gatherings.The key is making your garden, patio or pool area unattractive to flies before the meal begins. The Department of Health recommends rubbish bins with tight-fitting lids, emptying the bins regularly, making sure that septic tanks and leach drains are undamaged and have properly sealed lids, and removing dog and other animal faeces promptly as ways to cut down on bushflies and blowflies.

Banishing the Blood-Suckers

Nothing can ruin an outdoor gathering more quickly than a cloud of mozzies nipping painfully at you and your guests. These pests aren’t just an aggravation, however -- mosquitoes spread numerous serious diseases, including Murray Valley encephalitis and Dengue fever. The good news is, controlling mosquitoes is often only a matter of destroying their breeding grounds near your home, and that means preventing standing water.

Water should not be allowed to collect in pails, pots or other containers that are left outdoors, and water that has collected in blocked gutters or drains and underneath leaking taps should be addressed. Always put lids on water tanks, septic tanks and leach drains, and make sewage ponds and lagoons unattractive to mosquitoes by keeping the edges free of vegetation.

Stamping Out the Stingers

When you’re getting out your pool furniture or garden furniture during the spring in anticipation of the outdoor entertaining you’ll be doing, keep an eye out for bees and wasps—and know the difference. Bees, which usually only sting when threatened, tend to travel in swarms and only remain in one area for a day or two. European wasps are often confused with bees, but are conspicuous for the lemon-yellow banded markings on their black bodies. These wasps can sting repeatedly and tend to become aggressive. Wasps like the same foods and drinks you do, and they tend to build nests in the ground, in walls with holes and in retaining walls. You can discourage wasps from building nests near your home by keeping your patio and outdoor areas clear of fallen fruit and food scraps, cleaning up leftover pet food, using rubbish bins with tight-fitting lids and covering compost at all times.

Common Sense on the Day

During outdoor meals, keep food and drinks covered whenever possible. This may mean investing in covers for plates and bowls. Keep the food under wraps until you’re ready to eat. Commercial bug traps and bug repellents can help, too. Citronella candles are especially good for repelling mosquitoes.