Public Health Pests

There are many pests in the environment which may cause a risk to public health by making you sick if you are bitten by them.

Pests can either be parasites which feed off you to keep themselves alive, or vectors which means they carry a disease from one human or animal to another.

Examples of public health pests include head lice, bed bugs, ticks, spiders and mosquitos.

You can contact an Environmental Health Officer on 1300 066 055 for more information or information regarding public health pests can be found on the NSW Government Health website.

How will this information help you?

• Understand the different public health pests and how they can make you sick
• Access factsheets on how to prevent being bitten or exposed to public health pests, including things you can do in the environment to assist prevention
• Access information on how surveillance is carried out on important public health pests, especially mosquitos, including reports on where sick people are being found
• Print brochures and posters you can hand out or post in important public areas to help educate people on how to best protect themselves by being bitten by a public health pest
• Access useful links to further detailed information on particular monitoring programs, research organisations and publications