Archives: Pests
Common Name:
Oriental Roach
Scientific Name:
Blatta orientalis
Description:
An Oriental cockroach generally ranges from 1 to 2 inches in length, but can seem much larger when the intruder is up close and personal. The Oriental cockroach is typically dark-brown to reddish-brown in color, though it can also seem to appear as a black cockroach in the dark places where this type of roach is generally found.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Indoors, Oriental cockroaches prefer dark, moist areas such as under porches, sewers, drains, crawl spaces, dark, damp basements, and floor drains. They can be found outdoors in abandoned cisters and water valve pits; in yards; beneath leaves; in bark mulch around shrubs, flowers, and foundations; in dumps, stone walls, and crawl spaces; and in garbage and trash dumps and trash chutes.
Most Active Period:
Oriental Roaches are active at night when they are foraging for food, making it difficult to know exactly how large of an infestation you are dealing with.
Difficulty of Control:
Oriental cockroaches can be difficult to eliminate with DIY methods, there are ofter many more cockroaches living and hiding in your then you are seeing. Professionals will be able to discover all of their hiding spots and completely eliminate them from your home.
Common Name:
Bed Bug
Scientific Name:
Cimicidae
Description:
Bed bugs have small, flat, oval-shaped bodies. They are wingless. Adults do have the vestiges of wings called wing pads, but they do not fully develop into functional wings.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Around the bed, they can be found near piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in the cracks on the bed frame and headboard. If the room is heavily infested, you may find bed bugs: In the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, in the folds of curtains.
Most Active Period:
Bed bug feeding habits. Bed bugs are generally active only at night, with a peak attack period about an hour before dawn, though given the opportunity, they may attempt to feed at other times of day. Attracted by warmth and the presence of carbon dioxide, the bug pierces the skin of its host with two hollow tubes.
Difficulty of Control:
Bed bugs are hardy, small, flat, lentil-sized insects that are adept at squeezing themselves into tiny spaces.
Bed bugs multiply quickly. A single female can lay 500 eggs during her life, and within a few months, the offspring can reproduce as well. A few bugs introduced to a new environment can increase exponentially. Depending on conditions, bed bugs can produce three to four generations in one year. Scientists have documented that adult bed bugs can live up to 550 days, but usually close to one year without eating, and nymphs may last for months. So simply leaving an infested dwelling unoccupied for a few months in hops of starving them out will do nothing to discourage the little freeloaders. Because of the characteristics described above, bed bugs can be very difficult to control.
Common Name:
Sawtoothed Grain Beetle
Scientific Name:
Oryzaelphilus surinamensis
Description:
Sometimes called a grain beetle, adults are about 1/8″ (2.5 – 3 mm) long, with flattened body. Brown in color with 6 saw-like teeth on each side of the thorax thus the nickname sawtooth beetle. Wings well developed but not observed in flight. Mature larva are yellowish white and less than 1/8″ (3mm) long.
Places Most Commonly Found:
The saw tooth grain beetle voraciously attacks grains that are cracked or damaged. Cannot attack sound kernels. Its flat body permits access through very small cracks and crevices and into imperfectly sealed packages. Adults are not known to fly and are not attracted to light. Infestations occur in a wide variety of foodstuffs which include cereals, bread, breakfast foods, pasta, dried fruits, nuts, sugar, chocolate, dried meats, candy bars, tobacco, and dry pet food.
Most Active Period:
Saw toothed Grain Beetles occurs all year, but optimal development conditions are 86 to 95 degrees F (30 to 35 degrees C) and 70%+ relative humidity. There may be as many as 6-7 generations per year but the number is highly dependent on temperature.
Difficulty of Control:
Sawtoothed grain beetles are easy to control if food source is eliminated and proper sanitation protocols are used.
Common Name:
Red Paper Wasp
Scientific Name:
Polistes carolina
Description:
The red paper wasp is the most prevalent and aggressive wasp in Middle Tennessee and can range between 3/4 of an inch to an inch long. They are narrow-waisted wasps with reddish-brown to dark red or orange coloring and are know for building papery nests that hang down similar in shape to that of an umbrella.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Overhangs, eaves, soffits, wooden siding, and the cracks around windows are the most common places red paper wasps are found.
Most Active Period:
Red paper wasps are active during the day and return to the nest at night.
Difficulty of Control:
Aerial nests of paper wasps can easily be eliminated using rapid knock-down insecticides or aerosol products specifically designed for this purpose. However, red paper wasps are a very resilient insect. Be safe and get a professional to deal with wasps.
Common Name:
Yellow Jackets
Scientific Name:
Vespula spp.; Dolichovespula spp.
Description:
Adult workers about 3/8″ to 5/8″ (10 – 16 mm) long depending on the species with their respective queens about 25% longer. Abdomen usually banded with yellow and black, several species with white and black, and 2 northern species also marked with red. Wings folded longitudinally at rest. The yellow jacket picture shows the most common coloring.
Places Most Commonly Found:
The overwintering queen will usually select either a subterranean or aerial nesting site. Most of the pest species are ground nesting. However, the German yellowjacket usually nests in buildings in the United States, the western yellowjacket usually nests in buildings and the aerial yellowjacket commonly attaches its nests to shrubs, bushes, houses, garages, sheds, etc. Those nesting in the ground typically select areas bare of vegetation or else clear an area around the entrance. There are nest entrance guards to protect the colony. Overwintering queens will often enter the living space of buildings seeking warmth, or in the spring when they are looking for a nest site or just trying to get back outside. Every yellow jacket stings.
Most Active Period:
Only inseminated queens overwinter and do so in sheltered places. The adults are represented by workers which are sterile females, queens and males and usually appear in late summer. Nest size will usually contain 1,000 to 4,000 workers at its peak. Reproductive cells will be formed late in the summer and early fall and the nest enters a declining phase. The newly emerged queens and males leave the nest and mate. The founding queen and all of the workers die in late fall to early winter. When active the yellowjacket bites.
Difficulty of Control:
Easy to control if the nest is located and can be treated with pesticide during the evening, night or early morning.
Common Name:
Paper Wasps
Scientific Name:
Polistes spp.
Description:
Adults are about 5/8″ to 3/4″ (16 – 20 mm) long. Color brownish with yellow markings. Some species are mahogany to light red in color. They are sometimes referred to as Red Paper Wasps or Yellow Paper Wasps depending on the color and markings.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Paper wasps hang their comb nests from twigs and branches of trees and shrubs which can cause concern when ornamental shrubs and hedges are trimmed or fruit is being picked from trees. Paper wasps also like to hang their comb nests from porch ceilings, the top member of window and door frames, soffits, eaves, attic rafters, deck floor joists and railings, etc. They will readily nest in almost any protected place imaginable, which makes paper wasp removal difficult at times. See the paper wasp picture for identification purposes.
Most Active Period:
Paper wasps are semi-social, existing in small colonies but without a worker caste. Overwintering inseminated queens begin building nests in the spring. These founding queens are then joined by other inseminated queens which assist in nest building and maintenance. Such secondary queens become functional workers and relegate egg laying to the founding queen. However, should the founding/dominant queen die, one of the secondaries can assume egg laying and assure that the nest will survive. Queens emerge from hibernation in early spring and activity continues to early to late fall when females and males leave the nest and mate near tall structures. Females then hibernate in protected areas until spring
Difficulty of Control:
Easy to control if nests can be located.
Common Name:
House Cricket
Scientific Name:
Acheta domesticus
Description:
Adults are about 3/4″ – 7/8″ (18 – 22 mm) long. Light yellowish brown in color with 3 dark crossbands on head. Antenna are treadlike and longer than the body. Wings lay flat on the back. Nymphs look like adults except smaller and lack wings.
Places Most Commonly Found:
During warm weather, house crickets typically live outdoors and especially in and around garbage dumps. With the approach of cooler weather they move indoors where you might find a cricket in the house as they seek sheltered spaces such as sheds and houses. These crickets are usually nocturnal or active at night and usually hide in dark warm places during the day. Their presence is indicated by the male’s chirping sound which is done by rubbing their front wings together. Indoors, they will feed on fabrics such as wool, cotton, silk, and synthetics. They eat large areas of fabrics as opposed to the small holes typical of clothes moths. Having a cricket infestation in the house can be a nightmare!
Most Active Period:
Overwintering eggs hatch in late spring. Adults usually appear in late summer with only 1 generation per year.
Difficulty of Control:
House Cricket control is easy with crack and crevice treatments and exclusion methods. This normally will get rid of crickets in your house in short order.
Common Name:
Cluster Fly
Scientific Name:
Pollenia rudis
Description:
Adults are about 3/8″ (8mm) long. Dark gray, non metallic in color. Thorax lacking distinct stripes but with numerous short golden hairs. Abdomen had irregular lighter areas.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Because adults overwinter in sheltered places such as attics and wall voids a cluster fly infestation can be common. They usually occupy the southern walls and typically use the same structure year after year. This may be why you have problems with cluster fly control. If you have tried cluster fly traps without success it may because of the treatments you are trying. Eggs are laid in the soil where the larva feed on earthworms.
Most Active Period:
Usually a problem or nuisance in the autumn and early winter when they enter to hibernate and again in the spring when they attempt to leave the structure. They can be stimulated by warmth to resume activity anytime during the year thus cluster fly removal could be needed at anytime.
Difficulty of Control:
Easy to control with cluster fly treatments where exclusion methods are used.
Common Name:
House Fly
Scientific Name:
Musca domestica
Description:
Adults are 1/8″ to 1/4″ (4 – 7.5mm) long. The house fly picture shows the dull gray in color with 2 velvety stripes on face; silver above and gold below. Thorax has 4 narrow longitudinal stripes on dorsal side.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Eggs are laid in moist material. Larva seek a cool, dry place to pupate. Common House Fly adults are general feeders being attracted to a wide variety of material from excrement to human foods. A house fly infestation can be a royal pain that most people would like to avoid altogether.
Most Active Period:
Mid March to Mid November. Present in warmer weather during the winter.
Difficulty of Control:
House fly control is easy if sanitation issues are corrected.
Common Name:
Blow Fly
Scientific Name:
Calliphora spp., Phaenicia spp.
Description:
Adults measure about 1/8″ – 5/8″ (4 – 16 mm) long. Color partly or wholly metallic blue, green, or dull brassy, sometimes black. Referred to at times as Black Blow Fly or Green Blow Fly. Mature larva about 3/8″ to 7/8″ (9 – 22 mm) long; eyeless, legless, and tapering towards head from large rounded rear segment. Color pale yellow to white. You can see the adult Blow Fly picture showing the detail and common color.
Places Most Commonly Found:
Females lay their eggs (up to 2,373) on suitable larval food material. Upon hatching, the larvae may feed on the surface the burrow into the food material which is less decayed. Mature larvae will usually leave their food material to pupate. These flies feed on filth such as garbage, excrement, sewage, and/or develop in the carcasses of dead animals. Dead birds, rodents and other small animals are the primary sources of breeding areas. Often called Blow Fly Maggots, these flies are usually the first insects to arrive and infest after an animal dies. Their larvae are often used by forensic entomologists to help determine the time of death in murder cases. The list of diseases associated with Blow flies is numerous including several intestinal track problems such as E. coli and cholera.
Most Active Period:
Some species are strong fliers and have been known to fly 4 – 28 miles from their point of origin. The are most active on warm, sunny days,, and primarily rest on cool and/or cloudy days. Inside they are attracted to the bright light coming through windows. Eggs hatch between 59 F (15 C) to 109 F (43 C). Development time in the south is usually 7 to 20 days. Optimum temperature for activity and development is 72 F (22 C).
Difficulty of Control:
A Blow Fly infestation is difficult to control without addressing sanitation issues. Moderate to easy to control when sanitation issues are addressed along with exclusion and use of pesticides in or near breeding areas.