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Carpenter Bee - get
their name from their habit of boring into wood to make galleries for raising
their young. Closely resembles the bumblebee, except that the abdomen is black
and shiny. The male has a yellow face, the female, black.
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Fire
Ant - named because they can inflict especially painful bites and
stings. Fire ants are typically ground nesting, but our Southern fire ant
will sometimes nest in the wood or masonry of buildings.
Fire ants are
difficult to control, and usually require repeated applications of liquid
or granular residuals.
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Cat
Flea - not only cause discomfort by biting, but also transmit several
diseases such as plague and murine typhus. Similar to dog flea, mouse flea
and rabbit flea. It is not necessary to have pets in the building in order
to have fleas present, since they can jump about 6" and often hitch
rides on shoes or trousers. |
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Brown
Dog Tick - overall reddish brown, and common on dogs. Though they
rarely attack humans, they can serve as vectors for Rocky Mountain spotted
fever and several other disease organisms. |
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Cockroach
- The German cockroach is by far the most important and usually the
most common. The Smokybrown cockroach is uniformly brownish black
to dark mahogany, and is common in the southern states. The American
cockroach is also called a 'waterbug', 'Bombay canary', or 'Palmettobug',
and despite its name, is worldwide in distribution, and not native.
They can enter
structures by being brought in, coming up from the sewer system via
drains, and occasional mass migrations from other structures, dumps, etc.
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Earwig
- superstition says these bugs enter the ears of sleeping people and bore
into their brains. Earwigs are nocturnal and hide during the day in moist,
shady places. They have a distinctive disagreeable / repugnant odor which
is released when they are crushed, and some species can squirt such a
liquid. Usually it it the European earwigs which sometime invade homes,
sometimes by the hundreds of thousands. |
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Eastern
Subterranean Termite
- eat only the spring wood and leave the lignin containing summer
wood which they can't digest - hence damaged wood often appears to be
layered. They live in the ground, but can enter structures through mud
tubes, and through cracks 1/16" wide. |
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Brown
Recluse Spider - 11 species throughout the United States, and 7 are of
public health importance. The differences among species are minor, and
identification should be left to experts. Both male and female can inject
venom and must be considered dangerous to humans. |
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Indianmeal
Moth - the most commonly encountered pest of stored products found
in the home and grocery stores. The adults cause no damage. The larvae
attack grain and grain products, a wide variety of dried fruits, seeds,
nuts, graham crackers, powdered milk, biscuits, chocolates, candies, dried
red peppers, dry dog food and bird seed. Very destructive. |
