Roaches
German Roaches
American Roaches
American Roaches
Body:Light brown in color with two dark stripes running parallel down its back. Flatten, oval shaped with spiny legs and long filamentous antennas.
Habitat: Most commonly found in houses and restaurants and can develop into large populations.
Threat: They can produce an unpleasant odor, foul food, and even eat glue from furniture. They can contaminate food with certain bacterial disease that result in food poisoning, dysentery, or diarrhea.
Pest Control
American Roaches
American Roaches
American Roaches
Also Called: Water Bug and Palmetto Bug
Body: Reddish Brown with a yellow band outlining behind their head. They get their wings when they become adults and can fly.
Habitat: They normally live outdoors and prefer warm damp areas.
Threat: They can spread diseases, contaminate food, cause allergies, and even asthma. They can carry germs on their body and legs.
Pest Control
Asian Roaches
American Roaches
Asian Roaches
Body: Light brown with two stripes behind the head, almost identical to the German Roach.
Habitat: They prefer to live outdoors in leaf litter and mulch and may populate into thousands. Typically found in shaded moist areas and will eat on any available food source.
Threat: Their waste and body oil may make the flavor and smell of food unpleasant and can carry a disease-cause microorganisms that can spread. They can also trigger an allergic reaction.
Pest Control
Ants
House Ants
House Ants
House Ants
Also Known: "Sugar Ant"
Body: They range from brown to black and are in various sizes.
Habitat: They are scavenger/predator ants that will eat most house foods, especially those that contain sugar. They colonize anywhere and in a variety of condition
Pest Control
Fire Ants
House Ants
House Ants
Body: They are reddish-brown to black
Habitat: You will find them in warm sunny areas such as pastures, parks, lawns and fields. They will build huge mounds up to two feet high.
Threat: They will latch on with vice-like jaws and thrust its stinger into its prey, injecting a dose of venom that causes a painful burning sensation. They can also destroy crops and landscape.
Pest Control
Pharaoh Ants
Tawny Crazy Ants
Tawny Crazy Ants
Body: A small yellow to light brown to reddish with a darker abdomen, almost transparent.
Habitat: Know for being a major indoor nuisance. Nesting occurs inaccessible, warm, humid areas. They will infest any areas with food and even areas without food. (They have the ability to survive most conventional household pest control treatments.)
Threat: They do bite and can cause pain. They will contaminate food, sterile equipment and even wounds. They can spread organisms like clostridium and streptococcus. Clostridium can cause tetanus, botulism, or necrotizing intestinal tissue.
Tawny Crazy Ants
Tawny Crazy Ants
Tawny Crazy Ants
Also Known: "Rasberry Crazy Ant"
Body: Smaller than a fire ant and covered with reddish-brown hairs.
Habitat: They have quick, unpredictable movements. They are attracted to electrical devices. They will nest indoors or outdoors under a variety of objects like soil, flower pots, pavement, or rocks.
Threat: They can bite that will cause a slight pain but quickly fade away. They can chew through insulation and wiring and can cause a lot of damage. A pile of dead ants can also cause a lot of damage like short circuits. They can cause problems to live stock.
Pest Control
Termites
Drywood Termite
Dampwood Termite
Dampwood Termite
Body: Usually pale brown, but can vary between dark brown and light yellowish-tan. Winged termites have wings that are clear or smokey brown.
Habitat: They generally feed, live, and nest in decayed wood which have a very low moisture content. They do not need contact with the soil to survive. They will often colonize in the home but can also be found in fences and trees.
Threat: They will eat and damage wood including moving wood like furniture.
Pest Control
Dampwood Termite
Dampwood Termite
Dampwood Termite
Body: Generally much larger than subterranean termites. They range from light to dark brown but can be a reddish color.
Habitat: Typically infest damp and decaying wood with high moisture content. They do not need contact with soil to live. They are usually found in fallen trees, dead trees, and stumps but they have to have regular contact with water and high humidity. They can live completely in the wood.
Threat: They can be found in homes where there is high moisture levels and cause damage to the home.
Pest Control
Eastern Subterranean Termite
Formosan Subterranean Termite
Formosan Subterranean Termite
Body: They come in various colors. Workers are creamy-white, Soldiers are yellowish, and Reproductives are dark brown or black. The swarmers will have wings that are clear to a greyish color.
Habitat: They are found in moist dark damp environments, usually located in the ground. They will feed on wood, roots, tree stumps, fallen tree limbs and branches, wood in buildings, wooden fixtures, paper, books, and cotton.
Threat: They can colonies inside buildings where moisture regularly collects. They are highly destructive and can rapidly eat out the internal sections of wood.
Warning: DO NOT DISTURB! If they are they will most likely move to a different area of the building and cause more damage.
Pest Control
Formosan Subterranean Termite
Formosan Subterranean Termite
Formosan Subterranean Termite
Body: They are yellowish brown in color.
Habitat: They like to colonies with constant moisture and close to wood. You can find nest in structure voids between walls and beneath sinks. They generally invade areas with ground to wood contact but can invade without contact to soil.
Threat: They are the most destructive and aggressive to wood. Because of their population size being so large they can cause a lot of damage in a short amount of time. They can hollow out wood and leave paper-thin surfaces. They will also chew through electrical wires and attack plants, plaster, plastic, asphalt, and thin sheets of soft metals.
Pest Control
Spiders
Brown Recluse
Brown Recluse
Brown Recluse
Body: They are typically light to medium brown, they can range from whitish to dark brown or blackish gray. Size is usually between 6-20 millimeters but may grow larger. The most distinctive marking is on the thorax that looks like a violin with the neck pointing towards the rear.
Habitat: They normally build their webs in dry places and that are undisturbed like woodpiles, garage, sheds, closets, cellars, etc. Inside the homes they are most likely to be found in cupboards.
Threat: They do have necrotic venom that when bitten might need medical attention. Most bites are not initially noticed and may not have immediate pain but can be severe. They are rarely aggressive and mostly attack when feel threatened.
Symptoms: Most common are nausea, fever, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. If you are bitten contact your doctor immediately and if you can safely capture the spider do so for verification.
Pest Control
Black Widow
Brown Recluse
Brown Recluse
Body: The size range from 3-10 millimeters, some females range up to 13 millimeters in their body length. Females are typically dark brown or shiny black with a red or orange hourglass shaped on the abdomen, some may have red spots or no markings at all. Males often exhibit various red or red and white markings on the abdomen, which range from a single strip to bars or spots.
Habitat: They usually build their webs near the ground in dark and undisturbed areas, normally in small holes made by animals, construction openings or woodpiles. Indoor webs can also be found in dark and undisturbed areas like under desks, furniture, and basements.
Threat: The female bites are the dangerous ones. The male bits are rarely fatal or even produce serious complications. Many bites happen as a defensive bite due to being unintentionally touched or squeezed.
Pest Control
Brown Widow
Brown Recluse
Brown Widow
Also Known: Brown Button Spider, Grey Widow, Brown Black Widow, House Button Spider, or Geometric Button Spider.
Body: Slightly smaller and generally lighter in color than the black widow. The color can range from tan to dark brown to black, may have shades of grey involved. They have vivid orange or a yellowish hourglass shape on their abdomen. They also have black and white patterns on the side of the abdomen and stripes on their legs.
Habitat: They usually build their webs in secluded, protected sites around our homes and sometimes near our presence. They like man-made structures and even vegetation.
Threat: There bites are usually much less dangerous than the Black Widow. They are non-aggressive and will retreat when disturbed unless pressed against skin which is when most bites happen.
Pest Control
And More
Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs
Body: They are light brown to reddish brown in color and their bodies are flat and oval with no hind wings.
Habitat: They are usually found in warm homes, especially near or in beds and other sleep areas.
Threat: They are a parasitic insect that exclusively feeds on blood. They can normally feed without being noticed. They have pierce-sucking mouth parts that they use to pierce though the skin and inject saliva which has an anticoagulant in it while sucking the blood from the host.
Symptoms: irritating skin rashes, psychological effects, and allergic reaction.
Pest Control
Fleas
Bed Bugs
Bed Bugs
Body: They are usually brown and very tiny. Their bodies are flattened sideways and can jump.
Habitat: Some places you will find them on animals, humans and carpet.
Threat: They feed on blood on animals and humans. They can spread certain diseases with their bite.
Symptoms: Itching that may last for a few weeks, allergic reaction, may cause animals to be anemic.
Did You Know: Adult fleas only compromise about 5% of the total flea population. The rest is made up of eggs, larvae or pupae. If you happen to see one flea, there could be more than 100 offspring or adults nearby!
Pest Control
Silverfish
Silverfish
Silverfish
Body: They are silvery light grey in color, they have two long antennae on their head and three tail-like appendages on their abdomen.
Habitat: They prefer damp warm places. They can be found in places like attics, bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms,basements, cellars and even in old books just name a few.
Threat: Silverfish are not harmful to humans, however they can do a lot of damage to property due to their eating habits. They feed on book bindings, paper, sugar, coffee, carpet, clothing, human dandruff, photos, tapestries, linen, silk, cotton synthetic fibers and even household dust (not going to complain about that last one).
Pest Control
Earwigs
Silverfish
Silverfish
Body: They are flattened with an elongated body and are characterized by the pair of forceps-like pincers on their abdomen.
Habitat: They are nocturnal and live in damp, shady places. They can be found inside your home in places like your basement of bathroom.
Threat: Earwigs feed on insects like aphids and army worms but they will also feed on your plants and garden.
Did You Know: Earwigs do not bite or sting people. The pincers are used to catch prey and to defend themselves. Sure if you mess with them they might pinch you but, the odds of it hurting or even breaking skin is slim. And no they have no desire to crawl into your ear while you sleep and lay eggs.
Pest Control
And Yes RATS Too
Roof Rat
Norway Rat
Norway Rat
Also Know: Black rat, ship rat or house rat.
Body: Medium sized (slightly smaller than the Norway rat), black to light brown in color with a scraggly coat of fur.
Habitat: They prefer to live in upper floors and on roofs of buildings. They are commonly found in wall cavaties and false ceilings. They are active year round and mate up to 4 times a year with an average litter size of 8.
Threat: They are destructive to crops, fruit trees, grains and other food sources. The fleas and parasites that live and feed on these rats also carry a number of diseases.
R.A.T.S.
Norway Rat
Norway Rat
Norway Rat
Also Known: Brown rat, common rat, street rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norwegian rat, Parisian rat, water rat or wharf rat.
Body: One of the largest rats with coarse fur sandy brown to dark grey in color.
Habitat: These rats are nocturnal they live in basements or hole foundations. they are very good excavators, often digging extensive burrow systems. They are great swimmers both on the surface as well as underwater.
Threat: These rats cause millions of dollars of damage to crops and buildings each year by burrowing under buildings and walkways, gnawing through electrical wires, pipes and chewing through walls. They eat and contaminate crops and seeds. They also have been vectors of diseases like typhus, spotted fever, salmonella food poisoning, infectious jaundice and other diseases.
Did You Know: Females can produce up to 5 litters a year with a litter size of up to 14. The young reach sexual maturity in about 5 weeks. Under the right conditions a population could grow from 2 to somewhere around 15,000 in just one year!
R.A.T.S.
House Mouse
House Mouse
House Mouse
Body: Small body with small rounded ears, pointed snout and a long nearly hairless tail.
Habitat: Mice are highly adaptable therefore they can inhabit diverse areas.
Threat: These mice can cause damage to your home or structure by chewing through your drywall, gnawing on your furniture, chewing through boxes, contaminating food or crops, chewing through electrical wiring,They are also connected to the spread of salmonella, rickettsial pox and tularemia.
R.A.T.S.
Deer Mice
House Mouse
House Mouse
Body: Grey or tawny brown in color with a white underbelly and whits feet and a short tail covered with fine hairs.
Habitat: These mice are most often found in rural areas and outside of the home rather than in them.
Threat: Deer mice can carry viruses and bacteria that cause diseases like Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome and Lyme disease.
Did You Know: A white footed mouse and a deer mouse are so closely identical that it takes a keen eye to tell them apart.
R.A.T.S.