Structural Pests in Our Area

Subterranean Termites

The native subterranean termites are the most widespread and destructive termite group in the United States. The worker termites construct shelter tubes with tiny particles of soil, wood, or debris cemented together with secretions and fecal material. Subterranean termites are more likely to be decentralized entities occupying multiple nesting or foraging sites, interconnected by an extensive network of underground tunnels. Colonies can contain about 200,000 to 5 million termites.

 Formosan Termites

The Formosan termite distribution is more limited than the native subterranean termite. The Formosan termite poses a severe threat in areas where it is established. This termite can cause major structural damage to a home in six months, and almost complete destruction within two years. Losses in some states are estimated to be close to $500 million. The field colonies commonly extend into the millions, foraging over distances in excess of 100 meters. They also may form aerial nests with no ground connection. These nests are made of a material known as "carton", consisting of soil and masticated wood cemented together. As with native subterranean species, true aerial infestations require a remote moisture source. Colonies can contain about 1 to 7 million termites.

 

 

Carpenter ant colonies are established after the mating flights of winged male and female reproductives. Carpenter ants enter buildings to nest or forage. They are called "carpenters" because they excavate their nests in wood, creating smooth tunnels and galleries. They generally excavate in wood that is decayed or damaged by other insects. In structural infestations of carpenter ants, the parent colony is generally located outside in a tree, stump, stack of firewood, or landscape logging. Satellite colonies may be found in similar sites in one or more neighboring trees and in adjacent structures. Such colonies may be found in a variety of places, including attic rafters, roof overhangs, bay windows, and fascia boards. Populations of ant colonies can reach tremendous numbers of 100,000 or more workers.

 

 

Carpenter Bee

Their galleries usually average 4 to 6 inches in length, but galleries used by a number of bees may go up to 10 feet in length. The female excavates the gallery one inch every six days. The female furnishes her nest with "bee bread" (a mixture of pollen and regurgitated nectar), then lays an egg and closes the cell with chewed wood pulp. There may be six such sealed cells in a linear row in one gallery. While the damage to wood from the drilling activities of a pair of carpenter bees is slight, the activities of numerous bees during a period of years can result in considerable damage. They often attack such objects as windowsills, wooden siding, eaves, decks, railings, outdoor furniture, and fences. The round entrance hole measures 3/8 to 1/2 inch in diameter and usually cuts against the grain of the wood. Contrary to popular misconception painted and stained woods can and will be attacked by carpenter bees, although bare, exposed wood is preferred.

Lyctinae are referred to as true powder post beetles because they produce a very fine, powdery, talc-like frass that contains no grains or pellets. It has been reported that in the United States, the Lyctinae are second only to termites in their destructiveness to wood and wood products. Approximately 66 species occur worldwide and at least 10 occur in the United States with six of these being common and important pests. As pests of wood and wood products, infestations are commonly found in hardwood floors, hardwood timbers, plywood, and wood articles.

 

 

 

Oldhouse Borer

The old house borer spends 2 to 10 years of its life cycle in the larval stage. Under favorable conditions, larvae can complete development in about two years. Contrary to its common name, the old house borer occurs primarily in houses less than 10 years old. The life cycle of the old house borer is closey tied to the seasonal fluctuation of wood moisture content. Adult old house borers usually begin emerging from infested wood in early summer. In southern states, this period may be earlier. The frass produced by the larvae consists of somewhat granular, barrel-shaped pellets 1/24-inch in length. Irregularly shaped particles, which are excavated but not consumed, are also mixed in with the granular material. Larvae generally tunnel with the grain of the wood and large galleries may be produced in sections of wood favorable for larval development.

Asian Cockroach

 

German Cockroach

The German cockroach is about 5/8 inch in length, brown in color, with two dark longitudinal stripes on the pronotum. This cockroach is domestic, breeding throughout the year indoors and flavoring a humid environment. German cockroaches are found primarily in kitchens, bathrooms, or other areas where daily access to water is available. This cockroach has a worldwide distribution and is the most prevalent species in and around homes, apartments, supermarkets, food processing plants, and restaurants.

The Smokeybrown cockroach has become an urban pest in many parts of the United States, especially in the moist Gulf States and the southern and eastern portions of the Mississippi Valley drainage pattern. The smokeybrown cockroach is an easily recognized species by its uniform mahogany brown coloration. It is smaller than the American cockroach ranging in size from 1.25 to 1.5 inches long. Temperatures of 59 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit represent the lower and upper limits for development and reproduction of the species. This species requires access to liquid every two to three days. Populations are centered on habitats that are protected, moist, dark, relatively warm, and relatively free from the desiccating effects of airflow. These sites include voids in block walls, loose mulches, and eaves in attics with abundant moisture resulting from inadequate ventilation or poor roofing practices.

 

 

American Cockroach

The American cockroach is the largest of the house-infesting cockroaches, being up to 2-1/8 inches long with fully developed reddish-brown wings and light markings on the thorax. This cockroach is commonly found in sewers and basements, particularly around pipes and drains. The eggs in the egg case are in two parallel rows, and the number of eggs in a case is variable. American cockroaches of varying sizes may also live together. The American cockroach is commonly found in restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and any facility where food is prepared or stored. It is also common in many types of buildings, including factories, hospitals, hotels, and zoos. They are active throughout the year. American cockroaches have been found flying around streetlights in Texas.

This cockroach is similar to the German cockroach in appearance. They are similar in that they completely depend on the human habitat for survival, and they are the only know dedicated domestic cockroach species. The origin of the brownbanded cockroach is thought to be African. Their exquisite adaptation to the human environment allows this specie to move with people and their belongings wherever they go. This species is gregarious and hides in cupboards, pantries, or even in other rooms of the house. Preferences are shown for high locations such as shelves in closets, behind pictures, and picture moldings, and the like. In addition to being a pest in homes, the brownbanded cockroach is often found in office settings. This species does not have the same high moisture requirement that the German cockroach has, so it can survive in areas where access to free liquid may be minimal.

The workers are 1.6 to 5 mm long and are polymorphic. They have a two-segmented petiole and a stinger. Their antennae's are 10-segmented with a two-segmented club. The clypeus has three teeth. The body color is an almost uniform dark reddish-brown. The fire ant undergoes complete metamorphosis, which consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. A mature queen can lay hundreds of eggs each day. Mature colonies of fire ants have 200,000 to 300,000 workers, and either one queen (monogyne) or many queens (polygyne). The fire ants have an omnivorous diet and opportunistic feeding habits, and they feed on any plant or animal they encounter.

 

 

The workers of the odorous ants are 2.4 to 3.3 mm long, and have a one-segmented petiole. These ants are uniform brown to black, and when crushed, emit a rotten, coconut-like odor. The colonies range in size from 2,000 to 10,000 ants. Nests in soil are usually shallow and often located beneath an object such as a board or stone. Stacked material such as lumber, firewood, bricks, rocks, cardboards, and between sheets of vinyl siding are also favorite nesting sites. When odorous house ants invade a building, their nests are often located outside. Indoors, their nests are usually found associated with moisture, such as within wall voids near pipes and heaters, bath traps, wood damaged by termites, and beneath toilets. The workers forage both day and night to collect honeydew and also collect on both live and dead insects.

 

 

Pharaoh Ant

Workers are about 2 mm long, monomorphic, and have a two-segmented petiole. Their antennae are 12-segmented with a three-segmented club. They are yellowish or light brown to reddish, with the tip of the gaster darkened. The Pharaoh ant colony has multiple queens and nests. In houses, they are frequently found in kitchens and bathrooms near a source of water. Nests are often located in inaccessible spots such as interior wall voids, under floors, and behind baseboards or windowsills. They are also found in kitchens, laundries, around toilets, sinks, heating ducts, and pipes. Pharaoh ants are omnivores, feeding on fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

 

 

Workers are monomorphic and 2.2 to 3mm long, with one-segmented petiole. They have a slender body with extraordinarily long legs and antennae. The body color is dark brown to black with a bluish iridescence. The colonies are rather small, containing up to 2,000 workers. There are commonly from 8 to 40 queens in each colony. Large colonies numbering tens of thousands of have been found living in piles of debris and within landscape mulch. The crazy ant nests in both dry and moist environments, in trash, plants, rotten wood, and soil. They also nest adjacent to foundations in landscape mulch and behind thick vegetation. Indoors, their nests are located in wall voids, under carpeting, and in potted plants. They have an omnivorous diet, feeding on honeydew, both live and dead insects, and various household foods, especially sweets.

 

 

Little Black Ant

Workers are monomorphic and small, 1.5 to 2 mm in length. Their antennae are 12-segmented with a three-segmented club. They are dark brown to black and have a shiny appearance. Colonies may contain several queens and be heavily populated. Most infestations originate from outdoors and can be traced to a stump, tree, log, fence, or a pile of lumber or bricks. They also nest in landscape mulch and under stones.

Recluse (or brown) spiders also are known as "fiddleback" or "violin" spiders because of violin-shaped marking on the top of the carapace. Recluse spiders have only six eyes arranged in three pairs positioned in a semicircle at the front of the carapace. The adult recluse spiders will vary from 1/4 to 1/2 inch in body length. The natural range of the brown recluse spider is from southern Texas north to Nebraska, and east to eastern Tennessee and Alabama. The brown recluse naturally occurs in outdoor situations, living in piles of debris, utility boxes, woodpiles, and vehicles, as well as under bark, logs, and stones. It has adapted quite well to indoor habitats where it is commonly found harboring in storage areas, such as closets, attics, crawlspaces, cellars, and other dark recesses. They frequently inhabit clothes, boxes, toys, papers, furniture, and other household items and seem to prefer "layered" situations, such as stacks of items or clutter.

 

 

Black Widow Spider

Widow spiders are present in every state in the United States. Eggs are laid in silken sacs up to 1/2 inch in diameter, and a female may produce four to nine egg sacs during one summer. About 300 to 400 eggs per sac are common. The southern black widow spider is perhaps the most well known spider in North America. The adult female is usually jet black above with two reddish triangular markings, joined to form an "hour glass" shape on the underside of the abdomen.

                                                        Asian Tiger Mosquito              Culex Mosquito

Mosquitoes are of great concern due to diseases they transmit, which include.: Malaria, Encephalitis, West Nile Virus, Yellow fever, all strains of dengue, and Canine Heartworm Disease.

Fleas are parasitic only in the adult stage. They are of medical and veterinary importance due both to irritation from fleabites and to their role in transmitting disease agents. More than 90% of the fleas found on both dogs and cats in North America are the cat fleas. Cat fleas develop by complete metamorphosis in these stages: Egg, Larva, Pupa, and Adult. Cat flea eggs typically hatch in one to six days, depending on temperature and humidity. More that half the eggs will hatch within 36 hours at 70% relative humidity and 95 degrees. Depending upon the temperature and humidity, the entire life cycle of the cat flea can be completed in as little as 12 to 14 days, or be prolonged up to 174 days.  

 

Potential Flea Diseases: Irritation, Plague, Murine Typhus, Tapeworms, Bartonella, Allergens,

 

 

Tick

Ticks are bloodsucking ectoparasites. These arthropods have a six-legged larval stage, one or more eight-legged nymphal stages, and an eight-legged adult stage, all of which take blood meals. Ticks are efficient vectors of a number of serious diseases of humans and domestic animals. In temperate and tropical countries, ticks surpass all other arthropods in the number and variety of diseases which they transmit to domestic animals, and they run mosquitoes a close second in the number of diseases transmitted to humans.

 

Some of the typical viral diseases transmitted by ticks include: Colorado tick fever, Powassan encephalitis, and tick-borne encephalitis. Also a factor, Lyme disease, relapsing fever, tularemia organisms, human babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, and endemic typhus.

 

 

 

True bugs have gradual metamorphosis. These relatively small bugs are about 3/16-inch long, 1/8-inch wide, broadly oval, flat, brown to reddish-brown true bugs with a 3-segmented beak, 4-segmented antennae, and vestigial wings. Bed bugs have very thin, vertically flattened bodies covered with short, golden-colored hairs. They give off a distinctive, "musty, sweetish" odor from scent glands near their hind coxae, and usually deposit undigested parts of their blood meals in their hiding places, as a "rusty" or tarry residue. Bed bugs often void remains of their last partially digested blood meal during their next feeding, resulting in the typical "rusty" spots seen on bed clothes in many infestations.

 

 

The Common Bed Bug have been found naturally infected by at least 27 human pathogens but have never been proven to biologically transmit even one human pathogen.

The Norway rat is the most important urban rat pest for the most parts of the world. The Norway rat is a relatively large rat with the average adult measuring about 16 inches in total length from its nose to the end of its tail, and weighs about 12 ounces. The length of the tail is shorter than the body. The typical pelage color is grayish brown, but it may vary from a pure gray to a blackish or reddish brown.

 

 

The roof rat is a medium-sized rat weighing about 8 ounces, and measuring about 16 inches in total length from its nose to the end of its tail. The roof rat's tail is longer than the body and is one of its key identifying characteristics. Roof rats are not always black in color but may be wholly black or brown-backed with the belly varying from gray to cream-colored or white. The rat is found in the south central and eastern states, and along with the entire western coast. In several of the coastal and tropical U.S. cities (e.g., San Diego, Houston, Honolulu, and others), the black rat is the most numerous and significant rat pest species. This rat lives among vegetation in exterior areas, as well as within buildings. The roof rat being adapted to an arboreal origin, prefers elevated areas of treetops and roofs, rendering it less available, more elusive, and less dependent on the foods and harborage resources of humans. Dense growth of trees, shrubs and vines, woodpiles, sheds, and accumulated yard rubbish all contribute to infestation by this rat. Rats have two peak activity periods; one within the hour following sunset, and again just before dawn. Their nocturnalism is merely an expression of their mode of self-defense. But rats occasionally alter or even reverse their activity periods from nighttime to daytime depending on human activity, competition and availability of resources.

 

 

House Mouse

The house mouse is the number one rodent pest in most parts of the world. Adult house mice range in total size from 5 to 8 inches. The ears are moderately large and distinct. The pelage color ranges from light brown to nearly black. Most field strains are dusky-gray, but others may be light brown to dark gray with the belly slightly lighter or a very light cream color. The tail is semi-naked and about as long as the body and head combined. The average adult weighs 0.5 to 1.0 ounce. House mice are extremely common within cities and towns, but they also live as field rodents away from any buildings. Under optimum conditions mice can breed throughout the year. A long-lived female can produce between 6 to 10 litters spaced between 30 to 50 days apart, accounting for 42 to 60 offspring in a year. However, variations in genetics, food supply, competition, and temperatures all affect these numbers.

Opossum

The opossum is the only marsupial native to the U.S. They may den beneath dwellings or porches or take up residence within attics or outbuildings. They frequently raid uncovered garbage cans and tear open plastic garbage bags set out for disposal. Opossums have been involved in the transmission of tularemia to humans and should not be handled or skinned without protective gloves. Additionally, they have been reported to be infected with, and may be carriers of, a number of other diseases, including leptospirosis, relapsing fever, murine typhus, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Opossums are often heavily infested with ectoparasites.

 

Armadillos sometimes become a nuisance by rooting in vegetable gardens or landscaped areas in search of their favorite diet of worms, insect larvae, pupae, and other soil insects. They are fond of rooting and digging in leaf mold and other rich humus material containing high concentrations of insects and other soil invertebrates. Armadillos can be particularly damaged to lawns of golf courses, cemetries, parks, and playing fields by digging (grubbing) through the turf in search of beetle grubs. Fungi, young plant roots, and shoots also make up a small portion of their diet. Consumption of cantaloupes, watermelons, peanuts, and tomatoes has been reported. Armadillos can be infected with several diseases important to humans including leptospirosis and Chagas' disease. It was recently found that some animals are naturally infected with the bacterium that causes human leprosy.

 

 

 

Skunk

Skunk activity around buildings may go unnoticed for awhile until one takes up occupancy beneath a porch, deck, slab foundation, or outbuilding floor or has a confrontation with another animal, leaving the offensive scent as an indicator of its presence or reminder or an encounter with someone's canine companion. Lawns infested with scarab beetle larvae are subject to grubbing behavior by skunks that readily feed on these insects. The resulting damage to sod certainly contributes to the skunk's status as an urban pest. Skunks have been found to may or may not affect humans, including histeriosis, mastistis, distemper, Q fever, histoplasmosis, microfilaria, and by far the most important, rabies.

Squirrels can cause damage or become a nuisance to the homeowner when they use buildings for nesting sites and food storage or when they gnaw into attics to take up residence. Squirrels often gain access through vents, broken windows, knotholes, and construction gaps under eaves and gables. The amount of structural damage may at times be severe. The typical evidence of squirrels includes droppings, gnawed holes, nest materials, food stores, shells, nut hulls, pits, and other food remnants. If squirrels are in the attic or garage, the occupant will likely hear them moving about, even if the animals are unseen.

 

 

Raccoon

Raccoons can be destructive to lawns and other grounds landscaped in cultured turf grass due to a propensity for "grubbing" behavior, as they dig for scarab beetle larvae on which to feed. Raccoons often gain access into attics, basements, and crawlspaces, by forcing open loose or broken vent covers, louvers, windows, and carpentry. Female raccoons readily invade attics. Raccoons have been implicated in several other infectious diseases transmissible to humans including leptospirosis, Chagas' disease, tularemia and, most notably, rabies.

Earwigs are active at night and hide during the day. Being thigmatropic, earwig's prefer to hide or rest in dark, moist cracks such as those found under tree bark and beneath stones, boards, and debris. The diet of earwigs is diverse and consists of a wide variety of plant and animal matter. Earwigs feed on leaves, flowers, fruits, and fungi, as well as aphids and larger insects such as flies, captured with their pincer-like cerci.

 

 

These creatures normally live outdoors where they feed on damp and decaying wood and vegetable matter, as well as on tender roots and green leaves on the ground. Their slow-crawling, rounded bodies have two pairs of legs on each body segment except for the first three, which have only one pair of legs on each segment. About 1,000 species of millipedes occur in the United States. For some reasons, yet unknown, masses of millipedes will begin "migrations" that bring hundreds, even thousands into yards and onto and into homes and other buildings. Often, these migrations occur during the fall; spring and summer migrations have been encountered.  

 

 

Centipede

Centipedes are flattened, elongated animals with one pair of legs on most of their body segments. The total number of legs varies from 10 to more than 100, depending on the species. Centipedes dwell outdoors in damp locations, beneath accumulations of leaves, stones, boards and when disturbed, they run swiftly. Potential harborages such as old boards, boxes, compost piles, woodpiles, stones, leaf litter, and grass clippings.

 

 

Scorpions are one of the oldest known groups of arthropods. They are easily recognized by their enlarged, pincer-like pedipalps and long, thin tail tipped with a stinger. Around structures, scorpions spend the day resting beneath any items lying on the ground. They come out at night and search for prey. It's during these nightly hunting jaunts that they may enter buildings through cracks in exterior walls, under doors, through vents, etc. Weep holes in brick veneer are common entry points. Once behind the brick, they climb up and enter the attic. They sting out of defense when trapped against a person's skin. Pain is usually immediate upon stinging by most scorpions and generally only a localized reaction occurs near the site of the sting. The venom of most scorpions is not dangerous although, some species are quite venomous.