Steve's Termite & Pest Control

Carpenter Ant

Carpenter Ant

Carpenter Ants get their name because they build their nests in wood. That can cause significant damage to the wood in your house. There are nine types of carpenter ants throughout the U.S. and range in size from one-quarter inch (about the width of a pencil) for a worker carpenter ant to three-quarters of an inch (about the size of a quarter) for a queen carpenter ant. Each colony is established by a single, fertilized queen. She starts her nest in a cavity in wood, where she raises her first brood of workers. She feeds them saliva and does not leave the nest or feed herself during this time. When they are ready, those workers then get the job of gathering food to feed the next generation. Once mature, this first generation of worker ants work to increase the food supply for the colony. The colony population grows very rapidly. A colony can eventually produce 2,000 or more workers.

Diet

Carpenter ants do not eat the wood they remove during their nest-building activities, but deposit it outside entrances to the colony in small piles. The diet of carpenter ants includes living and dead insects, meat, fats and sugary foods of all kinds, including honeydew and nectar from plants.

Habitat

Carpenter ants build nests anywhere they can find water and moldy or damp wood, such as tree stumps, firewood or in the plants around your house. Carpenter ants also build nests inside, usually entering buildings through wet, damaged wood, although it isn’t uncommon for them to adapt to drier environments.

Impact

Carpenter ants don’t carry disease, but when building a nest inside a home, Carpenter Ants dig smooth tunnels inside the wood. These tunnels weaken the wood and potentially damage the wood that keeps the house standing. This kind of damage can be very expensive to fix.

Prevention

Eliminate standing water. Pests, such as ants, mosquitoes and termites, are attracted to moisture. Keep tree branches and other plants cut back from the house. Sometimes pests use these branches to get into your home. Make sure that there are no cracks or little openings around the bottom of your house. Sometimes pests use these to get into your home. Make sure that firewood and building materials are not stored next to your home. Pests like to build nests in stacks of wood.

Red Imported Fire Ant

Red Imported Fire Ant

Red Imported Fire Ants are more aggressive than other ant species and have a painful sting. These ants and their telltale mound nests should be actively avoided. Red Imported Fire Ants can adapt to many climates and conditions in and around their environment. For example, if the colony senses increased water levels in their nests, they will come together and form a huge ball or raft that is able to float on the water!

Diet

They primarily feed on vegetation.

Habitat

Red imported fire ants will build their nests in mounds of soil outdoors, in landscape areas or near a building’s foundation. They occasionally enter buildings through holes or cracks in walls and foundations.

Impact

The sting of a Red Imported Fire Ant is painful and often results in a raised welt that becomes a white blister. Persons allergic to insect stings will react more severely. They are frustrating, not only because of the physical pain they can inflict, but because their mound-building activity can damage plant roots and lead to loss of crops.

Prevention

Eliminate standing water. Pests, such as ants, mosquitoes and termites, are attracted to moisture. Keep tree branches and other plants cut back from the house. Sometimes pests use these branches to get into your home. Make sure that there are no cracks or little openings around the bottom of your house. Sometimes pests use these to get into your home. Make sure that firewood and building materials are not stored next to your home. Pests like to build nests in stacks of wood.

Bed Bugs

Bed Bug on rice

Bed bugs get their name because they are commonly found in beds but can also be found in other places where humans spend a lot of time: hotels, airplanes, and couches.

DIET

Bed bugs can feed on the blood of any warm-blooded animal. Their most common targets are humans because, unlike animals with fur, we have a lot of exposed skin for them to bite.

HABITAT

Bed Bugs are typically found in beds and small cracks and crevices.

IMPACT

When Bed bugs feed, they inject the skin with their saliva (this keeps the blood from clotting) and an anesthetic (this keeps the host from feeling the bite and moving). Bed bugs do not spread disease, but their bites can become red, itchy welts.

PREVENTION

Don’t take mattresses or padded furniture that has been left at the curb or on the street. Have someone check your scalp at least once a month to make sure you have not been exposed. Check your bed sheets for blood spots. Keep your suitcases covered in plastic and off the floor when you travel. When you travel, take a small flashlight to help you look for bed bugs. Bed bugs are hard to see, so if you think you have bed bugs, call a pest management professional.

American Cockroach

American Cockroach

The American cockroach is the largest cockroach found in houses. Females can hatch up to 150 offspring per year. Cockroaches don’t get their wings until the become adults.

DIET

American cockroaches will eat just about anything, including plants and other insects.

HABITAT

American cockroaches live in warm, dark, wet places, because they need to be near water. They are often found in sewers and basements, around pipes and drains.

IMPACT

Cockroaches crawl through dirty areas and then walk around our homes tracking in lots of bacteria and germs. They can contaminate food by shedding their skins. Their cast off skin and waste byproducts are allergens that can trigger allergic reactions, asthma and other illnesses, especially in children.

PREVENTION

Keep cooking, eating and food storage areas clean and dry. If you see cockroaches, it is best to call a pest management professional due to the illnesses they can spread.

Mouse over the image to enlarge

German Cockroach

German Cockroach

German cockroaches can be found all over the world. They are the most common cockroach in the United States. Each German cockroach can live about 100-200 days.

DIET

Cockroaches are attracted to sweet and floury foods. They also eat non-organic items such as toothpaste and books!

HABITAT

German cockroaches live in warm and damp places, like kitchens, bathrooms, and places where people eat and drink.

IMPACT

Cockroaches crawl through dirty areas and then walk around our homes tracking in lots of bacteria and germs. They can contaminate food by shedding their skins. Their cast off skin and waste byproducts are allergens that can trigger allergic reactions, asthma and other illnesses, especially in children.

PREVENTION

 

Keep cooking, eating and food storage areas clean and dry. If you see cockroaches, it is best to call a pest management professional due to the illnesses they can spread.

Earwigs

Earwigs

Earwigs get their name from the myth that they crawl into sleeping people's ears and tunnel into the brain. They do not really do that! There are 22 types of Earwigs in the United States and there are over a 1,000 different species all over the world.

Diet

Earwigs feed on leaves, flowers, fruits, mold and insects.

Habitat

Earwigs hide during the day and live outdoors in large numbers. They can be found under piles of lawn clippings, compost or in tree holes. They enter buildings through cracks in the walls.

Impact

They do not spread disease, but they can be scary to look at.

Prevention

Remove leaf piles, compost piles or other vegetation from around your home. Seal cracks and crevices in the walls of your house.

 

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes

There are about 170 different kinds of mosquitoes in North America alone. These pests are part of the same family as houseflies and fruit flies, because they all have two clear, veined wings. Best known as a summer pest, Mosquitoes can develop from egg to adult in 10 to 14 days.

Diet

We usually say, "I have been bitten by a mosquito", but this is not completely true. Mosquitoes do not bite. Female mosquitoes feed on plant nectar and blood. They need the protein to reproduce. To get to the blood, they pierce our skin with their "proboscis" and suck our blood. Male mosquitoes feed exclusively on plant nectars. Mosquitoes are busiest at night and will fly up to 14 miles for a blood meal. They hunt for food by detecting body heat and Carbon Dioxide , the gas we breathe out.

Habitat

Mosquitoes breed in soft, moist soil or stagnant water sources such as storm drains, old tires, children's wading pools and birdbaths.

Impact

Mosquitoes spread diseases such as West Nile Virus, malaria and dengue fever.

Prevention

Replace all stagnant water at least once a week. Remove trash from around any standing water. When sleeping outdoors or in areas where mosquito populations are heavy, surround your bed with "mosquito" netting. Screen windows, doors and other openings with fine mesh. Avoid going outdoors at night. Use insect repellent containing DEET on exposed skin anytime you’re around mosquitoes. DEET doesn’t kill the mosquitoes. It just disorients them and they look elsewhere for food.

Drywood Termites

Drywood Termite pellets

Drywood termites form colonies of up to 2,500 members. Drywood Termite colonies don’t have workers. Younger termites, called "false workers", do all the work for the colony.

Diet

Drywood Termites eat wood, wallpaper, plastics and fabric made from plants.

Habitat

Drywood Termite colonies are usually found in dry wood and they do not require moisture or contact with the soil.

Impact

Drywood termites can build nests and dig tunnels in buildings. These tunnels cause major damage because the wooden support beams can become weak and make the building lean or fall down.

Prevention

Make sure firewood and scrap wood is stored away from your house. Seal all cracks and crevices around the outside of your home.

Subterranean Termites

Subterranean Termite tubes

Subterranean Termite colonies can have up to 2 million members! Their colonies are divided into three groups: workers, soldiers and reproductives.

Diet

Termites eat wood, wallpaper, plastics and fabric made from plants.

Habitat

Subterranean termites need contact with the soil to survive. They live in underground colonies or in wet areas aboveground. They build tunnels to reach food and every spring, groups of reproductive termites fly off to start new colonies.

Impact

Subterranean termites are the most destructive kind of termite. They can eat a lot of wood and they can cause a lot of expensive damage to a house! They can destroy building foundations, wooden support beams, plastic plumbing pipes, sub-flooring, insulation … even swimming pool liners and filtration systems! Termites can also injure or destroy living trees and shrubs.

Prevention

Don’t let water pool around your home's foundation. Termites like that! Never leave wood scraps in the yard for them to snack on.

 

Black and Brown Widows

Black and Brown Widows

Female Black Widow spiders have a red hourglass shape on their backs. Males have white spots on their sides. Males only live about a year, but the female can live up to 3 years. Hungry female Black Widow spiders have been known to kill the male spider after mating, but that isn’t always the case. Geographically, Black Widow spiders can be found in the Eastern, Central and Western United States. Brown widow spiders are prevalent in the south.

Diet

Black Widow spiders eat other pests. Sometimes they even eat other spiders!

Habitat

Black Widow spiders tend to live in cellars and in piles of wood or trash.

Impact

The bite of a female Black Widow spider can be poisonous but not deadly to humans. The male Black Widow spider does not bite. A Black Widow spider bite is pale in the middle with a red ring around it and is followed by severe cramping, weakness, sweating, headache, anxiety, itching, nausea, vomiting, difficult breathing and increased blood pressure.

PREVENTION

Wear heavy gloves when moving things that have been stored for a long time. Shake out your shoes before putting them on. Just to be safe, stay away from spider webs.

Roof Rat

Roof Rat

Roof Rats are excellent climbers and get their name because they usually live high off the ground, like on the roof of a building. They have very poor vision and are color blind, but they have extremely strong senses of hearing, smell, touch and taste. Rats have four to six litters a year and each litter has 6 to 12 babies in it. These rats are only pregnant for about 21 to 23 days and they can start reproducing when they are three months old.

 

Diet

Roof Rats prefer eating fruits, berries, vegetables, cereal, pet food, nuts, grain, slugs, snails and rotten food.

Habitat

Roof Rats are excellent climbers and they usually live in spaces on the tops of buildings, on roofs or in attics. They also live in sheds, garages, boxes, ceilings, under floors, in wood heaps and in thick grass.

Impact

Roof rats cause damage to structures by chewing, eating stored foods and carrying diseases, such as Hantavirus. They are most famous for spreading the highly contagious bubonic plague in the Middle Ages. Rats will also attack both animals and humans. Human babies and even adults have been killed in rat attacks.

Prevention

Rats like to eat, so keep your homes clean and do not leave food out. Make sure that your home and storage areas are clean and dry. Make sure that you clean your sheds, crawlspaces, and garbage cans often. Close up any small holes and cracks they can come in through.