Springtails

Springtails are a group of very small to minute (1-2 mm) wingless insects. They often occur in enormous numbers on the surface of water, on snow, in mushroom houses, in flowerpots and other damp places. They occasionally invade houses and are particularly common in basements, bathrooms and kitchens.

Springtails feed on algae, fungi and decaying vegetable matter. These insects are among the most troublesome swimming pool pests. They also occasionally become pests in maple-sap buckets or on seedlings in greenhouses.

Damp environmental conditions are preferred since springtails respire through their cuticles. If their habitat becomes too dry, they will actively seek a more favorable environment. They may move indoors through window screens, open doors, through vents or with the soil of ornamental plants brought into the house. After entering a house, they are often trapped in sinks, basins and bathtubs. They may also be found in cracks and crevices, or occur in damp wall voids.

CONTROL....

Outdoors:
- Cleaning leaves and plant debris from around the house, especially in window wells, can reduce insect numbers.
- Keep turfgrass from growing near the edge of swimming pools.
- Keep compost piles or mulch away from house foundations.

Indoors:
- Decrease dampness and humidity within the house with de-humidifiers or fans.
- Do not allow food particles to collect in cracks or crevices of cupboards, counters, etc.
- Plants should only be watered after the soil in the pots appears to be dry.
- Seal any cracks or crevices in the house foundation, or other points of entry.
- Use a vacuum cleaner to remove springtails from around the household.

Silverfish

Description: Silverfish are always wingless and are silvery to brown in color because their bodies are covered with fine scales. They are generally soft bodied. Adults are up to 3/4 inch long, flattened from top to bottom, elongated and oval in shape, have three long tail projections and two long antennae.

The firebrat, Thermobia domestica (Packard), is quite similar in habits but is generally darker in color. The firebrat prefers temperatures over 90 degrees F but has a similar high humidity requirement. It is common near heating pipes, fire places, ovens and other heat sources.

Life Cycle: Females lay eggs continuously after reaching the adult stage and may lay over 100 eggs during her life. Eggs are deposited singly or in small groups in cracks and crevices and hatch in 3 to weeks. Silverfish develop from egg to young to adult within 4 to 6 weeks and continue to molt throughout their life. Immature stages appear similar to adults except they are about 1/20 of an inch long when they first hatch and whitish in color, taking on the adults’ silver coloring as they grow. They are long-lived, surviving from two to eight years. Simple metamorphosis (egg, nymph, adult).

Habitat, Food Source(s): Silverfish are chewing insects and general feeders but prefer carbohydrates and protein, including flour, dried meat, rolled oats, paper and even glue. They and can survive long periods, sometimes over a year, without food but are sensitive to moisture and require a high humidity (75% to 90%) to survive. They also have a temperature preference between 70 and 80 degrees F. They are fast running and mostly active at night and generally prefer lower levels in homes, but may be found in attics.

Pest Status, Damage: Primarily a nuisance pest inside the home or buildings; can contaminate food, damage paper goods and stain clothing; medically harmless. Many of their habits are similar to cockroaches and they appear to be more common as household pests in drier parts of the state. Occasionally damage book bindings, curtains, wallpaper.

Saw-Tooth Grain Beetles

Description:
Adult saw-toothed grain beetles are small, slender, dark brown, flat insects about 1/8-inch long. Their most distinguishing characteristic is the six saw-like teeth found on either side of the pronotum (first segment behind the head). The larvae are yellow-white and about 1/8-inch long. They have three pairs of legs and a pair of false legs of the abdomen.

Biology:
Over a four to five month period, females deposit 45-285 shiny white eggs in crack or crevices in the foods they are infesting. They molt two to four times, and the life cycle (egg to adult) usually requires 30-50 days, although it may take as long as 375 days. There can be six to seven generations per year. Adults usually live 6-10 months but have been known to live for up to three years.

Habits:
Saw-toothed grain beetles feed on a wide variety of stored products including flour, bread, breakfast cereals, macaroni, dried fruits, nuts, dried meats, sugar, dog food and biscuits. Since these beetles are very flat, they easily hide in cracks and crevices and often penetrate poorly sealed packaged foods.

The larvae feed on the same materials as the adults. These insects can develop very large populations in seldom-used stored materials, such as flour. The homeowner typically becomes aware of the infestation when the adults are seen crawling actively about the pantry area. The adults are not known to fly and are not attracted to light.

Bed Bugs

Distribution

Bed bugs are fairly cosmopolitan. Cimex lectularius is most frequently found in the northern temperate climates of North America, Europe, and Central Asia, although it occurs sporadically in southern temperate regions. The tropical bed bug, C. hemipterus, is adapted for semitropical to tropical climates and is widespread in the warmer areas of Africa, Asia, and the tropics of North America and South America. In the United States, C. hemipterus occurs in Florida.

Identification

Adult bed bugs are brown to reddish-brown, oval-shaped, flattened, and about 3/16 to 1/5 inch long. Their flat shape enables them to readily hide in cracks and crevices. The body becomes more elongate, swollen, and dark red after a blood meal. Bed bugs have a beaklike piercing-sucking mouthpart system. The adults have small, stubby, nonfunctional wing pads. Newly hatched nymphs are nearly colorless, becoming brownish as they mature. Nymphs have the general appearance of adults. Eggs are white and about 1/32 inch long.

Bed bugs superficially resemble a number of closely related insects (family Cimicidae), such as bat bugs (Cimex adjunctus), chimney swift bugs (Cimexopsis spp.), and swallow bugs (Oeciacus spp.). A microscope is needed to examine the insect for distinguishing characteristics, which often requires the skills of an entomologist. In Ohio, bat bugs are far more common than bed bugs.

Life Cycle

Female bed bugs lay from one to twelve eggs per day, and the eggs are deposited on rough surfaces or in crack and crevices. The eggs are coated with a sticky substance so they adhere to the substrate. Eggs hatch in 6 to 17 days, and nymphs can immediately begin to feed. They require a blood meal in order to molt. Bed bugs reach maturity after five molts. Developmental time (egg to adult) is affected by temperature and takes about 21 days at 86° F to 120 days at 65° F. The nymphal period is greatly prolonged when food is scarce. Nymphs and adults can live for several months without food. The adult's lifespan may encompass 12-18 months. Three or more generations can occur each year.

Habits

Bed bugs are fast moving insects that are nocturnal blood-feeders. They feed mostly at night when their host is asleep. After using their sharp beak to pierce the skin of a host, they inject a salivary fluid containing an anticoagulant that helps them obtain blood. Nymphs may become engorged with blood within three minutes, whereas a full-grown bed bug usually feeds for ten to fifteen minutes. They then crawl away to a hiding place to digest the meal. When hungry, bed bugs again search for a host.

Bed bugs hide during the day in dark, protected sites. They seem to prefer fabric, wood, and paper surfaces. They usually occur in fairly close proximity to the host, although they can travel far distances. Bed bugs initially can be found about tufts, seams, and folds of mattresses, later spreading to crevices in the bedstead. In heavier infestations, they also may occupy hiding places farther from the bed. They may hide in window and door frames, electrical boxes, floor cracks, baseboards, furniture, and under the tack board of wall-to-wall carpeting. Bed bugs often crawl upward to hide in pictures, wall hangings, drapery pleats, loosened wallpaper, cracks in plaster, and ceiling moldings.

Injury

The bite is painless. The salivary fluid injected by bed bugs typically causes the skin to become irritated and inflamed, although individuals can differ in their sensitivity. A small, hard, swollen, white welt may develop at the site of each bite. This is accompanied by severe itching that lasts for several hours to days. Scratching may cause the welts to become infected. The amount of blood loss due to bed bug feeding typically does not adversely affect the host.

Rows of three or so welts on exposed skin are characteristic signs of bed bugs. Welts do not have a red spot in the center such as is characteristic of flea bites.

Some individuals respond to bed bug infestations with anxiety, stress, and insomnia. Bed bugs are not known to transmit disease.

Tell-tale Signs

A bed bug infestation can be recognized by blood stains from crushed bugs or by rusty (sometimes dark) spots of excrement on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes, and walls. Fecal spots, eggshells, and shed skins may be found in the vicinity of their hiding places. An offensive, sweet, musty odor from their scent glands may be detected when bed bug infestations are severe.

Centipedes

SIZE: Slightly over 1 inch (25.4mm)

COLOR: Reddish brown

DESCRIPTION: Centipedes are reddish-brown, flattened, elongated arthropods with one pair of legs attached on most of their body segments. The first pair of legs is modified into poisonous jaws located below the mouth to kill insects. Their antennae are longer than those of millipedes. Centipedes feed on live insects and other small animals. They do not damage plants.

HABITAT: Commonly encountered in damp basements in the fall.

LIFE CYCLE: They overwinter as adults and lay eggs during the warm months. Usually eggs are laid in the soil and are protected by adults. A few species give birth to living young.

TYPE OF DAMAGE: Nuisance in household and basement. They feed on small insects such as cockroaches, clothes moths and house flies; do not damage food supplies or household furnishings. If crushed, they may bite, causing some pain and swelling.

INTERESTING FACTS: Centipedes sometimes live up to six years.

Deer Mouse

Habits

The deer mouse prefers the outdoors.

Habitat

The deer mouse makes its home outdoors in sheltered areas such as hollow tree logs or piles of debris. On the rare occasions the deer mouse comes indoors, it prefers undisturbed areas such as attics.

Threats

The deer mouse transmits the potentially fatal Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. The disease can be transmitted through contact with mouse carcasses, or by breathing in aerosolized urine droplets of infected deer mice.

Odorous House Ants

Life Cycle

Like all ants, odorous house ants live in social colonies. These colonies are made up of different cast members (workers and reproductives). Male and female reproductives are often called winged swarmers.* Swarmers first appear in the early summer months. Male swarmers will emerge from the parent colony first, followed by the new queens. A few days after mating, males usually die and the mated females begin new colonies. When a new colony is initiated, a queen lays a small batch of eggs and tends the larvae that hatch. The adults that develop become workers and take over colony labor activities. Once a colony has been established, queens will continue egg laying until late fall. During the winter months adults are inactive and the larvae slow their development. In the spring, workers begin to forage and queens resume their egg laying. Larval development and production increases so the colony can grow substantially during spring and summer. Colonies can be very large, ranging in size from several hundred to over 100,000 individuals. In addition, odorous house ant colonies can produce hundreds of laying queens and thousands of workers.

Behavior

Odorous house ants are very opportunistic and can nest in many different places both indoors and out. Outdoors, odorous house ant nests are usually shallow and may be found just underneath the soil surface. These nests may be found in mulch, soil, debris, logs, stumps, under stones and under plastic outdoor tarps. Indoors, nests are usually found in wall voids, around hot-water pipes and heaters, behind paneling, under carpets or beneath the floor. Sometimes these colonies can become so large that they eventually bud. Budding is a process by which the parent colony splits to form satellite colonies. The satellite colonies remain inner-connected to the parent colony by foraging trails. These trails provide for the exchange of workers, food, and larvae.

Odorous house ants forage both night and day and eat many types of foods. They eat live and dead insects but are also very attracted to sweet foods. They especially like the honeydew that is produced by aphids and mealybugs. Many colonies of odorous house ants tend or herd aphids and mealybugs to collect the honeydew they excrete.

German Cockroaches

SIZE: Adults are about 5/8 inch long (17mm)

COLOR: Adult German cockroaches are light brown except for the shield behind the head marked with two dark stripes, which run lengthwise on the body. Young roaches are wingless and nearly black with a single light stripe running down the middle of the back. Egg capsules are light tan.

DESCRIPTION: German cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.), are the most common roaches found in houses and restaurants. Most cockroaches have a flattened, oval shape, spiny legs, and long, filamentous antennae. Immature stages are smaller, have undeveloped wings and resemble the adults. They eat food of all kinds and may hitchhike into the house on egg cartons, soft drink cartons, sacks of potatoes or onions, used furniture, beer cases, etc.

HABITAT: They can develop into large populations and live throughout the house, especially in the kitchen and bathroom. During the day, these roaches may be found hiding clustered behind baseboard molding, in cracks around cabinets, closets or pantries, and in and under stoves, refrigerators and dishwashers. When seen during the day in clusters, the population is large.

LIFE CYCLE: German cockroach females, unlike most other roaches, carry the egg capsule protruding from their abdomen until the eggs are ready to hatch. The case is then placed in a secluded location, with the nymphs emerging one to two days later. A female may produce four to six cases during her lifetime, each containing 30 to 40 eggs. Eggs hatch in 28 to 30 days, and nymphs develop in 40 to 125 days. Female roaches live about 200 days and males not as long. The roach produces more eggs and has more generations per year (three to four) than other roaches, and only a few individuals are needed to develop into troublesome infestations.

TYPE OF DAMAGE: Roaches can foul food, damage wallpaper and books, eat glue from furniture, and produce an unpleasant odor. Some homeowners are allergic to roaches. The pests can contaminate food with certain bacterial diseases that result in food poisoning, dysentery, or diarrhea.

Boxelder Bugs

Boxelder bugs are common pests over much of the United States.
Adults are about 1/2 inch long.
They are bright red or black with narrow reddish lines on the back.

Box elder bugs feed principally by sucking juices from the boxelder tree, but are sometimes found on other plants.

They do very little damage to the trees they attack, but at certain times of the year they can become a nuisance.
Boxelder bugs develop by gradual metamorphosis, from egg, to nymph, then to adult.

When boxelder bugs build up to large populations and invade a home they are usually pests only by their presence, although their piercing-sucking mouthparts can sometimes puncture skin, causing slight irritation. Box elder bugs do very little damage to the trees they attack, but at certain times of the year they can become a nuisance. Boxelder bugs develop by gradual metamorphosis, from egg, to nymph, then to adult.

Adult boxelder bugs will enter structures int he fall, seeking winter shelter.

They seek shelter in protected places such as houses and other buildings, cracks or crevices in walls, doors, under windows and around foundations, particularly on south and west exposures.

Boxelder bugs can come out even during the dead of winter when it is cold outside and the sun is shining.

They will then emerge in the spring to seek out host trees on which to feed and lay eggs.