Biting & Stinging Insects

Fleas

Characteristics:

Size: 1/32" to 1/16" in length

These small, wingless, flat-bodied parasites vary from brown to black. (Reddish black when full of blood). They have stout hind legs for jumping / crawling and are able to jump many times their length. They have hard, dark-colored, spiny bodies. Unlike other insects, both males and females bite and suck blood.

Habitat: Fleas are parasites, feeding on blood. They can be found on the host (dog, cat, human, etc.) and in various household cracks and crevices where they shelter after feeding. The female lays several hundred eggs in chairs, rugs, or carpeting, and immature fleas live in carpets, behind baseboards, and in cracks and crevices. They are also found on pets, wildlife, pet bedding and in backyards.

Diet: Fleas consume blood and can move between people, cats, dogs and other warm-blooded animals. Adults can live months without food.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention: Vacuum carpeting and furniture. Proper pet treatment.

Bumble Bees

Characteristics:

Size: Ranges up to 1" in length.

Bumble bees have a hairy abdomen with yellow markings on the thorax and abdomen. They are often confused with Carpenter bees as a result. They are recognized by almost everyone by their robust shape and black and yellow coloration.

Bumble bees are much less aggressive than honey bees. Generally they will not attack a human at all, unless their life is under threat.

Habitat: Nests are usually discovered during the summer when homeowners mow their lawn or while gardening. Their colonies or nests are usually built in cavities in the ground. Occasionally, bumble bees will build a nest above ground in a wall, firewood pile, within wall cavities, crawl space, attics, or even in the clothes dryer vent.

Only the queen survives the winter, the freezing temperatures in the fall kill the rest of the colony.

Diet: Each worker bee forages independently for nectar and bumble bees never exchange food.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention: Fill all existing holes in the soil. Be sure to seal cracks and gaps or other points of entry with caulking compound, putty and weather stripping around foundations, windows and doors. Use tight fitting screens on windows and doors.

Carpenter Bee

Characteristics:

Size: 1/2" - 1" in length

These large, robust insects look like bumble bees but generally do not sting. (Males do not have a stinger.) Carpenter bees have a slight green or purple metallic sheen, are relatively hairless and have smooth, black abdomens.

Habitat: Carpenter bees bore holes into wood to create galleries in which to raise their young. They typically attack unfinished, weathered wood on buildings, decks, fence posts, eaves, wooden siding, railing, outdoor furniture, and fences. They are not social insects and do not live in nests or colonies.

Diet: Pollen and nectar.

Signs of Infestation: Signs of infestation include sawdust and clean, round holes in infested wood. Carpenter bees can be seen hovering near their nest holes, engaging in territorial combat with other members of their species.

Prevention: Paint and varnish may offer some protection.

Brown Dog Ticks

Characteristics:

Size: 1/16" to 1/8" in length

Brown Dog ticks are uniformly dark reddish brown with no markings. They are known for infesting homes after being carried inside on pets, usually dogs, and are capable of transmitting diseases to humans. Although Brown Dog ticks do not carry Lyme disease, they are the main carrier of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. They are notoriously difficult to control in and around homes.

Diet: Feed on blood from large and medium-sized mammals such as dogs, cattle, deer, raccoons, and opossum. They can live months without feeding. They will feed on humans if given the opportunity.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention: Regular treatment of dogs for ticks. Inspection of other household animals, including cats for ticks.

Control outdoors in extremely difficult. Limit the amount of thick vegetation on the property where the animals may be present. Keep grass well-clipped, remove brush, prune trees to allow more sunlight to penetrate the soil surface.

Mosquitoes

Characteristics:

Size: 1/8" - 1/4" in length

Mosquitoes are brown to dark brown with light stripe down center; wings have dark brown scales.

Probably the most harmful insects to people because they transmit such serious diseases as Malaria, Yellow Fever and Encephalitis, mosquitoes are mostly gray to black in color and have a long proboscis / beak. They are attracted to the color blue twice as much as any other color.

The mosquito population increases after summer rains, because the number of places where they can breed multiplies.

Habitat: Often found near shallow temporary pools. Larva live in quite bodies of water ranging from fluid filled leaves to stagnant ponds and lakes. During the day, they roost in shady, sheltered locations.

Diet: Most feed on organic debris and algae, but a few eat other mosquito larvae and similar live prey. Males drink nectar and other plant juices; females feed on blood of mammals, including humans.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention:

Honey Bees

Characteristics:

Size: 1/2" - 5/8" in length

Golden yellow in color with darker bands of brown, these insects are common to any flowering garden. Honey bees are special in that they stay active over the winter as a colony unlike wasps and bumble bees. The colony does not hibernate but stays active and clusters together to stay warm. They produce honey and store it in wax comb and use the same hive from one year to the next.

Habitat: To thrive, bees need access to food and water. Their preferred sources of water are ditches and ponds. If regular water supplies are inadequate, bees will turn to swimming pools, birdbaths, and livestock drinking stations.

In the spring the queen bumble bee seeks an old mouse or vole hole and builds within it a nest of leaves and moss. It is very common for the worker bees to locate a crack between layers of the house siding, around window framing, openings that give access to phone cables or electric wires, cable TV lines, etc. to gain access your home.

Diet: Adults drink nectar and eat honey.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention:

Yellow Jackets

Characteristics:

Size: 3/4" - 1" in length

Yellow jackets are actually small wasps with black and yellow stripes. They are social insects, living in colonies containing thousands of individuals.

Only the queen survives the winter, the freezing temperatures in the fall kill the rest of the colony.

Habitat: Yellow Jackets live in colonies in meadows and edges of forested land, usually nesting in ground or at ground level in stumps and fallen logs. In backyards, Yellow jackets nest in the crevices of stone walls, in hollow logs, and in sometimes between the walls of homes. The nest is made of a papery material.

Yellow jackets can be commonly observed hovering back and forth at the small nest opening or around garbage cans and other areas where they forage for food.

Diet: Workers will travel up to a few hundred yards from the nest while looking for food. Adult eats nectar, insects, caterpillars, and spiders. Larva feeds on insects pre-chewed by adults. They also feed on pop and candy residue in garbage cans.

Prevention:

Hornets

Characteristics:

Size: 5/8" - 3/4" in length

Are social wasps that have powerful stings and aggressive behavior for defending their colonies.

Only the queen survives the winter, the freezing temperatures in the fall kill the rest of the colony.

Diet: Adult drinks nectar, fruit juices, and perhaps eats other insects. Larva feeds on insects pre-chewed by adults.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention:

Wasps

Characteristics:

Size: 1/2" - 3/4" in length

Ranging from black to combinations of black with yellow, wasps can be distinguished from bees by their smooth, rather than hairy bodies. All wasps have chewing mouth parts and only the females possess a stinger.

The majority of wasps are parasites. Their young hatch and develop inside the bodies of other insects or spiders.

Exhibit predatory and scavenging behavior; some species are solitary, while others live in colonies which may number thousands of individuals.

Wasps are considered beneficial because they feed on a variety of other insects.

Habitat: Nests can be found around buildings on verandas, under eaves, ceilings, attics, or in trees and shrubs. Several species of wasps build nests underground.

Diet: Primarily protein such as spiders and soft-bodied insects, and small animals. Wasps feed on flies and other small insects.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention: Try to eliminate fallen fruit and refuse which will attract wasps. Seal holes and other potential sites to prevent entry.

Lice

Characteristics:

Size: 3/8" in length

There are three different orders of lice which can best be identified by the places they live and by their feeding habits.

Lice can transmit diseases.

Diet: Human parasites are spread by personal contact with an infected person or contaminated clothing. Most of these parasites cannot live without their host.

• Chewing Lice - parasites on the skin of birds and mammals, but do not attack humans.

• The Crab Louse and the Body Louse - parasites on the skin of mammals and attack people by sucking on the skin. These lice feed on blood and their bites are often very irritating.

Personal treatment must be performed by trained medical personnel or at the very least by the use of the proper pharmaceutical products recommended by your doctor.

Signs of Infestation:

Prevention:

Bed Bugs

Characteristics:

Size: 1/8" - 5/8" in length

Adult bed bugs are reddish-brown to mahogany, oval-shaped, flattened. They have small, oval-shaped wings but cannot fly. The body becomes more elongate, swollen and dull red after a blood meal. They are fast moving and can usually be found near the blood meal host.

Adult bugs may go two to eight weeks without food, or even up to one year.

Habitat: These bugs thrive in warm climates. This small, notorious species lives in creases in mattresses, day bed covers, window and door casings, pictures, posters, loosened wallpaper, cracks in plaster, floor cracks, under carpets, behind wall pictures, in stuffed chairs, in curtain seams, in bed springs, and along baseboards and partitions. They are spread in clothing and baggage, secondhand beds or furniture. They are found in old buildings, hotels, boarding houses, theaters and other dwellings.

Diet: Bed bugs feed on the blood of humans, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, bats, poultry, birds and other warm-blooded animals.

Signs of Infestation: An infestation can be recognized by blood stains and dark spots of feces on sheets and mattresses, bed clothes and walls, cast skins, eggs, eggshells as well as a sweet, musty odor like the smell of fresh red raspberries (bed bug odor).

Prevention: Practice sanitation by laundering bedding routinely, vacuuming the premises, repairing cracks in plaster, painting walls and ceiling, rearranging furniture, and carefully inspecting clothing and baggage of travelers. Inspect secondhand beds, bedding and furniture.