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Common House Infestors   arrow

You know, when we get outside during the winter we forget. We forget just how bad the pests can be. Especially in the case of things like flying pests, such as mosquitoes and flies. These are the bugs that suffer the most in the winter and tend to die back. But there’s a whole nother group of bugs that laugh at winter. These are the bugs that infest your home. So today, we’re going to discuss some common house infestors.

Common house infestors- overview

As said above, when the wintertime comes our focus shifts from outdoor pests to indoor pests. These are bugs that have essentially made themselves weatherproof by moving in to benefit from our heaters during a time that would force them into a stasis or otherwise kill them. We’ll go through some of them today.

Weevil

Weevils are beetles that are attracted to many grain crops such as wheat, barley, and oats that are grown in the southern United States. These grains are the weevils’ main source of food supply, and they’ve also been known to infest and attack cotton crops in Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. They eat the buds of the cotton plants, which then fail to produce cotton. The damaging effects of weevils are largely due to their ability to reproduce quickly and then spread throughout the crops in a matter of days. Female weevils deposit eggs in the beds of the plants and can lay as many as 200 eggs during their lifespan.

Some species, like the Asiatic oak weevil, are attracted to lights. They gather around the doors and windows of houses. Homeowners sometimes notice hundreds of weevils clustered on the outside of the house. When weevils find cracks or openings around the windows, they move inside the house. They will also enter through broken screens on attic vents or crawlspace vents. They can also crawl under doors that have damaged weather stripping.

Some species of weevils, such as the rice weevil, feed on stored food products. Homeowners may find these weevils in packages of beans, popcorn, cereal, or nuts. These weevils will also attack fruit, including apples, pears, and grapes. Homeowners can bring them home inside of food packages. Rice weevils, bean weevils, and other stored food weevils feed inside food packages. They can remain hidden in the pantry for a long time. Homeowners might spot adult weevils wandering on the shelves or floor of the pantry.

Cockroaches

If you’ve lived in the sunshine state for any amount of time, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you much about this next section. Instead, we’ll focus on the single most common infesting species of roach in Florida. German cockroaches (Blatella germanica) are ½ to ⅝ inches in length and light brown in color with telltale long antenna usually extending down their backs. They have two dark streaks extending down their backs, starting just behind the head. Adults have wings, but they don’t fly.

German cockroaches are well-known indoor cockroaches with a distribution that is world-wide. Smaller than other types of cockroaches, the pests can hide in small spaces and hitch rides in bags, boxes, and many other infested items that are brought inside the home. In multi-unit apartment buildings, they can easily move between units, using the shared plumbing and pipes as a highway.

German cockroaches in Florida can pop up any time of the year, due to the weather here. A German cockroach may end up in your home or could be found in a business. If a customer were to spot a German cockroach infestation in your business, this could damage your reputation resulting in bad word of mouth, health inspections, and even possible business closures. Whether the roach problem is within your home or business, take cockroaches seriously and contact a pest professional to take care of an infestation.

German cockroaches spread filth in homes, contaminating food and utensils. Pathogens range from bacteria that cause food poisoning and dysentery to allergens that result in rashes and asthma attacks. Recent studies have also indicated that in larger metropolitan areas, the development of asthma in children can be directly linked to the presence of the pest.

Common House Infestors: Bed Bugs

Bedbugs are small, oval, brownish insects that live on the blood of animals or humans. Adult bedbugs have flat bodies about the size of an apple seed. After feeding, however, their bodies swell and are a reddish color. Bedbugs do not fly, but they can move quickly over floors, walls, and ceilings. Female bedbugs may lay hundreds of eggs, each of which is about the size of a speck of dust, over a lifetime. Immature bedbugs, called nymphs, shed their skins five times before reaching maturity and require a meal of blood before each shedding. Under favorable conditions, the bugs can develop fully in as little as a month and produce three or more generations per year. Although they are a nuisance, they are not thought to transmit diseases.Bed bugs are flat and small in size, allowing them to hide easily from view during the day when they are not active. They hide in mattresses, bed frames, bedding, furniture, carpets, baseboards, and bedroom clutter. They are most commonly found in the seams of mattresses or inside box springs. However, it is not necessary to locate a specimen to identify an infestation. Their excrement leaves brown to black stains on mattresses and linens. Bloodstains may be visible where bed bugs have been accidentally crushed.

Bed bugs are commonly transported within luggage, allowing them to spread anywhere humans settle. Infestations have become a problem in domestic households, hotels, dormitories and other places of residence. Because of their small size and propensity to hide within mattresses and furniture, controlling a bed bug infestation can prove difficult.

Common House Infestors: What you can do

Other than basic tidiness, there’s not much you can do once your home has been infested with these indoor pests as a layman. You need to contact a pest control specialist. Especially one with natural methods of pest control.