If you live down south, you’re used to bugs. And I mean the southeast specifically. One of the big parts of southern heritage is living in a swampy, hot land. And it turns out…bugs love swampy and hot! And the further southeast in the continental U.S. you go, the hotter and wetter it gets. So when you land down here in Florida, you’re in swamp central. That’s why today, we’re going to cover some Florida pests, specifically the ones you’re likely to find infesting your home.
Florida Pests: Overview
Like I said above, bugs in Florida are a part of life. The humid weather, heat, and low-lying vegetation that provides plenty of ground cover is just heaven for bugs. Florida is home to thirty-two different species of ants alone, making them easily the most common pest among Florida bugs. But that’s not all. Fleas and ticks are also common Florida pests, and may hitch a ride on your cat or dog in spring and summer to infest your home, lay their eggs everywhere, and bite you! Ticks even carry Lyme and other bloodborne diseases, and can be particularly dangerous.
And finally, we have the other most common pest you hear about in Florida, the cockroach. Cockroaches love to chow down on small food crumbs, drink spills, or anything organic that falls into a crack or under a desk. That’s why today we’ll go through these known offenders one by one.
Ants
Ants are common, but thankfully they’re easier to control than a lot of pest species. And like I said, there are thirty-two species in the state. That’s why we’ll focus on the main one that can be seen as a genuine threat to human safety. So let’s talk about the Red Imported Fire ant.
The fire ant has spread to more the thirteen southern and western states from South America and continues to expand that range today. Unlike most of these diminutive species, these ants can cause serious medical and property damage to you and your home. Also unique among fire ants is their sheer aggression. They can and will grab onto you and sting repeatedly, especially when you disturb their mounds or colonies.
And when they infest, it’s not like having a few little black ants walking in a line across your kitchen. Those you can just clean up your mess and they’ll likely go away. But fire ant infestations can reach thirty to a hundred single queen mounds per acre, containing up to eighty thousand individuals. In multiple queen mounds, that number goes up even higher. Fire ants are huge fans of sugar, protein, and plants. Basically, any food you leave out is a target for them. This also includes things like carrion.
Ticks
Up next, we have ticks. And if you’ve lived out in the country, you’re probably already familiar with these Florida pests. If not, let’s start with what exactly they look like. Identification is the key when keeping these gross little things from grabbing onto you and getting a nice blood meal.
Ticks have four pairs of legs as adults and no antennae, kind of making them look like incomplete spiders. They vary in color from species to species, and these species are usually placed into one of two groups. “Soft ticks” are shaped like large raisins and have, obviously, softer bodies. Then there are “hard ticks”, like the common dog tick, which have a hard shield just behind their mouthparts. When they haven’t eaten, these look more like flat seeds than raisins.
Most species of ticks consume the blood of other animals. They’re not insects, such as fleas, but are actually a kind of arachnid, making them more closely related to spiders and mites. Depending on its species, a tick can take less than a year or up to several years to go through its four staged life cycle. Some of them can even survive years without feeding!
Fleas
Fleas are small, wingless, blood-sucking insects. They’re reddish-brown in color, and their bodies are oddly compressed. Fleas are actually nearly flat from side to side, letting them move easily through the fur and hair they prefer to inhabit. Their bodies are hard, polished, and covered with spines and short hairs. Not that any of this really matters, because to the human eye up close a flea looks simply like a small brown dot. You know, they say if this Florida pest was scaled up to the size of a human it could leap from one end of the golden gate bridge to another.
Obviously, fleas are parasites that feed on their hosts’ blood, much like ticks. Normally, these hosts are humans or pets. Females lay their white eggs loose on the host’s hairs or feathers, which then fall onto the ground, floors, bedding, and furniture to further spread their infestation.
The easiest well to tell if you have Fleas in the home would be pets that have to repeatedly scratch and groom themselves or bites on humans that leave behind itchy bite marks. Also, “flea dirt.” It’s actually worse than it sounds! Flea dirt is the adult flea feces and is made up of dry and digested blood from the host. It looks like coarse ground black pepper and may be seen in beds and on couches.
Florida Pests: The Palmetto Bug!
Now this one needs no introduction if you live in Florida. Though the name Palmetto bug is used as a kind of a catchall for several species of cockroach, it’s actually not its own unique species. The bug most commonly referred to by this name is the American Cockroach.
Adults of this species are some of the largest in the united states, and they have functional wings. They’re dark brown with dark markings that resemble sunglasses. They prefer damp conditions and are often found in sewers, mulch, and woodpiles.
In all honesty, as upsetting as it may be to have one of these Florida pests fly at your face in confusion on the porch because you have your light on, they’re not much of an infester. American Cockroaches prefer the outdoors. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of species of cockroach that love to infest the home, though.
