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Common pest profiles, preventive measures and controls

Ant

Depending on the species, thousands of ants can live with one or several queens in colonies.
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Book Louse

Lepinotus sp. is only 1 to 2 mm long and has nothing to do with the blood-sucking head louse.
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Carpet Beetle

Anthrenus scrophulariae is often mistaken for a ladybird when it feasts on pollen and nectar in the summer.
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Cockroaches

Cockroaches, which hide in small cracks or crevices during the daytime, can reach lengths of 18 to 60 mm…
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Drugstore Beetle

The drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum) is the most omnivorous of the storage pests.
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Flea

The human flea (Pulex irritans), cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) and dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis) all…
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Fly

Flies feed on various organic substances including excrement, and sweet and other foods.
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Flour Mite

The flour mite (Acarus siro) is a small sack-like mite. It only grows to 0.1 to 0.6 mm in length, is white and has red legs.
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House Dust Mites

These minute insects have eight legs when adult, and so are classed as arachnids.
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Larder Beetle

Dermestes lardarius and Dermestes peruvianus are barely distinguishable by their appearance.
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Mosquito

Depending on the species mosquitoes can grow to 4 to 6 mm long. Only the females bite and suck blood…
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Moth

The clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella) is one of the most feared material pests. Its yellow-white …
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Rat

Roof rats reach sexual maturity in 2-5 months pregnancy lasts an everage of 22 days. The young are blind & naked at….
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Rice Weevil

Sitophilus oryzae is only 3 mm long, but it can cause quite a lot of damage despite its small size.
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Silver Fish

Silver fish (Lepisma saccharina) have inhabited the earth for over 300 million years.
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Termite

Live in colonies underground, from which they build tunnels in search of food; able to reach food above of…
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Tick

Ticks are a problem as carriers of diseases throughout the world. They do not belong the insect species…
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Wasp

The common wasp (Paravespula vulgaris) have black and yellow stripes and grow about 2 cm long.
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Tamil Nadu Pest Management Association

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Ants

Depending on the species, thousands of ants can live with one or several queens in colonies. More than 6000 ant species are known. From a human viewpoint the queen is no more than a machine for laying eggs. She has an entourage of special workers and soldiers, who look after the larvae and protect the colony.
Ants generally feed on protein-rich and sugar-containing substances.
While the meadow ant workers can grow to 2 to 3.5 mm in length, the black garden ant workers are slightly bigger at 4 mm.
The pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) is found very often in tropical countries – and in Europe too. They live in the walls of houses and find their way into the house through small cracks and joints. Since they like warmth, colonies only occur in warm places .The pharaoh ant workers grow up to 2 to 2.5 mm in length. They eat both sweet and protein-rich foods and organic waste as well. In hospitals particularly there is the danger of the pharaoh ants spreading germs of all kinds, since they also have an appetite for used bandages. They are also a hazard in commercial kitchens, bakeries, etc.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Seal up all cracks and holes in walls
  • Get rid of the targets of the ant routes (for example food and waste)
  • Pour boiling water over the nests
  • Use insecticides (Ant Bait Station, Ant Powder, Crawling Insect Spray)

Book Louse

Lepinotus sp. is only 1 to 2 mm long and has nothing to do with the blood-sucking head louse. The pale-coloured book louse is a soft-bodied insect with scale-like wing pads and can only survive in rooms with a high humidity. The lice dehydrate if the humidity is lower than 60 %. The gland fluid in their mouth helps them to absorb moisture from the air.
In rooms that are too humid, book lice feed on paper goods such as books, files and wallpaper. Mass proliferation of Lepinotus frequently occurs in freshly wallpapered new buildings where a barely visible covering of mould develops and provides food for these pests. They also breed in food that is stored in excessively damp conditions, and as a result the food goes bad more quickly. Book lice can also infest drugs, textiles or mattress fillings.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Dry them out/kill them with a hairdryer or fan heater
  • Clean cupboards and let them dry completely; subsequently air them on a regular basis
  • Do not store books in damp cellars.

Carpet Beetle

Anthrenus scrophulariae is often mistaken for a ladybird when it feasts on pollen and nectar in the summer. The common carpet beetle is reddish brown with black and white spots and is only 4 mm long. The females fly into people’s homes or into storerooms, where they lay around 20 eggs on various materials. The larvae hatch after only a few days. They have hair bristles on their bodies that contain poison. Since they are not fond of the light, they often settle away from their feeding sites in cracks and crevices. It takes just under a year for the larvae to develop into beetles.
The larvae of the carpet beetle like to feed on dry animal products such as woollen textiles and furs. They also eat away at insect collections and stuffed animals, and can cause major damage to valuable collections.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Larvae on the wall should be wiped off with a cloth or removed using a vacuum cleaner
  • Infested textiles should be brushed out, beaten, washed, cleaned or ironed
  • These pests can be destroyed by very hot or cold temperatures
  • Beetles on windows indoors should simply be moved outdoors
  • Insecticides to be sprayed.

Cockroaches

Cockroaches hide in small spaces and eat various organic substances. They can be 18 to 60 mm long depending on the species.
German cockroaches are common in houses, small with a 3-8 month life cycle. Females carry 20-40 eggs for 4-5 weeks. Larvae look like smaller wingless adults.
Cockroaches can carry diseases like diarrhoea, leprosy, infectious hepatitis, and tuberculosis.
Cockroaches’ excrement, skin, and vomit cause allergies, and are a common cause of insect allergies. In the USA, 10-12% of people react allergically to cockroaches.
Cockroaches like e.g. the Oriental Cockroach (Blatta orientalis) and American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana) occur throughout the world, especially in tropical regions where the environment is humid and warm.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Avoid accumulating rubbish and rotting substances
  • Do not leave food or meals uncovered
  • Keep kitchens and cooking untensils clean
  • Use insecticides

Drugstore Beetle

Drugstore beetles are omnivorous and grow up to 3mm in length. Females lay up to 100 eggs, which develop into adult insects in two to three months. Larvae pupate in an oval cocoon made of food particles. Adult beetles live for one to two months.
The drugstore beetle eats a variety of food and can infest both vegetable and animal products, as well as paper and cardboard. They leave pinhead holes in infested items, and since they can fly well, it’s difficult to locate the source of infestation.
The yellow mealworm is a small beetle, measuring 12-18 mm in length, found in white flour. It takes up to a year and a half for the beetle to reach adulthood, which prevents massive infestations. Adult beetles live for about 4-6 weeks.
Beetles and mealworms contaminate and damage pastry and bakery products, causing lumpy and mouldy flour. They also destroy planks and beams, and spread parasitic infections.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Keep food cool and dry
  • Discard infested foods and freeze non-infected foods for three days.
  • Vacuum storage cupboards thoroughly, including cracks and crevices.
  • Keep new stores in sealed containers (jars, boxes)

Flea

All three fleas (human, cat, and dog) cause the same harm, with one preferring humans and the others infesting cats and dogs.
Fleas are small bugs that can grow up to 4 mm and come in dark or red-brown colors. They have powerful legs that let them jump far. Fleas can lay up to 400 eggs where they live. They usually breed in dusty and dirty areas like corners and cracks.
Legless larvae are 5mm long and feed on organic materials and flea excrement. They’re found in carpeting, skirting boards, and cracks and develop in 7-18 days. Flea generations last 4-6 weeks.

Fleas are pesky insects that bite and suck the blood of humans, cats, and dogs. The most common type is the cat flea, which can briefly transfer to humans. They often bite repeatedly and cause itching for days, sometimes creating weals. Fleas can also spread tapeworms and trigger allergies.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Pets, that is mainly cats and dogs, should be regularly de-infested
  • Flea hiding places should be vacuum-cleaned and suitably treated
  • Vacuuming and beating prevent flea larvae in carpets.
  • Use insecticides (Crawling Insect Spray)

Fly

Flies feed on various organic substances including excrement, and sweet and other foods. They can reach a length of 7 to 14 mm, and reproduce in dry areas, with breeding promoted by warm temperatures.
Flies lay up to 2,000 eggs, mostly in manure, faeces, compost heaps and rubbish tips (the Musca domestica species), but also on protein-rich substances such as meat (the Calliphora vicina species). The eggs develop into white maggots, which can grow up to 12 mm long.
Their movement between bad meat, excrement and foods is not only unappetising, it also makes flies the transmitters of germs and a source of food contamination.
As a result they can transfer pathogens for infectious diseases such as cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever, salmonellosis, hepatitis and poliomyelitis.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Avoid accumulating rubbish and rotting substances
  • Do not leave food or meals uncovered
  • Keep kitchens and cooking untensils clean
  • Use insecticides (Fly Trap, Insect Strip, Flying Insect Spray)
  • Insect repellents provide sensible protection against biting flies (e. g. horseflies)

Flour mite

The flour mite is a tiny white mite with red legs, growing only 0.1 to 0.6 mm in length. They reproduce quickly with up to 500 eggs per female and larvae develop in 17 days. They survive long dry periods without food and prefer warm, humid climates due to being part of the mould mite family.

Flour mites infest dry foods, causing a light dust, sweet smell, and bitter taste. Infested flour can prevent cakes from rising. Eating affected foods can lead to serious health issues such as allergies, high temperatures, headaches, blisters, pustules, and stomach/intestinal reactions. Asthma attacks may also occur.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Destroy infested foods, put food that looks alright in a deep freezer for three days
  • Keep new stores in closed containers (jars or boxes)

House Dust Mites

These minute insects have eight legs when adult, and so are classed as arachnids. The house mite (Glycyphagus domesticus) grows to a length of about 0.5 mm. It only reproduces in large quantities in warm rooms with high humidity, in which mould fungi are also present.
The house dust mite (mainly Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus) is quite common in house dust. It is only 0.3 mm long and whitish in colour. These mites feed on skin scales which have been “pre-digested” by mould fungi, and on other organic materials. Their excrement, the remains of their bodies and the fungi they live in symbiosis with can cause asthma and other allergic reactions, including “house dust mite allergy”.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Change bedding often
  • Regular vacuum-clean and air beds and mattresses
  • Air bedroom and children’s rooms often and decrease the humidity
  • Use Insecticides against house dust mites

Larder Beetle

Dermestes lardarius and Dermestes peruvianus look very similar. They are both around 6 to 10 mm long and are mostly blackish brown. The only difference is the common larder beetle has a light rusty brown band on its wings. Both beetles lay up to 200 eggs on food, which means that there can be five to six generations of beetles each year in good conditions.
Both beetles and larvae are relatively sensitive to the cold.
Larder and hide beetles can ruin things like leather, wool, tobacco, cotton, cork, and asbestos. Their hairy skins are easy to see and they often show up in big groups. They eat away at things from the inside, leaving holes and making everything look bad.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Remove larvae from wall with cloth or vacuum.
  • Infested textiles should be brushed out, beaten, washed, cleaned or ironed
  • These pests can be destroyed by very hot or cold temperatures
  • Beetles on windows indoors should simply be moved outdoors
  • Insecticides to be used

Mosquito

Depending on the species mosquitoes can grow to 4 to 6 mm long. Only the females bite and suck blood, which they need for reproduction. The males do not bite.
Usually the mosquito larvae grow in stagnant (dirty) and shallow water. Moisture and heat speed up the developing cycle of the larvae.
Mosquitoes are mostly active in the time between dusk and dawn – on warm humid days in the afternoon as well. In the daytime they usually hide in moist shady places such as hedges and woodland, or in houses.
They are responsible for transmitting the commonest infectious diseases throughout the world.
Mosquito species such as Aedes, Anopheles and Culex are carriers of dangerous diseases such as yellow or dengue fever (Aedes), malaria, virus encephalitis, filariasis (Anopheles), meningitis and filaria (threadworm) diseases (Culex).

Preventive measures and controls

  • Avoid stagnant water in and around your house
  • Use a mosquito net during the night, and mosquito or fly gauze in windows and doors
  • Use insecticides.
  • Use mosquito repellents on your skin.

Moth

The clothes moth (Tineola bisselliella) is one of the most feared material pests. Its yellow-white larvae cause the actual damage to fabrics, furs and carpets. Above all clothing which has not been worn for some time is affected.
The clothes moth grows to about 4 to 9 mm long, and can easily be recognised from its shiny yellow front wings.
Another type of pest, the storage pest, is the food moth, such as the grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella), which attacks stores of food. Their larvae eat round holes in grains of wheat, rice and maize. The larvae of the lead-grey flour moth (Ephestria kuehniella) also feed on flour products. Besides this they soil and spin webs on large quantities of food. A single female flour moth can lay 200 eggs up to four times per year.
The infested food is covered in a coating of white dust, tastes bitter, and may harm the health of humans and animals.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Don't store damp or dirty clothes for too long.
  • Regularly vacuum-clean, brush or beat clothes.
  • Vacuum wardrobes regularly, and do it twice a year as a preventive measure.
  • Essential oils like lavender and cedar wood can repel some moths, but do not affect the larvae.
  • Never store flour, grain, dough and pastry in damp conditions
  • Thoroughly clean infested cupboards, including the shelves.
  • Use Insecticides

Rat

Adults with combined head & body length are 6-8″, Tail length 7-10″. Usual weight 150-250 gms but can grow to 340 gms. Fur is soft & smooth.
Colour is usually brown with black intermixed to gray to black above with the underside white, gray or black. Muzzle is pointed, Ears are large. Tail is scaly and uniformly dark, longer than head and body combined. The droppings of the adult rat are upto 0.5″ long spindle shaped with pointed end.
Roof rats reach sexual maturity in 2-5 months pregnancy lasts an everage of 22 days. The young are blind & naked at birth, with hair appearing in 7 days and eyes opening in 12-14 days. They are weaned at about 3-4 weeks. The average number of litters is 4-6 per year, Each containing an average live 9-12 months. They have poor vision & are colour blind. The roof rat requires 14-28 gms of food & about 30 ml of water each day, with water often coming from their food. This intake of food & water results in 30-180 droppings & approx 16ml of urine.

Preventive measures and controls

The key to any rat control program is Pest Identification, Sanitation, Harborage Elimination & Rat Proofing the Building. Some important things to remember are: (a) Rats defecate where they spend most of their time. Use the droppings as an indication to concentrate the control effort. (b) Rats travel 100-150 ft for food/water along established paths. Look for rub/swing marks.
Control methods include Toxic/Non toxic Tracking Powder, Baits, Traps, Glue Boards along established pathways, Gassing (fumigating) of burrows.

Rice Weevil

Sitophilus oryzae is only 3 mm long, but it can cause quite a lot of damage despite its small size. The blackish-brown rice weevil, which was inadvertently introduced from the tropics, can be identified by the four square-shaped orange markings on its wing cases.

The females like to lay their 100 to 200 eggs in cereal grains, but barley & pasta can also be infested. They breed particularly well in warm temperatures. They gnaw a hole in the cereal grain, lay one egg per grain and then seal the opening with a secretion. The egg develops into a larva and then into a pupa in the shell of the grain.
Depending on the temperature, the growth cycle takes one-and-a-half to six months. The beetle itself can survive without food for several months.
A cereal grain infested with the rice beetle looks completely normal from the outside. The larvae eat up the grains, leaving behind the empty shells. Infested cereals become warm and soon become musty, and subsequent pests can also cause additional losses.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Avoid using insecticides near food or in food storage.
  • Infested food should be removed and destroyed immediately
  • Vacuum cupboards thoroughly, paying attention to cracks with crevice tool.
  • Wipe out cupboards with a damp (never wet) cloth and allow to dry completely. Leave the doors open for a while
  • Store newly purchased food in sealed containers.

Silver Fish

Silver fish (Lepisma saccharina) have inhabited the earth for over 300 million years. They depend on high atmospheric humidity, and so usually occur in bathrooms, washing basements and damp storage rooms and pantries.
The insects are silver in colour and 10 mm to 12 mm long, and lay their eggs in cracks and crevices. They thrive best in temperatures between 25° and 30° Celsius, and cannot reproduce in a cold and dry environment. These light-shy, nimble and wingless insects live for up to four years.
Silver fish only cause trouble in large quantities. They prefer food containing starch such as glues, book bindings, starched fabrics and photographs. But they also damage leather articles and synthetic fabrics by gnawing and eating holes. The foods they infest usually contain sugar. In bathrooms they feed on hairs, skin scales and dirt.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Keep infested rooms cool and dry
  • Pour boiling water into bathtubs and sink drains
  • Vacuum-clean holes, crevices and cracks
  • Use insecticides

Termite

Live in colonies underground, from which they build tunnels in search of food; able to reach food above the level of the ground by building mud tubes; dependent on moisture for survival. Their main diet consists of Wood and other cellulose material.

Reproduction:

Different rates of growth from egg stage to adult depend on individual species; one queen per colony, which can lay tens of thousands of eggs in her lifetime, but most eggs are laid by supplementary reproductives in an established colony.

Additional Information:

Termites rarely expose themselves to light. They Cause more damage to homes in U.S. than storms and fire combined. Termite Colonies can contain up to 1,000,000 members. Termites will sometimes eat away the wooden structures in a house leaving the paint work intact.

Tick

Ticks are a problem as carriers of diseases throughout the world. They do not belong the insect species but are arachnids. In our latitudes there are about two dozen species, of which eight are of medical importance. Primarily the common castor-bean tick (Ixodes ricinus) is responsible for transmitting diseases to humans.
Ticks often wait on leaves or bushes for months until they detect a host. They then bite the host and use their barbed proboscis to anchor themselves to the skin, preferring warm and moist areas like armpits or genitals. Feeding can last up to nine days, during which time the tick can become several times larger.
The bite itself is usually unnoticeable, since pain-killing secretions are released. Often the site of the bite is only slightly red. Germs can be transmitted by the tick’s saliva, and frequently also by its excrement.
Ticks are carriers of tick borne encephalitis (a virus disease), which only occurs endemically in certain areas, and of the about 100 times more widespread borreliosis (a bacterial disease) in all regions with temperate climate.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Covering clothing will protect from tick bites
  • Apply suitable repellents to uncovered areas of the body (lotion, cream, spray, pump spray)
  • The danger is less on pathways than when you go through undergrowth
  • After you have been in open countryside, examine your body for ticks
  • If seen in corners of beds, matresses etc, air matresses & beds.
  • Beds, matresses can also be sprayed with a insecticide to kill the ticks

Wasp

The common wasp (Paravespula vulgaris) have black and yellow stripes and grow about 2 cm long. The common wasp can be identified from the vertical line on its head shield. The common wasp’s body is pointed. Its yellow colouring is not very vivid. Wasps live in nests made of a paper-like mass. The nests are only used for a year, and most of the insects die in October. Only the queens can survive through the winter, and this is why wasps are rare in spring. Most of the queen’s eggs develop into worker wasps, which can then become real pests in the late summer and autumn. It is important to realise that wasps themselves also catch plenty of insects, in particular harmful ones, and feed them to their larvae. A wasp colony can destroy up to two kilograms of insects per day. Nevertheless in autumn the community has already broken down. The wasps have only themselves to consider, there are no larvae, and their preferred food is carbohydrates.
Wasps can cause very painful stings that stay swollen for a long time and itch badly.

Preventive measures and controls

  • Do not leave food uncovered
  • Never interfere with wasp nests, this is a job for a professional
  • Use insecticides against individual wasps