A & A Pest Control
We see things from a bug's point a view.
Pest Library
We have put together a list of pests that are commonly known to affect New England. In our 30+ years of service, A & A Pest Control has found the right treatments to common pest problems affecting private and commercial properties in the north east. Use this resource to help you identify problems at your property. We’re here to answer your questions so contact us today and let A & A Pest Control use our decades of experience to treat your pest issues!
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Subterranean Termites
Family Rhinotermitidae
Color: Creamy brown
Legs: Six
Shape: Long, narrow, oval
Size: 1/8″
Antennae: Yes
Flight: Yes
Subterranean termites live in underground colonies or in moist secluded areas aboveground that can contain up to 2 million members. They build distinctive “mud tubes” to gain access to food sources and to protect themselves from open air. Termite colonies are organized into castes depending on tasks — workers, soldiers, and reproductives. The characteristics of a subterranean termite are dependent on the termite’s role in the colony. Cream-colored Worker subterranean termites are 1/8 to 3/8’s of an inch in length. Soldier subterranean termites are of a similar body length, but are distinguished by their powerful mandibles. Solider termites have cream-colored bodies and brown heads. Reproductive subterranean termites are approximately one inch long.
Habits
Subterranean termites live underground and build tunnels, referred to as mud tubes, to reach food sources. Like other termite species, they feed on products containing cellulose. Subterranean termites swarm in the spring — groups of reproductive termites go off to start new colonies.
Habitat
Subterranean termites need contact with the soil to survive and live underground. They can build tunnels through cracks in concrete.
Threats
Subterranean termites are by far the most destructive species. They can collapse a building entirely, meaning possible financial ruin for a homeowner. The hard, saw-toothed jaws of termites work like shears and are able to bite off extremely small fragments of wood, one piece at a time.
Subterranean Termites can be found in All 50 States
Prevention
Avoid water accumulation near your home’s foundation. Divert water away with properly functioning downspouts, gutters, and splash blocks. Reduce humidity in crawl spaces with proper ventilation. Never bury wood scraps or waste lumber in the yard. Most importantly, eliminate wood contact with the soil. Maintain a one-inch gap between the soil and wood portions of the building.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
House Mouse
House Mouse
Color: Light brown to black
Legs: Four
Shape: Round
Size: 2″
Antennae: No
Flight: No
The house mouse is the most common rodent pest in most parts of the world. It can breed rapidly and adapt quickly to changing conditions.
House mice can breed throughout the year and can share nests.
House mice live in structures, but they can live outdoors.
Micro droplets of mouse urine can cause allergies in children. Mice can also bring fleas, mites, ticks and lice into your home.
House Mice can be found in All 50 States
To keep mice and other rodents out, make sure all holes of larger diameter than a pencil are sealed. Mice can squeeze through spaces as small as a nickel. Seal any cracks and voids. Don’t overlook proper drainage at the foundation and always install gutters or diverts which will channel water away from the building.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
Carpenter Ants
Color: Varies depending on species, from red to black or a combination. The two most common species are black.
Legs: Six
Shape: Segmented; oval
Size: 5/8″
Antennae: Yes
Flight: No
Carpenter ants get their name because they excavate wood in order to build their nests. Their excavation results in smooth tunnels inside the wood. Carpenter ants range in size from one-quarter inch for a worker ant to up to three-quarters inch for a queen.
All species mainly attack wood that is or has been wet and damaged by mold. Even though these ants first invade wet, decayed wood, they may soon begin building paths through dry, undamaged wood. They usually come into buildings through cracks around doors, windows, or through holes for wires. They will also crawl along overhead wires, shrubs, or tree limbs that touch the building far above the ground.
Carpenter ants build their nests outdoors in various wood sources, including tree stumps, firewood or landscaping. They need a constant water source to survive. They will enter homes through wet, damaged wood.
Carpenter ants damage wood through their nest building. If they gain entry to a structure, they pose a property threat.
Because carpenter ants require a water source, eliminate sources of moisture or standing water. Keep tree branches and other plants cut back from the house. Sometimes pests use these branches to get into your home. Make sure that there are no cracks or little openings around the bottom of your house. Sometimes pests use these to get into your home. Make sure that firewood and building materials are not stored next to your home. Pests like to build nests in stacks of wood.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
Tags:
ant, ants, Carpenter Ants, eco, eco-friendly, IMP, infestation, pest, pest control, pests, Roaches, vermin
Bedbugs
Color: Mahogany to rusty brown; red after a blood meal
Legs: Six
Shape: Flat; broad oval
Size: 1/4 inch
Antennae: Yes
Flight: No
Bedbugs get their name because they like to live and feed in beds.
Bedbugs like to travel and will hide in suitcases, boxes and shoes to be near a food supply. They are elusive, nocturnal creatures. They can hide behind baseboards, electrical switchplates, picture frames, even wall paper. They come out at night for a blood meal.
Bedbugs like to hide in small cracks and crevices close to a human environment. They can be found behind baseboards, wallpaper, upholstery, and in furniture crevices.
Although bedbugs can dine on any warm-blooded animal, they primarily dine on humans. Bedbugs do not transmit diseases, but their bites can become red, itchy welts.
Vacuum suitcases after returning from a vacation. Check your bedsheets for tell-tale blood spots. Bedbugs are elusive creatures, so it is imperative to seek professional pest control to address an infestation.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
Tags:
Bed Bugs, bugs in the mattress, bugs on bed, eco, eco-friendly, IMP, infestation, pest, pest control, Roaches, vermin
Roaches
Color: Reddish brown, with a yellowish figure 8 pattern on the back of the head
Legs: Six
Shape: Oval
Size: 2″
Antennae: Yes
Flight: Yes
The American cockroach is the largest of the house-infesting cockroach.
American cockroaches are found in food processing areas and food storage areas, as well as other types of buildings. They are active when the temperature is 70 degrees or higher, but they can survive lower temperatures with the right conditions.
American cockroaches are often found in sewers and basements, particularly around pipes and drains.
Cockroaches have been reported to spread at least 33 kinds of bacteria, six kinds of parasitic worms, and at least seven other kinds of human pathogens. They can pick up germs on the spines of their legs and bodies as they crawl through decaying matter or sewage and then carry these into food or onto food surfaces. Germs that cockroaches eat from decaying matter or sewage are protected while in their bodies and may remain infective for several weeks longer than if they had been exposed to cleaning agents, rinse water, or just sunlight and air. Recent medical studies have shown that cockroach allergens cause lots of allergic reactions in inner city children. They were even shown to cause asthma in children. These allergens build up in deposits of droppings, secretions, cast skins, and dead bodies of roaches.
American Cockroaches can be found in All 50 States
Good sanitation and habitat reduction, along with vacuuming, surveillance, a baiting program, and some sealing of cracks can usually quickly reduce or eliminate a cockroach population.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
Tags:
Cock Roaches, eco, eco-friendly, IMP, infestation, pest, pest control, Roaches, vermin
Crickets
African field cricket Gryllus bimaculatusCrickets are small to medium-sized insects with mostly cylindrical, somewhat vertically flattened bodies. The head is spherical with long slender antennae arising from cone-shaped scapes (first segments) and just behind these are two large compound eyes. On the forehead are three ocelli (simple eyes). The pronotum (first thoracic segment) is trapezoidal in shape, robust, and well-sclerotinized. It is smooth and has neither dorsal or lateral keels (ridges).[3]
At the tip of the abdomen is a pair of long cerci (paired appendages on rearmost segment), and in females, the ovipositor is cylindrical, long and narrow, smooth and shiny. The femora (third segments) of the back pair of legs are greatly enlarged for jumping. The tibiae (fourth segments) of the hind legs are armed with a number of movable spurs, the arrangement of which is characteristic of each species. The tibiae of the front legs bear one or more tympani which are used for the reception of sound.[3]
The wings lie flat on the body and are very variable in size between species, being reduced in size in some crickets and missing in others. The fore wings are elytra made of tough chitin, acting as a protective shield for the soft parts of the body and in males, bear the stridulatory organs for the production of sound. The hind pair is membranous, folding fan-wise under the forewings. In many species, the wings are not adapted for flight.[1]
The largest members of the family are the 5 cm (2 in)-long bull crickets (Brachytrupes) which excavate burrows a meter or deeper. The tree crickets (Oecanthinae) are delicate white or pale green insects with transparent fore wings, while the field crickets (Gryllinae) are robust brown or black insects.[1]
Distribution and habitat
Crickets have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in all parts of the world with the exception of cold regions at latitudes higher than about 55° North and South. They have colonized many large and small islands, sometimes flying over the sea to reach these locations, or perhaps conveyed on floating timber or by human activity. The greatest diversity occurs in tropical locations, such as in Malaysia, where 88 species were heard chirping from a single location near Kuala Lumpur. A greater number than this could have been present because some species are mute.
Crickets are found in many habitats. Members of several subfamilies are found in the upper tree canopy, in bushes, and among grasses and herbs. They also occur on the ground and in caves, and some are subterranean, excavating shallow or deep burrows. Some make galleries in rotting wood, and certain beach-dwelling species can run and jump over the surface of pools.
Cricket (insect), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(insect).
Millipedes
Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name being derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a result of two single segments fused together. Most millipedes have very elongated cylindrical or flattened bodies with more than 20 segments, while pill millipedes are shorter and can roll into a ball. Although the name “millipede” derives from the Latin for “thousand feet”, no known species has 1,000; the record of 750 legs belongs to Illacme plenipes. There are approximately 12,000 named species classified into 16 orders and around 140 families, making Diplopoda the largest class of myriapods, an arthropod group which also includes centipedes and other multi-legged creatures.
Most millipedes are slow-moving detritivores, eating decaying leaves and other dead plant matter. Some eat fungi or suck plant fluids, and a small minority are predatory. Millipedes are generally harmless to humans, although some can become household or garden pests, especially in greenhouses where they can cause severe damage to emergent seedlings. Most millipedes defend themselves with a variety of chemicals secreted from pores along the body, although the tiny bristle millipedes are covered with tufts of detachable bristles. Reproduction in most species is carried out by modified male legs called gonopods, which transfer packets of sperm to females.
First appearing in the Silurian period, millipedes are some of the oldest known land animals. Some members of prehistoric groups grew to over 2 m (6 ft 7 in); the largest modern species reach maximum lengths of 27 to 38 cm (11 to 15 in). The longest extant species is the giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas).
Among myriapods, millipedes have traditionally been considered most closely related to the tiny pauropods, although some molecular studies challenge this relationship. Millipedes can be distinguished from the somewhat similar but only distantly related centipedes (class Chilopoda), which move rapidly, are carnivorous, and have only a single pair of legs on each body segment. The scientific study of millipedes is known as diplopodology, and a scientist who studies them is called a diplopodologist.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
Sow Bugs
The woodlouse has a shell-like exoskeleton, which it must progressively shed as it grows. The moult takes place in two stages; the back half is lost first, followed two or three days later by the front. This method of moulting is different from that of most arthropods, which shed their cuticle in a single process.
A female woodlouse will keep fertilized eggs in a marsupium on the underside of her body until they hatch into offspring that look like small white woodlice curled up in balls. The mother then appears to “give birth” to her offspring. Females are also capable of reproducing asexually.[23]
Despite being crustaceans like lobsters or crabs, woodlice are said to have an unpleasant taste similar to “strong urine”.[23]
Pillbugs and pill millipedes
Pillbugs (woodlice of the family Armadillidiidae, also known as pill woodlice) can be confused with pill millipedes of the order Glomerida.[24] Both of these groups of terrestrial segmented arthropods are about the same size. They live in very similar habitats, and they can both roll up into a ball. Pill millipedes and pillbugs appear superficially similar to the naked eye. This is an example of convergent evolution.
Pill millipedes can be distinguished from woodlice on the basis of having two pairs of legs per body segment instead of one pair like all isopods. Pill millipedes have twelve to thirteen body segments and about eighteen pairs of legs, whereas woodlice have eleven segments and only seven pairs of legs. In addition, pill millipedes are smoother, and resemble normal millipedes in overall colouring and the shape of the segments.
Silverfish
Silverfish are nocturnal insects typically 13–25 mm (0.5–1.0 in) long.[2] Their abdomens taper at the end, giving them a fish-like appearance.[3] The newly hatched are whitish, but develop a grayish hue and metallic shine as they get older.[4] They have two long cerci and one terminal filament at the tips of their abdomens, the filament projects directly off of the end of their body, between the left and right cerci. They also have two small compound eyes, despite other members of Thysanura being completely eyeless, such as the family Nicoletiidae.[3][5]
Like other species in Apterygota, silverfish are completely wingless.[3][6] They have long antennae, and move in a wiggling motion that resembles the movement of a fish.[7] This, coupled with their appearance and silvery scales, influences their common name. Silverfish typically live for two to eight years.[4]Silverfish are agile runners and can outrun most of their predators (including wandering spiders and centipedes). However such running is only possible on horizontal surfaces, as they lack any additional appendages and, therefore, are not fast enough to climb walls at the same speed.[citation needed] They also avoid light.[8]
Distribution
Silverfish are a cosmopolitan species, found in Africa, the Americas, Australia, Eurasia, and other parts of the Pacific.[9] They inhabit moist areas, requiring a relative humidity between 75% and 95%.[10] In urban areas, they can be found in attics, basements, bathtubs, sinks, kitchens, and showers.[4]
Reproduction and life cycle
Before silverfish reproduce they carry out a ritual involving three phases, which may last over half an hour. In the first phase, the male and female stand face to face, their quivering antennae touching, then repeatedly back off and return to this position. In the second phase the male runs away and the female chases him. In the third phase the male and female stand side by side and head-to-tail, with the male vibrating his tail against the female. Finally the male lays a spermatophore, a sperm capsule covered in gossamer, which the female takes into her body via her ovipositor to fertilize her eggs. The female lays groups of fewer than 60 eggs at once, deposited in small crevices.[12] The eggs are oval-shaped, whitish, about 0.8 millimeters (0.031 in) long,[13] and take between two weeks and two months to hatch. A silverfish usually lays fewer than 100 eggs in her lifetime.[2]
When the nymphs hatch, they are whitish in color, and look like smaller adults. As they molt, young silverfish develop a grayish appearance and a metallic shine, eventually becoming adults after three months to three years.[12] They may go through 17 to 66 molts in their lifetime, sometimes 30 in a single year – much more than most insects. Silverfish are among the few types of insect that continue to molt after reaching adulthood.
If you suspect you have these or any pest, please give us a call immediately to help in the identification and remediation. We can be reached at (860) 646-0009.
