German Cockroach
(Length: 1/2" – 5/8") This roach, with two dark brown vertical stripes behind the head, is found throughout the world, thriving wherever man lives, eating the same foods, sharing the same habitats. It is commonly found in restaurants, kitchens and stores where food, moisture and harborage are abundant. German roaches are rarely seen outdoors. Populations build rapidly from egg capsules being produced about every 20-25 days. Each capsule contains 30-35 eggs. The young mature in 4-6 months. German roaches contaminate food, leave stains, create foul odors and carry disease organisms. They hide during the day, closely packed in small cracks and crevices near food and water.
Brown Banded Cockroach
(Length: 1/2"- 5/8") The Brown Banded Cockroach is easily recognized by alternating light and dark bands across its back. About the same size as the German roach, but not as dependent on moisture, it can be found anywhere in the structure. The Brown Banded roach doesn’t multiply as fast as the German, but is considered harder to control because they tend to be scattered all over the structure. It shows a preference for warmer areas over 80 degrees. Often found high on walls, in picture frames, behind molding, near appliance motors, in light switches, closets and furniture.
American Cockroach
(Length: 1 1/2" – 2") One of the groups commonly referred to as "Palmetto Bugs", the American Cockroach is the largest of the roaches infesting homes. Hospitals and warehouses are also targets. It has reddish brown wings and is a good flyer. American Cockroaches often invade from sewer systems and heavily mulched areas. Grocery packages are also a favorite transport. The female attaches the egg capsule, containing about 12 eggs, in high areas in garages, closets, utility rooms and fireplaces. The young mature in 12 months. Found nearly anywhere in the house, American Cockroaches contaminate food, carry disease, damage book bindings, fabrics and wallpaper.
Smokybrown Cockroach
(Length: 1" – 1 1/4") The Smokybrown Cockroach is uniform in color, typically brownish black and very shiny. They are good flyers and are attracted to lights at night. Found in warm, dark, moist areas such as tree holes, ivies, mulch, woodpiles and soffits/eaves of attics with moisture problems, they are very mobile. The Smokybrown Cockroach has the reputation of being the most difficult to control because it is so active and has many habitat preferences. Very thorough methods and persistence are required for effective control.
Silverfish
(Length: 3/8" – 1/2") These slender, wingless insects are common in homes. The Silverfish are covered with shiny and silver or pearl-gray scales with three long tail-like appendages and two threadlike antennae. The scales help them escape the grip of ants and spiders. Silverfish cause damage by eating foods, cloth or other items high in protein, sugar or starch. They eat cereals, moist wheat flour, paper on which there is glue or paste, book bindings, wallpaper, starch in clothes and linens. They will breed in bookcases, storage boxes and linen closets. Oval white eggs are dropped in a few places week after week. Eggs hatch in 2-8 weeks with adulthood reached in about 2 years. They thrive in moist hot areas from the attic to the crawl space.
Flea
(Length: 1/32" – 1/16") Fleas are small, hard-bodied, wingless insects with a flattened body and legs adapted for jumping on to a host. The cat flea, most commonly encountered in Florida, seeds mammals for the blood meal needed to sustain them. They can be a direct health hazard, transmitting disease and tapeworm. Humans are often attacked when other food sources aren’t available. Their bite leaves a red, itchy spot on the skin. Their saliva is irritating to the host, causing dermatitis and hair loss in allergic animals.
Tick
(Length: 1/16" – 1/2") The tick is an eight-legged relative of the spider. It must feed three times before hiding and producing up to 3000 eggs in a crack or crevice. The tick can live without food for up to 200 days, waiting for a host, usually a dog, to supply a blood meal. Many serious diseases can be transmitted through ticks: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Typhus, Lyme Disease, Relapsing Tick Fever and other disorders.
Widow Spider
(Length: 3/8" long) The Southern Black Widow is glossy black with a red hourglass marking on the underside of its abdomen. The female is much larger and more distinctly marked than the male. It makes a strong, sticky irregular web in protected areas where prey is likely to wander in and be trapped. Foundations, vents, shrubs, outside seats, trash and wood piles at ground level are common habitats. Their poisonous venom can cause concern for small children and older or sickly persons. Medical attention should be sought if bitten.
Brown Recluse Spider
(Length: 1/4" – 1/2") The brown recluse is a brownish spider with a distinctive violin-shaped mark behind its eyes, which has earned it the name "fiddle-backed" spider. It is found in undisturbed areas such as sheds, garages and dark closets. Garments left hanging for some time are favorite spots. Their bite causes a severe systemic reaction that develops a crust and a surrounding red zone. The crust falls off, leaving a deep crater which may take several months to heal. The crater may require extensive medical attention.
Red Imported Fire Ant
(Length: 1/8" – 1/4") Usually a reddish brown color, fire ants live in colonies of up to 200,000 individuals. Their mounds can be two feet high and three feet across with as many as 50 colonies per acre. Females excavate nest close to shrubs for protection from burrowing ant-eating animals, spreading large mounds of waste earth. The Red Imported Fire Ant causes damage difficult to measure in dollars. It’s painful, burning sting results in pustules that take up to 10 days to heal. Some people are extremely allergic to the sting, needing fast medical attention to deal with the toxin.
Black Carpenter Ant
(Length: 1/4" – 1/2") Although the same size as Florida carpenter ants, these ants are completely black instead of two-toned. Unlike the Florida species, the black carpenter ant does more damage to sound, undamaged wood. They don’t eat wood, but they hollow out "galleries" in wood for nesting that are so smooth they appear to be finished by sandpaper. They normally nest in dead portions of trees, stumps or logs and invade homes in search of food. They feed on living or dead insects and nearly all sweets, or meats inside and outside of the home.
Argentine Ants
(Length: 1/11" -1/10") These medium size ants are uniformly brown and trail in large numbers. They compete aggressively with other ant species for food and nesting sites and can drive most other ant species out of their territory. Their nests have large numbers of individuals and a high percentage of queens. Because of their aggressive nature, these ants will develop into super-colonies in many urban situations with the colony spread across large areas. It is not uncommon to find Argentine ants spread across entire neighborhoods. Their nests are often under heavy leaf litter, under wood on the ground, at the base of trees and in planters and mulch. They prefer the outdoors, but will enter houses looking for food, water and warmth. They particularly like sweet foods.
Crazy Ant
(Length: 1/12" - 1/8") Ranging from red-brown to grayish to black, this small ant gets it name from its characteristic erratic and rapid movement in their search for food. They will feed on any household foods. The crazy ant is highly adaptable and can live in both very dry and moist habitats. They typically nest outdoors in the soil and in the cavities of trees and shrubs, but frequently enter homes in the fall or after a rain where they will nest in wall and floor voids especially near hot water pipes and heaters.
Pharaoh Ant
(Length: 1/12" – 1/16") These small red to yellowish ants can be found trailing anywhere within a structure. They can nest in wall voids, cabinets, boxes of food and any other accessible crevices and spaces. They are known to invade sick rooms and feed on blood plasma and wound dressings. Their colonies have multiple queens and can split into small groups, spreading very rapidly. In sub-tropical areas pharaoh ants readily nest outside in leaf debris found on or near structures. Re-invasion of the structure can occur throughout warm parts of the year.
Earwig
(Length: 3/8" to 1") Earwigs were named by a superstition that the insect would crawl purposely into the ears of sleeping people. More easily recognized by its forceps-like tail appendage, the earwig is a major garden pest, as well as an annoying household pest. It is one of the few insects that take care of its young. Earwigs feed on green plants, and other vegetation, and do little damage indoors. The pinch of their forceps is neither painful nor poisonous, but does an effective "scare" job.
House Cricket
(Length: 3/4") The tan house cricket is found in warm, damp, dark places such as shrubs, grass, basements or crawl spaces. Active mostly at night, they will eat almost anything they can chew from rugs to drapes, and they usually enter a building from harborage right outside. Common song is a triple chirp. Courtship song is a continuous trill.
Pill Bug
(Length: 1/4" - 3/8") Pill bugs are found in lawn turf, under leaves or other moist areas of decaying vegetable matter. Extremes of wet, dry, or hot weather drive them inside, where they do no damage but are an annoyance. Pill bugs roll into a ball or "pill" when they are disturbed.
Millipede
(Length: 1" – 1 1/2") Brownish and worm-like in appearance with many body segments, millipedes have two pairs of legs on each segment. They typically live outside in moist vegetation, leaf litter and mulch and feed upon decaying organic wood and plant matter. When conditions are right, migrations can occur and large numbers will find their way inside homes through cracks and crevices. When disturbed, they curl up like a watch spring.
Centipede
(Length: 1" – 2") The color of the centipede varies depending on the species, but most are brown to orange brown with many body segments. Unlike millipedes, centipedes only have one pair of legs per segment. They usually live outdoors in dark, moist areas and are seldom seen inside homes, except for the house centipede which is recognized by its extremely long legs. The house centipede is usually found where dampness occurs. They are nocturnal and when disturbed move swiftly towards darkened hiding places.
Clothes Moth
(Length: up to 1/2")
These are small yellowish or brownish moths. Larvae spin a silken tube or case which they drag around themselves to protect them from the environment and their natural enemies. Eggs are laid on products the larva will consume such as: wool, feathers, fur, hair, animal and fish meals and milk powders. Adults do not feed on fabrics. Only the larvae damage household goods. They are not attracted to light, preferring dark, protected areas. Cedar closets will not prevent them from entering.
Bed Bugs
(Length: up to 1/2")
Bed bugs are small wingless insects that feed solely upon the blood of warm-blooded animals. Hatchling bed bugs are about the size of a poppy seed, and adults are about 1/4 of an inch in length. From above they are oval in shape, but are flattened from top to bottom. Their color ranges from nearly white or a light tan to a deep brown or burnt orange. The host’s blood may appear as a dark red or black mass within the bug’s body. Because they never develop wings, bed bugs cannot fly. When disturbed, bed bugs actively seek shelter in dark cracks and crevices.
Subterranean Termite
(Length: 1/8" – 3/8") These are social insects living in colonies in the soil. The colony is made up of workers, soldiers and reproductives. Subterranean Termite colonies feed on wood (where humidity is high) or other cellulose material such as paper, cardboard and fiberboard. They do excessive damage in the U.S. every year. Workers are blind and cream colored, entering homes while foraging for food, through cracks as small as 1/64". The workers return to feed the other members of the colony on a regular basis. Winged reproductives (swarmers) are dark, and many lose their wings shortly after their swarming flight. Founding queen may live more than 3 years.
Subterranean Termite Swarmer
(Length: 1/2") These dark brown to black winged insects are the male and female reproductives. They emerge from the colony in a dark cloud at least once per year. Their short flight drops them to the ground where they then seek the proper conditions for the king and queen to start a small brood chamber in the soil. The swarmers are often confused with winged ants. The major visible differences are the waist (pinched in the ant, broad in the termite), the antenna (elbowed in the ant, straight in the termite) and the wings (two different sizes in the ant, all the same size in the termite).
Powder Post Beetle
(Length: 1/8" – 1/4") Adults are reddish brown to black and very slender. The Powder Post Beetle damages seasoned hardwoods such as flooring, furniture and structural woods. The larva, living in and eating the wood, can take up to four years to develop. Their presence is often indicated by piles of fine dust and by small exit holes in the wood. Control requires treatment by fumigation or replacement of the infested wood.
House Borer
(Length: 1/2" – 3/4") This is a member of the group known as "long-horned beetles". Eggs are laid in crevices of the bark of cut logs. The whitish larva live 3-5 years or more, eating through the wood. During quiet times, their feeding may be heard as clicking and rasping sounds. Adults leave infested wood through oval holes about 1/4" in diameter.
Carpenter Bee
(Length: 3/4" – 1") These large dark bees that resemble bumble bees are often seen hovering around the eaves of a house, wooden fences or the underside of deck in the late spring. They bore round holes into wood to nest. They will nest in a wide range of woods, but prefer weathered and unpainted wood. Typically they do not cause serious structural damage unless a large number of bees are involved over a long period of time. Male carpenter bees tend to be territorial and can become aggressive towards humans by hovering close by. But this is merely a show as they have no stinger.
