Common Household Pests


Beetles


Powder Post Beetles

You can easily recognize the work of powder post beetles. When the adults emerge, usually in June, some species leave small holes about the size of a pin in the surface of the wood; others make holes the size of pencil lead. From these holes, a fine, powder like brood of larvae carry on their destructive feeding. Normally, these insects have a 1-year life cycle; this means that the adults will appear only once each year. And because of this habit the larvae have a feeding period of many months.


Carpet Beetle

Carpet Beetles are a fairly common pest.Though these insects will do damage to fabric, they may be a pest in food products as well. Carpet beetles occur naturally outdoors and come into buildings from there. They may enter through improperly sealed or improperly screened doors and windows, but due to their small size, keeping them out completely is difficult. There are two groups of Carpet Beetles: the Black Carpet Beetles and Varied, Common and Furniture Carpet Beetles. The adult Black Carpet Beetle, as the name suggests, is black in color and oblong shaped and ranges in size from 1/8" up to 3/16" in length. The other three, though about the same size, will have a variety of different wing color patterns and are somewhat more oval in shape.Carpet Beetles go through complete metamorphosis which includes egg, larvae (crawling stage), pupae (cocoon) and adult (beetle).

Insect of the Month

Carpenter Ants

Normally workers are black or red and black in color and range in size from 3/8 to 1/2 inch. Winged queen ants may be as large as one inch. However, size is not a reliable characteristic to identify carpenter ants. Carpenter ants differ from termites by having dark-colored bodies, narrow waists, elbowed (bent) antennae, and if present, hind wings shorter than front wings.