I’m getting ready to move into my first apartment and I’m a little worried about getting bugs, especially from the neighbors. What kind of pests can I expect and what can I do about them? W. P., Peabody, MA Anytime you live as close to your neighbors as you do in an apartment, you can
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What are these strange bugs that suddenly showed up in my home? They’re mostly black with red-orange lines on their backs, about ½ inch long. There aren’t many bugs still active outside at this time of year so where did they come from? Y. M. Merrimack, NH Boxelder Bugs are Fall-invading Insects Hard to answer
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Everybody loves the woolly bear, or wooly worm, or fuzzy bear. Whatever you call this fluffy-looking, rust and black caterpillar, it has a place in weather folklore. People believe, or pretend to believe, that the band pattern on a woolly bear can predict the severity of the coming winter. The wider the black bands on
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There is documentation to show that bed bugs have pestered us since ancient times. For most of us, bed bugs were extinct pests that our great-grandparents battled. In the early 1900s , it was a rare American indeed who had never been bitten by or at least seen a bed bug. Bed bugs were pretty
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I keep finding these white worms crawling on my kitchen walls. I thought they were fly maggots but they look more like little caterpillars, about a half inch long. I can’t imagine what they’re doing in the kitchen. Could they be coming in from outside? P. D., Sandown, NH Whether or not they could be
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The name western conifer seed bug might be confusing since this insect is an important pest in the Northeast. It was first described in the western U.S. where it is a native pest, but in recent years it has been gradually moving eastward and is now common across the northern United States and into Canada.
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We keep finding these tiny, jumping insects in different places in our downstairs. They’re mostly in the laundry room but also in the family room. Our extension agent told my husband that they were springtails. Where are they coming from and why are they in my house? L.L., Epsom, NH Springtails (sometimes called Collembola) are
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I’ve been unpacking my family’s sweaters and other winter clothes that were stored in the attic. When I opened one box of sweaters, I saw a couple of what looked like tiny beige moths running around inside the box. I’m assuming that these were clothes moths since, sure enough, I found holes in some of
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Our house keeps getting invaded by those gray roly-poly bugs that curl into a ball. When we were kids, we called them pillbugs, but when I looked them up on the Internet, I found “sowbugs” instead. Whatever they are, how can we get rid of them? A. G., Deerfield, NH Pillbugs and sowbugs are actually
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