We have those shiny black crickets in our house again. They somehow get in every fall. My kids think they’re pretty creepy but I’m mostly concerned about whether they do any damage in the house. What do they feed on? M.S., Brookline, MA The shiny black crickets that you refer to are called field crickets,
VIEW MOREIf you haven’t already done so, you are probably making plans to move potted plants from outside to inside for the winter. Those plants have been enjoying the summer on your deck or porch and you probably haven’t paid a whole lot of attention to them. Now is the time to do a pest check
VIEW MOREEvery fall, we have the same problem with these brown bugs that appear out of nowhere and climb up our house to get inside. Every year we call an exterminator but it doesn’t really do much good. We’ve been told that they’re some kind of seed bugs, and since they come from the trees in
VIEW MOREAn email from the International Society for Infectious Diseases has confirmed what we already suspected. Health officials in Cape Cod have seen an increase in tick-borne diseases this past summer. Used to be that when we talked about disease from ticks in New England, the conversation was pretty much limited to Lyme disease. We’re now
VIEW MOREMy kids found a really weird-looking, scary bug in our backyard. It has a thing on its back that looks like a chicken’s comb, with a skinny neck and a little head. It looked like it was carrying a moth. It’s about 2 inches long. Any idea what it is? Does it bite or sting?
VIEW MOREEver heard of a spricket? It’s a catchy term coined to describe the camel cricket. It’s actually short for “spider cricket”. Although the mottled brown camel cricket is not related to, and has nothing to do with, spiders, many people think it looks like a spider with its long legs and arched back. Late summer
VIEW MOREThe brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB, for short) was first detected in the U.S. in 1990. Ever since, it has been spreading east across the country and north into New England and is now found in almost every state in the nation. It was first found in Massachusetts in 2007 and has since appeared in
VIEW MOREI’m worrying a lot lately about ticks since I know several people who have had Lyme disease. I know we should use repellent when we are outside, but what kind? Does a regular mosquito repellent like Off! work against ticks? P. D., Ayer, MA Most insect repellents for mosquitoes and biting flies are also labeled
VIEW MOREThose of us in the pest control industry were floored to read that less than ¼ of Americans buy insect repellent to protect their families from bites and diseases spread by mosquitoes and ticks. This surprising info came from a Harris poll conducted for the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), the member association of pest
VIEW MORE