The insect pupa (pronounced pew-pah) is a transition stage between the immature insect and the adult insect. Not every insect goes through a pupal stage. Only those insects that undergo what we call complete metamorphosis have a pupal stage as part of their development. These are the insect groups in which the larva looks very different from the adult—flies, wasps, ants, and beetles, for example. Other insect groups in which the young insect already looks like a small version of the adult, such as crickets and cockroaches, do not have a pupal stage.
VIEW MOREWhen the church secretary called she sounded more frustrated than anything. We keep finding these tiny brown insects, they look like little beetles, in the main entrance hallway of the church. The pastor is worried that they’re going to damage the carved wood in the altar or the antique wood in the baptismal font. They must be coming from infested wood somewhere in the church.
VIEW MOREQ. What can eat a wool rug. We were moving some furniture around in our living room to make space for a new couch. When we moved the large hutch from where it had been for 20 years, the oriental rug underneath it was almost gone. The rest of the rug had no signs of damage, and we have not noticed any bugs in that room. What may have done this to our rug.
VIEW MOREQ. My daughter is allergic to dust mites. We wash her sheets in hot water and she takes allergy medication but nothing really seems to help. Is there something you could use (or we could buy) to treat her bed to kill the mites?
VIEW MOREIf you enter a hospital with an ulcerated skin wound, you just might end up with a doctor prescribing the application of fly maggots to clean out that wound! Fly larvae feed on rotting and decaying material, including human and animal flesh. Maggot therapy is a type of biotherapy that involves the introduction of live, sterile fly larvae (maggots) into non-healing skin and wounds for the purpose of cleaning out the dead tissue, a process called “debridement.” The maggots can consume necrotic (dead) tissues more precisely than a surgical knife can remove them.
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When the Environmental Protection Agency conducted a survey about pesticides in the home, it found that about half of all households with children under the age of five had pesticides stored in unlocked cabinets within reach of children (less than 4 ft off of the ground).
Did you know that the landscaping around your home could be a factor in whether pests end up inside your home? Now that spring is in the air and folks are starting to plant and mulch, plan your landscaping and plant selections to reduce pests around your home at the same time that you beautify your surroundings.
VIEW MOREIt’s that time of year again when insects that have been spending the winter inside our homes become active again. On those first warm and sunny spring days, overwintering pests that have been hiding in attics and wall and ceiling voids, behind baseboards, or under carpet edges, start to stir and stretch. For most of them, it’s a calling to return to the outdoors to find a mate.
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