I believe I can help. We always say that avoiding tick habitat is the best way to avoid tick bites and the risk of Lyme and other tick diseases. However, in so many regions tick habitat is our very own yards. Ticks are especially plentiful in edge areas where woods meet open spaces. That’s because
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With the holiday season well underway, we’re starting to get the usual seasonal pest questions as our customers bring holiday greens and firewood into their homes and notice that insects have tagged along. Others are worried about picking up bed bugs as they travel to Grandma’s. We’ve addressed most of these issues before in our
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Your sister is right about everything but the spider part. Silk is harvested from arthropods that produce silken threads, but it comes from silkworm caterpillars, not spiders. It is largely harvested by hand in China as part of a very labor-intensive process, called sericulture. The Mulberry Silkworm Spins Tirelessly Although there is production of synthetic
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There are a number of possibilities for these little flies or gnats. Fruit flies is one, but phorid flies, fungus gnats, or drain flies are other possibilities. All are tiny flies that breed in some kind of decaying organic material — from rotting fruits to potting soil to the scum inside drain pipes. Because the
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Well, it probably only makes a real difference to an entomologist or to a science teacher who is trying to teach insect classification. The teacher is right, there is only one suborder, Heteroptera, that we refer to as “true bugs.” All of the insects in this suborder share certain characteristics that other insects do not
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We never suggest that someone spray pesticide on wood that is later going to be burned in a living space. In fact, you won’t find any pesticides that allow that use on the label. That means it would be illegal for you to use the product on firewood. Don’t Spray Pesticide on That Infested Firewood
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This is the time of year when people can get some exotic and never-before-seen pests in their homes, often in large numbers. There several different outdoor insects that will move into buildings in the fall to spend the winter. Most of these are plant-feeding insects that we never notice when they are high up in
VIEW MOREA friend told me that the daddylonglegs spiders that we’re seeing on our front porch are not spiders at all. Is that true? They have 8 long legs and they sure look and act like spiders. J.M., Goffstown, NH It is true that they’re not. Both spiders and the familiar daddylonglegs belong to the large
VIEW MORENow that the weather is turning colder, I was thinking recently about all the different kinds of pests that can occupy attics in people’s homes. Some of these pests come in just to spend the winter while others can live in an attic year round. Animals That Make Noise in Your Attic Strange noises are
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