When the powderpost beetle larvae have completed their development, they pupate inside the wood and the resulting adult beetle emerges from the wood through an exit hole. The exit holes are tiny (less than 1/10-inch in diameter) completely round, and may be surrounded by powdery “frass.” The size and shape of the exit holes is a clue to the type of beetle that is infesting.
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There are a few possibilities, but my best guess is that you saw a couple of ground beetles. And, yes, they did come in from outside, probably through gaps around that basement door. Ground beetles are what we call “occasional invaders.” They are outside insects that occasionally end up inside buildings, usually by accident. They’re
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1. Don’t Store Woolens in Cardboard Boxes – Your first mistake was using cardboard boxes. Cardboard boxes are not a deterrent to any pest, let alone clothes moths. They are also not airtight and so won’t work with fumigants like mothballs. Instead, you should use an airtight container such as a large zip-lock bag, or
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Why did spiders become one of the scary symbols of Halloween, along with black cats and bats? Seems pretty obvious; polls would confirm that most of us are afraid of spiders, at least to some degree (see Afraid of Spiders? You’re Not Alone). Halloween is all about scaring ourselves and others and spiders have a
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You may have a friend or relative that you think is a hoarder, or who has hoarder tendencies. Some of us are just slobs. We clean up when things get so bad that we are embarrassed to have anyone see the mess, but we have no problem kicking the stuff to the curb when it has to go. Hoarders, on the other hand, compulsively acquire things that to others seem to be useless junk. To hoarders, everything they save has great value. True hoarders are not lazy; they just can’t bring themselves to part with their belongings. Hoarders suffer from a mental health disorder that almost always requires expert intervention.
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When the weather gets cool here in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, mice and certain outdoor insects move into buildings in an attempt to escape the cold (see Outdoor Insects Are Getting Ready to Move Inside!). Customers who are dealing with an influx of these pests for the first time are appalled, “I can’t understand how
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Most of us can tell one insect order from another. In other words, you can tell the difference between a beetle and a butterfly, two very different groups. There are two insect groups, however, that are often confused, flies (the order Diptera) and wasps, bees, and ants (the order Hymenoptera). Even if you can recognize a yellowjacket and you know what a house fly looks like, when it comes to the lesser flies and the less obvious wasps, you may not be able to tell which group the insect belongs to. Because insects are such a large and diverse group, there are always exceptions to the rules, but here are some ways to tell a wasp from a fly.
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We’ve been getting calls from customers about “creepy-looking” bugs on both the outside and inside of their homes. Of course that description could be anything, but we’ve found that in many of these cases folks are referring to the Western conifer seed bug. This bug rings alarm bells because for most of us in the
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Think about it. Offices pests find their way in, just as they would in any other building, or employees or visitors bring the pests in with their belongings. A floor in an office building is kind of like a tiny community, perhaps with neighboring communities above and below. A suite of offices offers many of
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