It’s not your imagination. Fall can be a bad time for fruit fly infestations and it can be explained in two words, “harvest season.” At the end of the summer, growers and gardeners are picking and processing the last of their fruits and vegetables. Farmers’ markets are overflowing with produce and most of us are
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Like cockroaches, silverfish are omnivores, meaning that they will feed on a variety of things, but they particularly like foods that are high in protein or starch. This appetite for starchy things means they can be found feeding on starched fabrics or fabrics that are stained with perspiration, urine, or food stains, and on glazed papers or onionskin. They may nibble on paper items with paste or glue backings such as postage stamps, old photos, gummed labels, book bindings, wallpaper, or drywall. Silverfish also feed on carbohydrates like flour, cereals, oatmeal, and on proteins such as dead insects, dried meat, even leather.
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The cat flea which is the most common flea on both cats and dogs is not averse to biting people if there are no pets around. Fleas usually end up biting people on the lower legs and ankles and most people have some kind of a reaction to the bite, usually itching.
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Camel crickets are one of our fall-invading insects. They move inside in late summer or fall for the same reason as the others, to find protection from weather changes, including outside conditions that are becoming too dry. Camel crickets require damp, humid conditions so drier indoor air doesn’t always agree with them. They may not survive for very long unless they end up in a very damp area indoors.
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Check overstuffed chairs or sofas, especially antiques. If these have woolen fabric covers, are stuffed with animal hair, or have accumulations of pet hair, they could be the source of fabric pests.
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Your “thousand-leggers” are better known as millipedes and we get calls about them whenever there is a change in outdoor conditions: too wet, too dry, too hot. These arthropods (they’re not worms and they’re not insects) live outside in damp conditions such as under mulch or leaf litter, in grass clippings, or under logs or stones. They feed on decaying vegetation and remain pretty much hidden outside.
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“Resistance” means that the lice have genetically mutated and are able to survive the insecticide. But it didn’t happen overnight. The use of DDT against bed bugs in the early 1900s played a role in today’s head lice resistance to permethrin. The ancestors of today’s head lice were incidentally exposed to DDT when homes were treated for bed bugs. Since both insecticides have the same mode of action, lice surviving the DDT also carried a mutation that gave them and their offspring cross-resistance to permethrin.
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Clothes Moths CLOTHES MOTH ID – There are two main clothes moth pests, the webbing clothes moth and the casemaking clothes moth. The adult moths are small (about ½ inch long), yellowish-brown or golden, and their wings are fringed with long hairs. They are often confused with stored food moths, but unlike food moths, clothes
VIEW MOREIf your situation requires pest control inside your home, there are usually non-pesticide options that can be used such as traps, heat treatment, or specialty vacuuming. In fact, non-pesticide options are usually our first choice in handling a pest problem. Some pest problems can be solved by simply using air circulation to decrease humidity, or by “pest-proofing” certain areas of your home to keep pests from getting inside. Traps are an excellent non-pesticide option that we use for many types of pests.
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