Assuming garbage management is not a problem, the next best guess is an animal carcass somewhere in your wall voids, attic, or some other unfrequented or inaccessible part of your home. When a rat, squirrel, bird, or other animal dies, it doesn’t take long for a blow fly or house fly to zero in on the carcass where she proceeds to lay eggs. The eggs hatch and the larvae develop very quickly as they feed on the rotting flesh. The full-grown larvae pupate and shortly after, adult flies emerge.
VIEW MOREWe have three types of crickets in our region that get into houses: field cricket, house cricket, and camel cricket. The dark brown to black field crickets that you’re talking about will feed on most anything. Outside, they are feeding on decaying vegetation, including garden fruits and vegetables, and insects, among other things. Inside, they will eat garbage, or any people or pet foods they can find.
VIEW MOREDon’t delay in removing an attached tick. The longer the tick is attached, the greater the chances that it will transmit a disease such as Lyme. After 24 hours, the chance of Lyme disease transmission from an attached blacklegged tick goes up significantly, and is even higher after 48 hours.
VIEW MOREWhen you’ve found and emptied the more obvious things like wheelbarrows, wading pools, and buckets, look one more time for the less obvious. Tarps can hold water, saucers under plants can hold water, clogged roof gutters can hold water, pet water dishes can hold water, and old tires are a commonly overlooked source of mosquitoes. If you have a fish pond in your yard, make sure it contains fish that will eat the mosquito larvae.
VIEW MOREAlthough the American dog tick does not spread Lyme disease to people, it is responsible for transmitting Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Fortunately, this disease is not as common in New England as it is farther south. In Massachusetts, cases occur most often in the southeastern part of the state, on Cape Cod, or on Martha’s Vineyard.
VIEW MORESow bugs and pill bugs go by other names like water bug, wood louse, or roly poly. They are actually not insects, but are more closely related to lobsters.
VIEW MOREDEET works well against mosquitoes, no-see-ums (punkies or biting midges), black flies, ticks, chiggers, and even fleas. Like all of the other repellents, it does not work against the larger deer flies, greenheads, or horse flies. DEET products tend to have a greasy feel and can dissolve some plastics and paints.
VIEW MOREDog heartworms are parasitic roundworms that develop and reproduce inside a dog’s body, eventually causing illness and sometimes death if untreated.
Heartworms are spread when a female mosquito sucks blood from an already infected dog. Along with the blood, she ingests the tiny worm larvae, called “microfiliariae.” After developing in the gut of the mosquito, heartworm larvae are passed along to the next dog that the mosquito feeds on. Inside the dog’s bloodstream, the larvae mature into adult worms and migrate to the dog’s heart, lungs, and blood vessels where they mate and continue to produce more microfilariae.
VIEW MOREClover mites are arachnids that can sometimes build up in very large numbers on or in your home, but they don’t cause much damage, and they don’t bite.
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