Halloween brings with it the brief celebration of certain symbolic and scary creatures. Beyond the human or half-human entities such as ghosts, ghouls, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and Freddy Krueger, there are also scary things found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Those of us in the pest control business applaud the fleeting fame that Halloween brings to some of our regular pest “customers.”

SPIDERS ARE EVER POPULAR

The main Halloween animal icons are bats (fairly popular), rats (somewhat popular), and spiders (wildly popular). As far as spiders go, Halloween decorations usually require the large, black, long-legged variety that plays on our fear of black widow spiders. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about black widows in our region…maybe (see Do We Have Black Widow Spiders or Not?). Of course a good substitute in the fear department is any really large, hairy, tarantula-like spider. Fortunately we don’t have tarantulas here either. Maybe our lack of really scary poisonous spiders is exactly what makes them so wonderfully scary (see Afraid of Spiders? You’re Not Alone).

THESE ARE THE REALLY SCARY “BUGS”!

In our opinion, there are many insects and arthropods that should prove even scarier for most people than spiders but these runners-up just haven’t gotten good Halloween press. All of the creatures below are vectors which means they have the potential to spread diseases. The really scary part is that interaction with these pests could seriously affect your health and wellbeing. Nominations for scariest “bug” found in our region are:

• House fly (it lands on garbage, poop, and dead animals, then daringly walks across your dinner plate)

• Asian tiger mosquito (it can spread many diseases with its sneaky, bloody bite and is a potential vector of Zika virus in our region)

• Blacklegged tick (it can spread Lyme disease and other serious diseases when it attaches to slowly suck your blood)

• Bed bug (another blood-feeding vampire, it waits until you are asleep to administer its “kiss”)

But it’s October in New England so when it comes right down to it, the scariest bug that you will run across on Halloween night is probably the flu bug! Beware!