Warm Weather Pests

More than 600,000 U.S. homes suffer termite damage totaling more than $1.5 billion annually. And whereas homeowners can insure against fire and floods, getting coverage for termite infestation is nearly impossible.

Skunks can make a smelly nightmare out of your home if they get trapped in your crawl space. Usually beneficial bats do little more than freak out your guests. But if they're sick or injured, they can be dangerous. And infestations of mice create many health hazards.

Flies, bees and other stinging or biting bugs can ruin a summer day or evening. Who wants to share a pool party with roaches?

Find out how to identify and control these and other types of pests. Make your summer pleasant and pest-free.

Termites
Finding out that your home has termites instills a sense of fear among most homeowners. You typically can't see or hear them and frequently only a trained inspector can find signs of infestation. Treatment by the homeowner for the control of termites is virtually impossible. Specialized equipment is used and experts have the knowledge necessary for control strategies.

How termites survive
Termites feed on wood and may also destroy paper products such as books, cardboard boxes, furniture and various other items. Even buildings with steel framing and masonry walls are targets because of wooden doors and window frames, wooden support beams (often hidden), cabinets or shelving within them.

There are more than 2,000 species of termites. The most damaging are roughly 20 species we call "subterranean" termites because of their nesting and foraging habits. Two of these, the Eastern Subterranean Termites and the Western Subterranean Termites, are by far the most common, widely distributed and most damaging in the U.S.

What do they look like?
Worker termites are small creamy-white insects. Property owners seldom see worker termites, but in the spring or fall they may see swarming "winged reproductives." This form of termite can easily be confused with a winged ant unless you look closely.

Termites have a "thick waist" where their abdomen is joined to their middle body region; but ants have a "pinched-in waist" at that point.

Worker ants push the debris out of their galleries through the small holes. Another common sign, most often seen in spring, is a swarm of winged reproductives emerging. They may fly to lights and may be confused with termites.

The most widespread species are either black or brownish-red and black, but some species may be all orange-red in color. All species mainly attack wood which is, or has previously been, wet and has already been damaged by fungi.

Even though these ants first invade wet, decayed wood, they soon begin expanding their smooth-walled galleries into sound wood. The main nest is often outside in a rotten log, tree stump or post. Workers often forage as far as 100 meters from the nest. They mainly feed on sweets such as honeydew, plant sap, cereal grains, other insects and even oily or fatty materials. Food scraps and crumbs may be an ant banquet. Carpenter ants usually come into buildings through cracks around doors and windows, or through exterior holes for plumbing, electric wires, TV cables or phone lines. They will also crawl along overhead wire, shrubs or tree limbs that touch the building far above the ground.

Medical concerns about bats are mainly the very small, but real, risk of rabies. Rabies will only be found in a very few bats usually fewer than 1 percent. The main situation in which humans are at any risk is when the bat is either sick or injured and falls down within a human-occupied area or at least to within a human's reach.

Control of bats, within the continental U.S. and similar temperate regions, is mainly a combination of removal followed by exclusion. First, survey the roosting site(s) and determine entry and exit openings. Next, place a one-way barrier over one main exit. Many "valve" designs will work well, such as a net weighted along its bottom edge, or any commercially available cloth, net or fabric "chute" that allows easy passage out but collapses against any bat that tries to enter.

Control involves several steps. First, since there are so many species, you must collect a sample and get them accurately identified. Next, you have to do a survey to find out where the pest population is breeding. Control of the larvae is absolutely essential to controlling any population of filth flies. Sanitation is the next step. It includes cleaning up and removal of all of the material in which the flies are breeding (i.e., where you find their larvae). Depending on the species of pest involved, the breeding medium could be live earthworms, dung, a cadaver, rotting plant matter or garbage.

Roaches carry and spread diseases. It's not unusual for bacteriologists to find salmonella bacteria (which causes food poisoning in humans) on the bodies of cockroaches. Additionally, cockroaches are believed to spread viruses and their presence can cause allergic reactions for many people, especially asthmatic children.

What can you do if you find cockroaches in your living environment? The most important method of cockroach prevention and control is sanitation. Even a few crumbs that slip down beside a stove, for example, can serve as a gourmet dinner for several cockroaches for some time.

Stingers
Baldfaced hornets
These large, 5/8" to 3/4" long, wasps are black with yellow markings that build large grayish-colored "paper carton" aerial nests, often as large as a basketball, which usually hang in an exposed location such as from a tree. Removal of their nests should be left to a properly trained and equipped professional.

European hornets
These very large, 3/4" to 1" long, hornets are brown with yellow abdominal stripes and a pale face. They build large brownish-colored "paper carton" nests, sometimes as large as a basketball, which are often located in some protected area like a wall void, an attic or within the branches of a bush.

Although mainly active in the daytime, they do fly at night and may be attracted to lights. They are generally beneficial insects, feeding mainly on other insects, many of which are plant pests. By late summer, a mature colony may number 200-400 workers (up to 1,000). Workers are protective of their nest and give a painful sting, sometimes repeated stings, if they or their nests are disturbed. In general, they are much less aggressive, even near their nests, than are baldfaced hornets. Control of hornets or removal of their nests should be left to a properly trained and equipped professional.

Yellow jackets
Yellow jackets are 3/8" to 5/8" long, depending on the species, with their respective queens being about 25 percent longer. Most species are black with yellow stripes, but some include red markings, and some are black with white markings. These are day-active, beneficial, predatory insects. They build a paper-like nests containing several layers of cells. A mature nest may typically have 2,000-6,000 cells and 1,000-4,000 workers. Nests are sometimes built in open aerial spots, or within bushes, but most species build their nest in a cavity hollowed out below ground. Some workers act as guards at the entrances to below-ground nests.

They are very protective of their nests. Although yellow jackets are generally not likely to attack and sting humans, they can quickly become very aggressive if their nest is disturbed. After the new fertilized queens have gone into their over-wintering sites, the remaining workers begin to seek sweets and garbage near places where humans are active outdoors, or around garbage cans. Workers can inflict a painful sting and may sting repeatedly. Yellow jacket control or nest removal should be left to properly trained and equipped professionals.

Honey bees ... our friends and foes
Honey bees, among the most beneficial insects in our living environment, pollinate flowers and allow us to have fruits and vegetables. A pleasant byproduct is the production of honey. But honey bees can be our foes when they end up in our houses.

Honey bees are docile social insects meaning that they live in groups. As the colony grows too large, a queen may leave with workers and start a new colony. Honey bees peacefully go about their business pollinating plants and producing delicious honey.

Sometimes, honey bees will build hives in walls of a home or business or in bushes nearby leading to honey bees in our living or working spaces. Then, the mild honey bee becomes a pest. Honey bees can sting and some people have violent allergic reactions to the stings.

Much has been written about Africanized honey bees or "killer bees." This strain of bee is much more aggressive than the mild mannered European honey bee. Africanized honey bees are in the very warm areas of the country and are moving further north each year. They will pursue an intruder for the length of a football field, while the honey bee will only pursue an intruder for about one tenth of that distance.

By midsummer, honey bees reach very high populations. Occupants should not fog the inside of their houses or businesses if honey bees are found. If the bees are removed leaving the hive unattended, robber bees may come in and reoccupy the hive thus perpetuating the bee problem. Instead a pest control company should be called to alleviate the problem with maximum care and minimal risk to the occupants.

If you have a problem with pests, you may need to hire a pro. Here are a few tips on finding one: