Appearance: Bees can be black or brown with red, yellow or lustrous blue stripes.
Habits: Wax combs inside walls, trees and large bushes..
Diet: Main dietary source is carbohydrates, which is gathered as nectar from flowers, trees and plants.
Reproduction: First they hatch into larvae. The larvae eat before spinning cocoons and becoming pupae. They then emerge from the cocoons as adults.
Appearance: ¾ to 1 inch, bright black and yellow
Habits: Wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water resistant nests made of gray or brown papery material.
Diet: Many wasps are predatory using other insects (often paralyzed) as food for their larvae. A few social wasps are omnivorous, feeding on a variety of fallen fruit, nectar and carrion.
Reproduction: Wasps do not reproduce via mating flights like bees. Instead social wasps reproduce between a fertile queen and a male wasp.
Appearance: Light brown to black with appendages lighter than rest of the body. About 1/10 inch long, parallel lines on head and thorax with a 12-segment antennae.
Habits: Invades building while foraging for food throughout the year. Nests are outdoors under stones, along curbs or in cracks of pavement. Can nest indoors in walls and under floors.
Diet: Omnivorous. Will eat many things, but prefers greasy and sweet foods.
Reproduction: Queen Produces five to 20 eggs per day: brood develops in about 40 days: young go through three larval stages.
Appearance: The females body is 14-16 millimeters in length and is shiny black, often with an hourglass shaped red mark on the lower abdomen. The male of the species is around half of this size and generally a tan color with lighter striping on the abdomen.
Habits: Black widow spiders favor dark, secluded areas such as crevices and woodpiles.
Diet: Insects, spiders and centipedes captured with its web.
Reproduction: The female lays approximately 250 eggs in an egg sac which is about ½ to 5/8 inches in diameter. The eggs hatch in 20 days and remain in the egg sac from about 4 days to 1 month. The young spiders then molt to the second stage and begin feeding.
Appearance: Adults about ¾ inch long with three dark bands on the head and thin antennae. Body is yellowish brown.
Habits: Active at night. Attracted to lights.
Diet: Omnivorous eat almost anything available.
Reproduction: Closely related to cockroach reproduction.
Appearance: Earwigs are easily recognizable by their pincers at the ends of their abdomen. They are dark reddish-brown, with light brown legs and are about 5/8 inches long.
Habits: Earwigs are nocturnal: they often hide in small, moist cervices during the day, and are active at night.
Diet: Wide variety of insects and plants.
Reproduction: The male and female will hide in debris and crevices from mid-winter to early spring. The male will leave or be driven out by the female. Afterwards the female will begin to lay 20 to 80 pearly white eggs in 2 days.
Appearance: White to brown-grey similar to the silverfish.
Habits: Firebrats prefer high temperatures and require some humidity and can be found in bakeries and near boilers or furnaces.
Diet: They feed on a wide variety of carbohydrates and starches that are also protein sources such as flour and book bindings and can go for as much as a year without eating.
Reproduction: At 1 ½ to 4 ½ months of age the female firebrat begins laying eggs if the temperature is right (90-106 *F or 32-41 *C). It may lay up to 195 eggs in a lifetime. After incubation (12-13 days), the nymphs hatch. The complete life cycle may be passed in 2 to 4 months thus several generations may result each year.
Appearance: White to brown-grey or bluish-silver in color, silverfish are teardrop-shaped insects that measure up to one inch in length with three long bristles on rear.
Habits: Capable of thriving in most climates, silverfish prefer to dwell in dark damp areas such as basements, attics, kitchens and bathrooms. They are especially attracted to paper and damp clothing. Commonly found in storage boxes in garage and sheds.
Diet: Silverfish feed on carbohydrates, particularly sugars and starches. Cellulose, shampoos, glue in books, linen, silk and dead insects may be food sources.
Reproduction: Silverfish undergo love dances prior to mating. Males lay spermatophores which are taken into the ovipositor of female specimens. Females lay clusters of up to 50 eggs.
Appearance: Distinctive from flies because of their long “stinger” and scales on the back and veins of their wings.
Habits: Found from the tropics to the arctic. Reliant on a water source.
Diet: Adult female is the only shape that feeds on blood.
Reproduction: Larvae and pupae live in water, preferably still waters.
Appearance: They possess a pair of strong pincers, four pairs of legs and an elongated segmented tail with a larger segment at the tip that is responsible for the scorpion’s powerful sting.
Habits: Scorpions are active during the night although they can also be seen during the day where it is cool and moist.
Diet: Insects and other arthropods vertebrates like snakes small lizards and mice.
Reproduction: Scorpions have a complex mating ritual where the male leads the female into a courtship dance that last for several hours.
Appearance: Ticks vary in color by species. Adult ticks are smaller than a sun flower seed. (1/8 to 5/8 inch long if engorged with blood) while nymphal (or immature) ticks are less than 1/16 inch long.
Habits: Often found near wooded and highly vegetated areas. Some Species require moisture to survive.
Diet: All females and males of most species feed on blood of mammals, birds and reptiles.
Reproduction: There are four stages in a tick’s lifecycle – egg, larvae, nymph and adult. Ticks have only six legs during larval stage and eight legs during their nymphal and adult stages.
Appearance: Common North American species are brownish one to 1 ½ inches long segmented with 2 pairs of legs per segment.
Habits: WSoil, under Rocks.
Diet: Decaying leaves and other dead plant matter moisturizing the food with secretions and then scraping it in with the jaws.
Reproduction: Eggs are deposited in the soil most species reach sexual maturity in the second year and live several years after that.
Appearance: Rounded or flattened head, bearing a pair of antennae at the forward margin.
Habits: Adult centipedes hide in moist, dark and secluded areas during winter.
Diet: Insects and other arthropods
Reproduction: They place eggs in dampened soil during summer or spring. As centipedes become adults they grow a complete set of legs and extra segments. However some centipedes are born complete.
Appearance: About 5/8 inch long. Light to medium brown with two dark lower dinal streaks on the thorax.
Habits: Nocturnal primarily infests areas close to food, moisture and warmth. Most common cockroach found in and around apartments, homes supermarkets and restaurants.
Diet: Scavenger: eats almost anything.
Reproduction: Females can produce one egg capsule every 20 to 25 days. Each capsule contains from 18 to 48 eggs. Newborns become adults in as little as 36 days. Adults can live up to one year.
Appearance: Less than ¼ inch long.
Habits:They prefer corners and edges or thin objects to rest on. Indoors they rest on floors walls and ceilings during the day. Outdoors they will rest on plants the ground fence wires garbage cans etc. Night resting places are usually near sources of food and 5 to 15 feet off the ground.
Diet: Wide variety of food including human food animal food and carcasses, garbage and excrement.
Reproduction: House fly eggs are laid in almost any warm, moist material that will supply suitable food for the larvae. The female begins laying eggs a few days after hatching laying a total of five to six batches of 75 to 100 eggs. In warm weather eggs hatch in 12 to 24 hours.
Appearance: Small wingless about 1/12 to 1/6 inch long. Covered in spines with piercing mouthparts.
Habits: A parasite that attaches to a host.
Diet: Larvae feed on organic debris particularly the feces of adult fleas which contain undigested blood.
Reproduction: Eggs are not attached to the host. Eggs will hatch on the ground in nests, carpet, bedding, upholstery or cracks in the floor. Most hatch within seven to fourteen days.
Appearance: Small and slender three to four inches long with large ears, small eyes and pointed nose. Light brown or light gray. Droppings are rod shaped.
Habits: Nests within structures and burrows. Establish a “territory” near food sources that are generally 10 to 30 feet from nest. Inquisitive but very wary. Excellent climbers.
Diet: Omnivorous but prefers cereal grains.
Reproduction: Prolific breeders by two months of age. Can have litters as often as every 40 to 50 days with four to seven young per litter. Live up to one year.
Appearance: Black or brown seven to ten inches long with a long tail and eyes and appointed nose. Body is smaller and sleeker than a Norway rat, the fur is smooth.
Habits: Nests inside and under buildings or in piles of rubbish or wood. Excellent climber that can often be found in the upper parts of structures.
Diet: Omnivorous, but shows a preference for grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables.
Reproduction: First they hatch into larvae. The larvae eat before spinning cocoons and becoming pupae. They then emerge from the cocoons as adults.
Appearance: Adult bed bugs are light brown to reddish-brown, flattened, oval-shaped and have no hind wings. The front wings are vestigial and reduced to pad-like structures. Bed bugs have segmented abdomens with microscopic hairs that give them a banded appearance. Adults grow to 4–5 mm in length and 1.5–3 mm wide.
Habits:Their preferred habit of warm houses and especially nearby or inside of beds and bedding or other sleep areas. Bed bugs are mainly active at night, but are not exclusively nocturnal.
Diet: Bed bugs are obligatory hematophagous (bloodsucking) insects. Most species feed on humans only when other preys are unavailable. They obtain all the additional moisture they need from water vapor in the surrounding air. Bed bugs are attracted to their hosts primarily by carbon dioxide, secondarily by warmth, and also by certain chemicals.
Reproduction: Bed bugs have six life stages (five immature nymph stages and a final sexually mature adult stage). Bed bugs must molt six times before becoming fertile adults and must take a blood meal in order to complete each molt.
Appearance: The ants are about 0.125 in (3.2 mm) and are covered with reddish-brown hairs.
Habits: It is unclear why this species, like many varieties of ants, is attracted to electrical equipment. Their infestation of electrical equipment can cause short circuits when they chew through insulation. Overheating and mechanical failures can also be caused by high numbers of dead worker ants in electrical devices.
Diet: They feed on ladybugs, fire ants and Attwater’s prairie chicken hatchlings, as well as plants.
Reproduction: The reproductive males and females of the Rasberry crazy ant are similar in color but are larger and possess wings. Queens are larger still, and are responsible for producing the millions of larvae within the colony.
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