Homes
Our homes and backyards make excellent insect habitats. With their warm,
tropical setting year-round,
unlimited food supply; no major predators;
spacious, packed closets; countless
books; nooks and
crannies; backyards; sedate, warm-blooded
pets; attics, and
damp basement full of rotting wood
beams--there's plenty of room for a growing family!
How do they get in? Sometimes we bring them in ourselves--in
the food we buy, wood we bring in for the fire, even on our pets.
And once in, they find ways to pass through doors and walls and
sometimes into places we can only imagine going. What looks like
a single human habitat is in fact many different ones--no matter
where we look, we might find an entire insect ecosystem.
Food Supply
Flour beetles
(Tribolium sp.). Not finicky in
their food preferences, flour beetles feast on grains, pastas,
dried fruits, nuts, chocolate, even cayenne pepper, and, of course,
flour. They require no drinking water at all, and in one year
a female can lay up to 1,000 eggs.
Closets
Clothes moths
(Tineola biselliella and Tinea pellionella). Among the few
insects adapted to eat keratin--a protein found in animal products,
including hair, fur, feathers, and leather--clothes moths emerge
from closets each year when people unpack their winter clothes.
Regular cleaning, careful storage, and mothballs keep clothes
moths at bay. Tineola includes the webbing clothes moth, and
Tinea includes the case making clothes moth.
Books/Nooks
Silverfish
(Lepisma saccharina). Silverfish inhabit
bookcases, shelves, basements, and other nooks and crannies of
human habitation. This insect has a particular fondness for carbohydrates
in any form--from flour to paste to bookbindings. Silverfish will
even eat the starch out of collars and cuffs!
Nooks and Crannies
German cockroaches
(Blattella germanica).
The most widespread household pests are the roaches. Of the over
50 species of roaches found in the U.S., only five are household
pests. These German cockroaches are the most common. And no wonder--if
left alone, one female can produce over 30,000 offspring
in a single year!
Backyard
Fireflies
(Lampyridae). What are they? Fireflies
are really beetles whose cold light flashings are mating signals that fill
our summer evenings. Males flash in patterns and
wait for the females sitting in the grass to flash back.
The
female common house mosquito
(Culex pipiens) takes
advantage of any standing water--including nutrient-rich birdbaths--on
which to lay rafts of 100 to 300 eggs. The eggs hatch after several
days, and the larvae and pupae live under water until they emerge
as flying adults. To survive winter, adult mosquitoes take shelter
from the elements.
Pets
Adult fleas
(family Pulicidae) are thin and well-armored,
which means they can slip among the densest hair and avoid being
crushed by us. If their food supply--blood--is cut off, flea cocoons
can wait for a year or more before emerging. Vibrations, heat,
and smell will rouse the cocoons.
Attic
Carpenter ants
(Camponotus sp.). Carpenter ants like
to tunnel in dead wood. Although they chew the wood to make their
nests, they feed on insects, sugar, and other sweets.
What is a pest? Insects play a critcal role in our environment,
but when they come inside our homes--uninvited--we call them
pests.
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Fireflies
(Lampyridae). What are they? Fireflies
are really beetles whose cold light flashings are mating signals that fill
our summer evenings. Males flash in patterns and
wait for the females sitting in the grass to flash back.
Adult fleas
(family Pulicidae) are thin and well-armored,
which means they can slip among the densest hair and avoid being
crushed by us. If their food supply--blood--is cut off, flea cocoons
can wait for a year or more before emerging. Vibrations, heat,
and smell will rouse the cocoons.
Carpenter ants
(Camponotus sp.). Carpenter ants like
to tunnel in dead wood. Although they chew the wood to make their
nests, they feed on insects, sugar, and other sweets.
