First Rate Exterminators

Yellow Sac Spider

The yellow (golden) sac spiders, genus Cheiracanthium are members of the spider family Clubionidae (sac spiders): Members of this family build a sack-like, silken tube in foliage or under bark or stones as their lair. In nature Cheiracanthium species are usually found in foliage, but some species are found inside houses and around other human developments. These spiders are relatively small (10 mm body length), and are yellowish in color; they are difficult to distinguish from one another, and species identification requires examination by an arachnologist.

Yellow sac spiders are among the least known clinically significant spiders, but they are indeed capable of causing a painful bite with development of a necrotic lesion (not as severe as the brown recluse or hobo), and can sometimes produce systemic effects as well. They are very prone to bite defensively (more so than any other significantly venomous U.S. spider), and some bites in humans have occurred in unusual places, such as in automobiles and swimming pools. It is likely that many U.S. cases of necrotic arachnidism ascribed to the brown recluse spider outside of its natural range, are actually yellow sac spider bites
Yellow sac spiders which have been implicted in human poisonings include C. brevicalcaratum in Australia, C. inclusum in the United States and southwestern Canada, C. japonicum in Japan, C. mildei in the Mediterranean and the United States, C. mordax in Australia, the Central and Southwestern Pacific, and some parts of the United States (including Hawaii), and C. punctorium in Europe. In the United States inclusum (indigenous) and mildei (introduced) are the species most likely to be found, and the most likely to produce bites: These two spiders have a wide distribution in the United States, and precise ranges for them have not been defined. They tend to be transported easily, particularly in agricultural products such as grapes; in some areas (such as southeastern Idaho), it appears that grocery store grapes shipped from vineyards in central California are a principal means of introduction.
Cheiracanthium mildei was first identified as a cause of necrotic arachnidism in 1970, when it was linked with skin lesions in the Boston, Massachusetts area (where it is the most common spider found in houses); it is also common in houses in New York City, and may well be the cause of recent "brown recluse bite" rumors circulating there. In the late 1970's and early 1980's mildei produced a significant number of bites in the Provo, Utah area. C. inclusum has been reported responsible for bites in Georgia and southwestern Canada; bites by this species are probably far more common and widespread than this however, and it is likely that more reports will surface as Cheiracanthium species become better known as clinically significant spiders.
Bites by yellow sac spiders generally produce instant, intense stinging pain, not unlike that of the sting of a wasp or hornet. This may be followed by localized redness, swelling and itching; these manifestations may or may not evolve into a necrotic lesion, but when that occurs healing is usually complete within eight weeks. Systemic effects are usually not severe, but when they occur may include chills, fever, headache, dizziness, nausea, anorexia, and sometimes shock. Treatment for the local lesion should follow the same protocols as outlined for the hobo and brown recluse spiders: Likewise, corticosteroid therapy may be beneficial when systemic effects are present.

FABRIC PESTS

Carpet Beetle

Fabric pests such as carpet beetles, although not particularly dangerous, can sometimes cause irreparable damage to personal belongings. These beetles are able to digest animal hairs and, therefore, feed on almost any item made of natural fibers, particularly wool and cashmere.

These tiny, round beetles start out as larvae that grow up to 1/4-inch in length; the adults grow to 1/16-inch.
While generally tan in color, they are covered by tiny black, brown, and white scales, and have numerous tuffs of stiff hairs on the body.
They can be found outdoors, in bird nests and animal dens where they can find the animal hair and feathers on which they feed. Indoors, these pests will be associated with woolen, silk, and other natural fiber fabrics. Carpet beetles may also be found living under carpets and rugs and in voids where hairs or dead insects have accumulated. Carpet Beetles require a comprehensive pest service in order to locate the areas in which they may live.
Tips for Control – Your service professional can rid your home of these pests, but there are a few steps you can take to protect your clothing until your fabric pest problem can be controlled.
Do not store boxes of clothes in the attic, garage or basement, if possible.
If clothing must be stored in boxes, thoroughly clean the boxes before storage and seal all corners and openings with tape. Prior to storage, clean woolen and natural fiber clothing according to the manufacturer's instructions. In closets, store natural fiber clothing items by covering them with individual plastic covers. Consider storing clothing in large zippered plastic units. Use mothballs to help deter fabric pests, but be aware that they may leave an odor that could require dry cleaning.

Clothes Moth

Fabric pests such as clothes moths, although not particularly dangerous, can sometimes cause irreparable damage to personal belongings. These moths are able to digest animal hairs and, therefore, feed on almost any item made of natural fibers, particularly wool and cashmere.

Characteristics – Size: About 3/8-inch long.
Color: Cream colored with a tuft of red hair on the top of the head. The larvae are white.
Larvae will be found on fabrics among thin sheets of webbing that they spin to shield themselves. They often leave strands of silk on fabrics they infest.
Habitat – Clothes moths tend to stay confined near clothing, which makes them easier to control.
Tips for Control – Your service professional can rid your home of these pests, but there are a few steps you can take to protect your clothing until your fabric pest problem can be controlled:
Do not store boxes of clothes in the attic, garage or basement, if possible.
If clothing must be stored in boxes, thoroughly clean the boxes before storage and seal all corners and openings with tape.
Prior to storage, clean woolen and natural fiber clothing according to the manufacturer's instructions.
In closets, store natural fiber clothing items by covering them with individual plastic covers.
Consider storing clothing in large zippered plastic units.
Use mothballs to help deter fabric pests, but be aware that they may leave an odor that could require dry cleaning.

OCCASIONAL INVADERS

Beetle

The Ground Beetle is a member of the family Carabidae, Genus Dicaelus. This large beetle family has over 3,000 species in North America. They are found under logs, rocks, and leaves in moist areas. These beetles measure 1/8-1 3/8" (3-36 mm) long. Many are shiny black, but some are brightly colored.

They have a conspicuous prothorax, narrow head, and long legs with spurs on the tibiae. The threadlike antennae arise from between large compound eyes.
Most ground beetles rapidly pursue prey at night. A few eat pollen, berries, and seeds.
Some species lay eggs in cells made of mud, twigs, and leaves. The larvae are predators, and take 1 year to grow from eggs to adults.
Adults usually live 2-3 years, or rarely 4 years.

Earwig

Earwigs have about 20 species in North America, in the Order Dermaptera. They are between 3/8-5/8" (9-15 mm) including abdominal forceps, the male forceps are curved and the female's are straight, their bodies are reddish brown to almost black, with yellow antennae, legs and elytra. The Earwigs have short wings that do not cover abdomen, and antennae have 15 or fewer segments.

Food Vegetables, orchard fruits, garden flowers, garbage, as well as mites and insect larvae and pupae.
Life Cycle Female digs cup-shaped nest in upper soil, deposits mass of up to 30 oval grayish-white eggs, and stays with them until a few days after they hatch. Nymphs mature in about 10 weeks. Eggs and adults over winter in soil or under boards and stones. 1 or 2 generations a year.
Habitat Dark damp crevices and ground litter; grasses, herbs, shrubs, trees, and even buildings.
Range Eastern Canada and southern New England; also the Pacific Northwest.
Gardeners often lure these tiny insects by spreading poisoned bran sweetened with molasses. In California a parasitic tachinid fly has been introduced from Europe to control this minor pest.

Japanese Beetle

The Japanese Beetle, Popillia japonica is 3/8-1/2" (8-12 mm) long. They have an oval, sturdy body that is bright metallic green, with elytra mostly brownish or reddish orange. On the underside of their body there is grayish hair and 5 patches of white hair along each side of abdomen with 2 white tufts at tip. The male has pointed tibial spurs and the female's are rounded.

Food Adult damages leaf tissues and ripening fruit of more than 200 plants, including vines, flowers, shrubs, and trees. Larva feeds on roots, especially those of grasses, vegetables, and nursery plants.
Life Cycle Elongate, yellowish-white eggs are deposited on soil, 1-4 at a time. Fully grown larvae overwinter in soil and pupate in the spring. 1 generation of adults emerges in summer when blackberries ripen. In the North, cycle takes 2 years.
Habitat Open woods and meadows.
Range Maine to South Carolina.
The Japanese Beetle was introduced accidentally in 1916 on iris roots imported from Japan and has been a major pest for years. Its numbers have been reduced by the controlled use of parasitic tachnid flies and tiphiid wasps that prey on beetle larvae.

Ladybug

Description: 1/8-1/4" (4-5 mm) Almost hemispherical, slightly longer than broad. Head and thorax black marked with yellow. Elytra orange with 2 large black spots. Underside black to reddish brown. Larva is velvety black spotted with yellow and white.

Food Adult and larva feed on aphids and other small insects.
Life Cycle Clusters of bright yellow eggs are attached to foliage and other supports near a food supply, where larvae later feed. Pupae are black with yellow spots and hang by back tip from leaf surfaces. Adults over winter in the North. Many generations a year.
Habitat Meadows, fields, and gardens; also in houses.
Range Throughout North America.
This little beetle is one of the most familiar ladybugs. The Western Two-spotted Lady Beetle (A. frigada), 1/8-1/4" (3-5 mm), has a white head and white pronotum with an M-shaped black mark. It also has orange-red elytra with 2 faint dark spots, a broken black band, and a transverse spot near its tip. It is found across northern Canada to New York State and New England, often at higher elevations.

Silverfish

Description: 3/8-1/2" (9-13 cm). Tapering, carrot-shaped. Silver-gray, coated with scales. Threadlike antennae and 3 tail filaments, all shorter than body. Small black eyes. Maxillary palps.

Food Dried cereals, flour, glue, and starch, including stiffeners used in clothing and bound books, and coated papers used in magazines
Life Cycle Oval white eggs are dropped in a few places week after week. Eggs hatch in 2-8 weeks. Nymphs, 1/8-1/4" (4-5 mm), have the same body form as adults. In the South full size is attained in about 2 years, longer in the North.
Habitat Indoors in warm, dry or damp places, including closets, bookcases, behind baseboards, in partitions, or in bathtubs.
Range Worldwide in temperate climates.
This insect has a scaly covering that helps it to escape from the grip of ants and spiders. Silverfish can survive without food for months.

STINGING/BITING PESTS

Africanized Honey Bee

Characteristics –Size: About 1/2-inch in length. Color: Golden-yellow with darker bands of brown. Some specimens appear a darker brown than others.

Behavior – Africanized honeybees (AHB) are actually a subspecies of the European honeybee, and the two look exactly the same. Only an expert making numerous microscopic measurements can tell the two apart. The difference, however, becomes readily apparent in the aggressiveness of the AHB when its colony is disturbed, lending to its nickname "killer bees." The AHB releases an alarm pheromone that calls all the workers to "battle" where they will attack and sting any moving animal or object. They will chase and sting people for hundreds of yards and have been known to sting people and pets over a whole neighborhood block.
Deaths may occur due to allergic reactions from the larger number of stings received. It may take hours for the bees to settle down and return to the colony. Other honeybees will attack and sting for a few minutes and then settle down rather quickly. Since one cannot tell the difference between AHB and other honeybees simply by looking, all honeybees in areas where the AHB are active should be viewed with caution. honeybees are the only type of social bee that establish perennial colonies that may survive a decade or longer. These bees forage on pollen and nectar from flowering plants and use these materials to produce the honey that will feed the colony through the winter months. Waxy honeycombs will fill the nest cavity, a fact that makes removal of honeybees from buildings a messy chore. All honeybee colonies produce queens and drones in the spring. These reproductives mate, and the queens may "abscond" with a number of workers with which they start new colonies. These swarms may be seen clustered on a tree branch, a fence, or a building as the bees rest before flying off again to find a suitable nesting site. Because hundreds of bees are part of this swarm, people are often concerned about the possibility of the bees attacking. Usually, the bees in these swarms are docile and non-aggressive unless vigorously disturbed.
Habitat – In the United States, the AHB has become established from Texas over to southern California. Colonies have also been discovered in Florida and a few other southeastern states but these have been quickly eradicated. In the wild, honeybees most often nest inside cavities of trees, but they will also nest within caves and cracks in rock formations. Occasionally, a colony will decide to nest inside a crawl space, an attic, a wall void, or a chimney in a home.
Tips for Control – Because the Africanized honeybee cannot be distinguished from its native cousins without detailed scientific measurements, any honeybee nest or swarm found in southwestern states should be respected at a safe distance. Only experienced beekeepers and/or pest management professionals should be contacted to deal with colonies or swarms of honeybees. Never attempt to treat such nests without the proper training and equipment. Once the colony inside a wall or attic has been eliminated, the building owner will need to open the wall and remove all the honey and honeycomb. If not removed, the honey will rot, produce strong odors and seeping stains, and will attract other insect pests.

Bumble Bee

Description Bumble bees are members of the superfamily Apoidea. Bees form a large group of insects that are specialized for feeding at flowers and gathering honey and pollen. More than 3,500 species occur in North America. Bees, 1/8-1" (4-25 mm) long, may be black, brown, or banded with white, yellow, or orange. In many species the tongue is long and pointed, adapted for probing into flowers.

All bees are covered with branched or feathery hair but some have more hair than others. When a bee visits a flower, pollen sticks to the hair. Most female bees have a pollen-collecting apparatus; males do not collect pollen and lack this structure. In most species the pollen is combed into a special pollen basket or brush, which is usually located on the hind leg. In leafcutting bees, the pollen is carried in a brush of hair on the underside of the abdomen.
A few species, as well as parasitic bees, have no pollen basket. Most bees are solitary - each female constructs a nesting tunnel underground or in a plant stem or wood, then stocks the brood cells with pollen and nectar for the larvae. Eggs are laid on pollen balls inside the tunnel. Honey Bees and bumble bees are social - they live in colonies consisting of a fertile queen, sterile female workers, and males, or drones. They are the only bees to produce and store honey. The parasitic bees lay eggs in the nests of other bee species; their larvae eat the pollen and honey intended for the host's larvae. Most bees can sting, but only the social species do so readily in defense of the colony.
Bees are important in the pollination of many plants, including commercial crops. The families of bees are distinguished by structural details that are often difficult to see, including the tongue structure and length, wing venation, and placement of the pollen-collecting apparatus.
Warning This bee stings but is not aggressive.

Honey Bee

Description: Male drone 5/8" (15-17 mm); queen 3/4" (18-20 mm); sterile female worker 3/8-5/8" (10-15 mm). Drone more robust with largest compound eyes; queen elongate with smallest compound eyes and larger abdomen; worker smallest. All mostly reddish brown and black with paler, usually orange-yellow rings on abdomen. Head, antennae, legs almost black with short, pale erect hair densest on thorax, least on abdomen. Wings translucent. Pollen basket on hind tibia.

Warning This bee stings but is not aggressive; if stung, remove stinger immediately. Aggressive Africanized Honey Bees ("killer bees") have been moving northward in North America and are much more dangerous than the domestic variety.
Food Adult drinks nectar and eats honey. Larva feeds on honey and royal jelly, a white paste secreted by workers.
Life Cycle Complex social behavior centers on maintaining queen for full lifespan, usually 2 or 3 years, sometimes up to 5. Queen lays eggs at intervals, producing a colony of 60,000-80,000 workers, which collect, produce, and distribute honey and maintain hive. Workers feed royal jelly to queen continuously and to all larvae for first 3 days; then only queen larvae continue eating royal jelly while other larvae are fed bee bread, a mixture of honey and pollen. By passing food mixed with saliva to one another, members of hive have chemical bond. New queens are produced in late spring and early summer; old queen then departs with a swarm of workers to found new colony. About a day later the first new queen emerges, kills other new queens, and sets out for a few days of orientation flights. In 3-16 days queen again leaves hive to mate, sometimes mating with several drones before returning to hive. Drones die after mating; unmated drones are denied food and die.
Habitat Hives in hollow trees and hives kept by beekeepers. Workers visit flowers of many kinds in meadows, open woods, and gardens.
Range: Worldwide.
Settlers brought the Honey Bee to North America in the 17th century. Today these bees are used to pollinate crops and produce honey. They are frequently seen swarming around tree limbs. Honey Bees are distinguished from bumble bees and bees in other families mostly by wing venation.

Scorpion

Description: Scorpions are members of the order Scorpionida. Familiar in the South and West, scorpions somewhat resemble miniature lobsters - they have lobsterlike pincers, but their long upcurved "tail" ends in a poisonous stinger.

These medium-sized to large arachnids, 1 5/8-5" (40-127 mm) long, have a compact cephalothorax that is broadly joined to a long, 12-segmented abdomen; in fact the last 5 segments of the abdomen are really the "tail." Scorpions have 2 eyes in the center of the cephalothorax and 2-5 eyes on each side. A few species are blind. The small jaws or chelicerae, have 3 segments.Nocturnal, scorpions use their poisonous stinger to kill spiders and large insects.
Females give birth to living young that resemble tiny adults. The young ride on the back of the female until they molt for the first time. Then the young become solitary and catch their own prey. They grow slowly, some taking as long as 5 years to become adults. Most scorpions are not dangerous and do not attack people. If disturbed, they will inflict a sting that can cause painful swelling, but the poison of most North American species is not lethal to people. In Egypt and other tropical and subtropical countries where scorpions sting people frequently, an antivenin has been developed. In ancient times the scorpion's sting was feared almost as much as the lion's bite. So revered was this animal that it was given a place in the zodiac. The families are distinguished by the shape of the breastplate and the number of spurs between the last 2 abdominal segments. There are more than 70 species in North America, out of 1,500 to 2,000 worldwide.
Warning: All scorpions possess a sting which is normally used for capturing and subduing prey. When handled roughly or stepped on they may sting in self-defense. The venom of this species is not considered dangerous to humans.

Yellow Jacket

Description: 1/2-5/8" (12-16 mm). Body stout, slightly wider than head. Abdomen narrow where attached to thorax with short "waist" (pedicel). 1st antennal segment yellow, 2nd and subsequent segments black. Head, thorax, and abdomen black and yellow or white. Wings smoky.

Life Cycle In spring mated female constructs small nest and daily brings food to larvae until 1st brood matures and females serve as workers, extending nest and tending young. In late summer males develop from unfertilized eggs and mate. When cold weather begins, all die except mated females, which over winter among litter and in soil.
Warning Workers will sting repeatedly if they perceive you as a threat to their nest, otherwise, they are less aggressive.
Food Adult eats nectar. Larva feeds on insects pre-chewed by adults.
Habitat Meadows and edges of forested land, usually nesting in ground or at ground level in stumps and fallen logs.
Range: Throughout North America; various species more localized.
Yellow jackets can be pests at picnics, and they will carry off bits of food. If the nest can be found and its opening covered at night with a transparent bowl set firmly into the ground, adults will be confused by their inability to escape and seek food in daylight; they will not dig a new escape hole and will soon starve to death. The Western Yellow Jacket (V. Pennsylvania) and Eastern Yellow Jacket (V. maculifrons) are similarly colored, except the first antennal segment of the latter is all black.

SPIDERS
   American House Spider
   Black Widow
   Brown Recluse Spider
   Daddy Long Legs
   Wood Spider
   Yellow Sac Spider

American House Spider

Black Widow

Brown Recluse Spider

Daddy Long Legs

Wood Spider