Among the Many Insect Species that can Infest Homes

A number of pests that infest a home can do significant harm to the environment and are a general nuisance at the same time. While some are generally harmless, they can nevertheless disrupt normal daily activities.

Wasps belong to the same suborder as bees and ants. This explains their common social hierarchical system, consisting of an extensive colony with a queen who mates with drones to produce either workers to gather food and build the nest or soldiers to protect it. In the suborder Apocrita, only the queen mates and produces offspring, which in effect means that the existence of the colony relies on the queen.

Wasps and bees are generally beneficial because they eat parasites like house flies while helping flowers pollinate by feeding on nectar. However, their stings are often painful especially to young children and individuals allergic to bee and wasp stings. Wasps and bees also build their hives on trees and roofs' soffit where encounters with people are too frequent. Pest control services remove the hives near one's house and provide preventive treatments so the insects do not come back.

Ants are generally harmless though they bite furiously when disturbed. They also infest food supplies especially sweet and sugary food items like raisins, cookies, and breakfast cereals where they can be difficult to remove from the box. Homeowners are advised to keep their food items sealed and refrigerated to prevent infestation of their food supplies.

A Salt Lake City exterminator is also likely to encounter boxelder bugs, especially on homes with well-developed gardens and lawns. Boxelder bugs live on plants in large groups. They are flat insects with black bodies and orange-to-red markings along their wing edges. They normally feed on Maple seeds destroy nothing else; however, their presence can become a nuisance especially when a significant number invade homes in cooler weather.

Unlike the boxelder bug, earwigs eat plants including several flowers, fruits, and corn. Considerable damage occurs when large earwig populations abound. Not to mention, their otherwise harmless pincers alarm some people because of their threatening appearance. A Salt Lake City exterminator uses nature-friendly products with pytherin, a substance derived from the chrysanthemum plant, to get rid of such insects.

Perhaps no other pests are hated by a professional Provo Utah pest control company than cockroaches. These repulsive brown bugs are known to carry diseases because they are drawn to warm, damp places like sewers and pipes where they pick up disease organisms. Homeowners best keep their surroundings clean to reduce cockroach infestations.