ID Your Pest

Overview

Use the images below to identify your general type of pest, and click to identify the specific type.








Ants

The following gallery of ants will help you determine what type of ant pest problem you might be encountering. All of the pictures show here are from James Castner from the University of Florida.





Material in this section comes from: P.G. Koehler, Professor; J.L. Castner, Scientific Photographer; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.



Facts About Ants

Ants are "social" insects. This means they live in large, cooperative family groups called colonies. Within the colony, ants are divided into specific groups, or "castes," that perform different functions. Ants have three castes: workers, queens, and males. The queen's job within the colony is to produce eggs, and the male's job is to simply mate with the queen.

Facts about ants (summarized from a presentation by Alan Bernard, a South Florida Entomologist):
  • A single ant does not think, it only reacts to stimuli in its environment
  • Ants rely on pheromone trails for foraging
  • Only a small portion of the colony (workers) forage for food
  • Most ants in the colony work at maintaining the nest, feeding the larvae and queen(s)
  • When food is located, workers are recruited to exploit food source
  • Larger food sources elicit a larger response
  • The colony’s nutritional preferences may vary by season, stage of colony development, or ease of acquisition
  • Ants are territorial and will keep less aggressive species out of their feeding areas
  • Often there are multiple queens and sub-colonies connected to the main colony
  • If sub-colonies are cut off, they can survive and create additional colonies (budding)
  • Pest ants are often brought into disturbed sites by human activity (construction, landscaping, commerce, etc.)
  • Foraging behavior can be altered by repellent or irritating chemical odors
  • Ants will explore an area randomly until a food source is found. They will then return to the colony using straight lines in the environment. They mark this trail with pheromones for other workers to follow
  • Most foragers cannot digest large particles of food and must bring these back to the colony to be digested by the larvae and will then feed on a liquid excretion



Cockroaches

The following gallery of cockroaches will help you determine what type of cockroach pest problem you might be encountering. All of the pictures show here are from James Castner from the University of Florida.





Material in this section comes from: P.G. Koehler, Professor; J.L. Castner, Scientific Photographer; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.




Fleas and Ticks

Fleas and ticks are the most important external parasites of pets, livestock and humans. Both fleas and ticks are very abundant, have irritating bites and can transmit disease. Fleas can transmit tapeworms. Ticks can transmit Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and relapsing fever. Lyme disease is transmitted in the Northern United States by the deer tick and in the Southern United States by the black legged, Gulf coast, American dog, lone star and relapsing fever tick. Lone star and American dog ticks can cause tick paralysis.

The following gallery of fleas and ticks will help you determine what type of flea or tick pest problem you might be encountering. All of the pictures show here are from James Castner from the University of Florida.





Material in this section comes from: P.G. Koehler, Professor; J.L. Castner, Scientific Photographer; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.




Wood-Destroying Insects

The following gallery of wood-destroying insects will help you determine what type of wood-destroying pest problem you might be encountering





Material in this section comes from: P.G. Koehler, Professor; J.L. Castner, Scientific Photographer; Department of Entomology and Nematology, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.

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