Household pests are aptly named. Whether we are discussing wasps, ants, moths, fleas, drywood termites, roaches, spiders, or another pest, these creatures can flip your living habits on their heads if you don’t deal with them quickly upon seeing the tell-tale signs of their presence. In posts of the past, we’ve taken the time to spotlight some of the most common household pests you might find in the greater Sacramento area. Among these household pests are carpenter bees and carpet ants, termites, indian meal moths, mosquitoes, stinging insects like wasps or bees, or even ticks. We here at Earthwise Pest Management are adept in identifying these pests, and likewise are capable of excluding, controlling, and, if need be, exterminating them in a safe and effective manner. If you’d like more information about any of these aforementioned pests, check out our detailed page on Sacramento Pest Info!
But rather than spend today’s post highlighting our strengths as a local pest control company, we’d like to depart from that norm in order to provide our readers with something a little less practical and, perhaps, a little bit more entertaining. Keep reading if you are interested in some interesting and downright weird facts about pests and other common household insects!
Factoids About Pests
- One common pest we manage and exclude here at Earthwise Pest Management are silverfish. The long, flat-bodied, scaled crawler tapers toward the rear of its body. It sports chewing mouthparts, is wingless, and is typically half to a full inch in length. They are often silver in color, are nocturnal and prefer rotting logs and dark places as a habitat. They are often found in homes in wall voids, subfloor areas, in roof cavities, or around heat and water sources. They can feed on wallpaper, glues, or other starchy substances. Tell-tale signs of silverfish include yellow stains, commonly found on linens. If you are in need of Sacramento silverfish control, give us a call right away.
- Transitioning to a slightly less practical note, cockroaches are capable of living up to a week without its head! They’ve got chickens beat by a considerable margin there…
- Cockroaches leave chemical trails in their waste material. These trails are detected by other roaches who are also scavenging for food and warmth. This can lead to roaches coming from all over to infest and create a swarm.
- While there are well over 5,000 different species of cockroaches, only a few of them like to enter human homes. Among those are American Cockroaches, the Oriental cockroaches, and the German Cockroach.
- Roaches are tough – perhaps not as tough as being able to withstand a nuclear blast, as you may have heard, but tough enough to survive up to three months without food and a full month without water.
- If you need cockroach control, give the roach control experts a call. (Hint: that’s us!)
- Ants are able to carry a marvelous fifty times their body weight. Due to their cross-sectional area when compared to their body size, they are able to carry more weight than larger animals. Essentially, they are able to produce more pound-for-pound force than many other animals.
- Contrary to popular belief, queens do not control the colony. She doesn’t micromanage workers to perform specific tasks. Rather, worker ants decide for themselves which tasks they’ll perform, based on a variety of factors, among which are cues from the environment, social cues from nestmates, and even personal agency. However, younger ants usually work inside the nest, acting as caretakers for the queen. More mature ants typically are more suited to outdoor work, as they are more fully-developed and capable of gathering food and defending the colony from enemies.
- Not all ants are pests. Some ants actually serve purposes that humans would generally find utility in, like eating other pests, pollinating plants, dispersing seeds, and even circulating nutrients.
- There are over 12,000 different species of ants worldwide. And there are more to be discovered, mostly in the tropics. You may have heard the following factoid before, but we can’t help but include it in today’s post; the aggregate weight of all ants on earth is almost equal to humanity’s total. Interesting, and perhaps alarming. We just hope they don’t find a way to organize…
- Speaking of their intelligence, ants are more intelligent than many think. In fact, they’re both consistent and solution-oriented. Ants have been known to build living rafts in times of flood. In this process, called “self-assembly” ants cluster together and cling on to one another with their jaws, leg pads, and claws. Not only did these ants have assigned functions and seats within their raft, but they would remember and repeat their role in separate floods, researchers discovered. And while we don’t yet know how this phenomenon psychologically transpires, all we can do is admire their innovation and flat-out coolness.
- Centipedes don’t have 100 legs. They usually have 15 pairs of legs, more or less.
- If you have a “centipede” problem which merits calling pest control, we’d be happy to take a look at the issue and come up with a solution for you. However, we also recommend taking a deep breath if you are stressed out about them. Although they are unsightly, they are also harmless. What’s more, they attack other common household insects like termites, bed bugs, cockroaches, and even spiders. (And yes, we know spiders aren’t insects, just for the record!).
- Centipedes, relative to their size, are swift creatures. They can travel around 1.3 feet-per-second, which helps them catch their prey in addition to eluding their predators.
- Let’s go back to their legs for a moment. Did you know that centipedes have legs for both feeding and venom? Two of the house centipede’s legs actually carry venom. Located close to the head and near the mouth, centipedes actually sting their prey with these venomous legs. Effective against smaller prey like silverfish and termites, centipedes can also use their legs to “beat” their prey into a state of submission.
- Centipedes are as crafty as they are courageous. They’ve been known to hunt dangerous insects that are bigger in size than they are, such as wasps. They have been observed stinging their prey before fleeing the scene to let the venom debilitate their catch. Sneaky sneaky!
- As we noted above, centipedes aren’t what one would call an immediate threat when it comes to household pests. It usually would take a human to pick up a centipede, making it think its in danger, to force it to bite or release its venom. If, for whatever reason, a human does get bit by a centipede, it will likely only result in a bump with a reddish hue. While some folks are allergic and should therefore take better care, it’s helpful to keep in mind that centipedes will generally prefer to save their venom for actual prey rather than humans, ala Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl, when Johnny Depp’s character tells Will Turner to stand down because the single-shot pistol’s bullet is not meant for him. We aren’t sure if that acute reference helps you understand our point, but we happen to just really like that movie.
Contact Earthwise Pest Management Today
If you want to be able to enjoy all of the Pirates of the Caribbean series without worrying about spiders, termites, ants, centipedes, or other creepy-crawlers disturbing your view pleasure, we recommend giving the local residential pest control specialists a call. We are experienced, passionate, and affordable. On top of that, we only use safe, environmentally-friendly pest control methods, so you can rest assured that you and your family will be safe after our pest removal services.
No matter what kind of pest or rodent issue you might have, we will identify and solve your problem in a way that completely satisfied you. Get your free quote today!