Search Results for: White-shouldered house moth with its wings open

Earwig

…se to the house. Luxuriant plant growth and compost heaps provide excellent quarters for them. The nuisance can be ameliorated by catching them in traps. Simply fill a flowerpot with peat or plant fibre and stand it with the bottom up. The earwigs will creep into the trap which can be emptied every morning….

Pigeon tick

…e red poultry mite and has a leathery, oval, red-brown body. The mouth parts are situated on the underside of the body and are not normally seen. Pigeon ticks which occur particularly in dovecotes have similar habits to poultry mites, but they can survive without food for a longer period. There have been cases where pigeon ticks have appeared 2-3 years after the birds are gone. They may sometimes bite humans….

Springtails

…on dunghills and on the surface of lakes and pools. They often wander into houses for no apparent reason, either from compost, from decaying leaves in the gutters or from mossy roofs. If they survive indoors in a house this suggests that it is too damp, as for example in some cellars. In rooms that are other- wise dry, springtails sometimes find suit- able living conditions behind cupboards standing against damp external walls. They cause no damag…

Cheese mite

…. Cheese can be protected by a thin layer of paraffin wax….

Mice and rats

…he activities of these rodents can be recognised by the tooth marks (p. 84), which can always be identified, even in the thinnest sheet of newspaper. They might be confused with holes torn by a cat or a marten, but here one would normally see distinct claw marks. Rats have been gnawing wires…

Bookworm

…e larvae require a high humidity and nowadays they rarely attack books. They only occur in books which stand undisturbed for years in cellars or lofts. Beetles and other insects with wood-boring larvae may, when they make their way out of timber, gnaw holes in paper that is nearby, as for example wallpaper….

Where do the biting and irritating organisms come from?

…e usually flea bites. Bites and itching around the genitals (or in the armpits) are normally due to crab lice. Characteristic blue spots may appear due to discoloration of the skin caused by the crab louse’s salivary secretions. Bites, at night, on thighs or shoulders will often be flea bites. Fleas like to crawl in beneath the body, and bite where it is in contact with the bedclothes. Bites on the legs will usually be made by fleas, which sit on…

Brown-banded cockroach

…ral other species of tropical cockroach which may suddenly appear in a warehouse or greengrocer’s shop, having been introduced with goods from warmer regions, but most of them quickly die in northern Europe. The brown-banded cockroach, which is now common in central Europe, has been recorded as breeding in south Devon and more recently in London. It now has a cosmopolitan distribution but probably originated in Africa. Brown-banded cockroach nymph…

Chalcids

…of the holes in the timber, but some can lay their eggs through the timber with the help of their ovipositor. Sabre wasp, large ichnemon wasp bores it’s ovipositor into wood wasp larvae to lay egg. The chalcid larva lives as a parasite on the beetle larva and eventually kills it. There are records of up to 95 per cent of the beetle larvae in roof timbers being attacked in this way. When the adult chalcids emerge they often find their way out throu…

Woodlice

…(Latin: Oniscoidea) Common woodlouse Woodlice are among the animals which often stray indoors. They occasionally try to gnaw timber, but are incapable of doing so with any degree of efficiency unless the wood is completely rotten, and are therefore not important, although unwelcome (see also page 196)….

Silverfish

…Silverfish (Latin: Lepisma saccharina) The common silverfish frequently occurs in kitchens and comes out at night to feed on crumbs and odd scraps of food. It is capable of digesting cellulose and so can derive nutriment from paper. It is described in greater detail on p. 106 together with other pests that attack paper….

Vinegar fly

…o is left on the kitchen table. Vinegar flies frequently settle on bottles with drops of wine, milk or beer on the outside and they also visit jams, ketchup and vinegar. The female lays eggs directly in such substrates and these hatch after about a day into larvae which move down into the food. They are fully grown after 4-5 days and then pupate. The flies which emerge from the pupae can start to lay eggs when they are 24 hours old, so when the co…

Malaria mosquito

…Malaria mosquito Difference between aedes mosquito and malaria mosquito(below) (Latin: Anopheles maculipennis) This is the malaria mosquito of parts of Europe, including Britain. The larvae live in ponds and lakes with fairly dense vegetation. The indigenous malaria of Britain, commonly known as ague, was transmitted by this insect, and it still occurred in certain coastal districts until about the end of the nineteenth century….

Bostrychid beetles

…the arched thorax, but in contrast to the Anobiidae this ‘helmet’ is beset with tiny spines or knobs. In their habits they are more like the powder post beetles as they also attack deciduous trees rich in starch, and exclusively the sapwood. The females lay their eggs on newly felled trees, but many of the species only do so when the bark is still on. They never attack dry, seasoned timber, though some of the species are able to continue their dev…

Dendrobium pertinax

…species attacks rotting branches or trunks of conifers, and when found in houses it is always in timber which has been softened by fungi. In some cases the infected timber is almost completely reduced to powder, with only the hard summer wood remaining in the form of thin lamellae. An attack by this beetle will only be successful if the timber is damp, so the first step in controlling it is to find the source of the damp. Even when this problem h…

Millipedes

…e numbers, and sometimes stray into houses. One of the species frequently seen in- doors is Ommatoiulus sabulosus which reaches a length of 4-5 cm. It is dark and shiny with two yellowish longitudinal stripes down the back. Millipedes cause no damage in houses or other buildings….

Predatory beetles

…o eat cereals, flour, nuts, or the like, as people typically have problems with when it comes to other types of beetles. But the predatory beetles feed on other insects, both as larva and as an adult beetle. They do nourish on earthworms, snails, and other insects. In fact, they are useful, as they nourish on pest that can be harmful to crops. However, there are predatory beetles that do live as herbivores, and all predatory beetles thrives in a h…

Arthropod development

…ng a little larger each time. Among the insects, development is associated with the process known as metamorphosis, which can take place in two different ways. In some insects, such as bed bugs and cockroaches, the newly hatched young look like miniature versions of the adults. They go through a number of stages, separated by a series of moults. This is known as incomplete metamorphosis. Incomplete metamorphosis (bed bug) Other insects, such as fl…

Rock dove

…e nest material, and sometimes a nest consists only of a cake of droppings with a few straws or twigs. They start egg laying quite early in the spring and may produce 2-3 broods during the season. Domestic pigeons may cause considerable damage by fouling the buildings they nest on, and their nests provide shelter for irritating invertebrates which may then invade flats and annoy the occupants. They are also thought to be involved in the spread of…

Swift

…wifts originally nested in hilly country, but they are now much associated with buildings, such as churches, silos and factories, where they build high• up in sheltered, inaccessible places. They arrive in Britain in late April and May and start to collect nest material. This takes place in the air, where they snap up scraps of dry grass, paper, feathers and anything else that is blowing around. A pair remains together year after year, often using…

Black vine-weevil

…ey emerge at night to feed. They attack many different kinds of plant and may cause considerable damage to fruit trees and bushes. These beetles are sometimes brought indoors, usually with pot plants. If only a few are seen there is no need for concern. They cannot damage textiles or timber, nor do they bite or sting humans….