The Pest Gallery:

American Cockroach - American cockroach adults are 1 and 1/2 inches long (38mm), making them the largest of the house-infesting cockroaches. With reddish brown, fully developed wings, the American cockroaches have a yellowish margin on the thorax or body region behind the head. When disturbed, they may run rapidly and adults may fly. Immature cockroaches resemble adults except that they are wingless.

German Cockroach - German cockroaches, Blattella germanica (L.), are the most common roaches found in houses and restaurants. Most cockroaches have a flattened, oval shape, spiny legs, and long, filamentous antennae. Immature stages are smaller, have undeveloped wings and resemble the adults. They eat food of all kinds and may hitchhike into the house on egg cartons, soft drink cartons, sacks of potatoes or onions, used furniture or appliances, beer cases, etc. Produce departments, pawn shops, nursing homes and other such places are constantly fighting German roaches (as a general rule) and are notorious for being the source of residential infestations.

Carpenter Bees - Carpenter bees are large, yellow and black (or blue-black) bees that become active in early spring. This bee is commonly 2/3 to 1 inch long, usually with a shiny abdomen and a yellow thorax. Its look-alike cousins (bumble bees) have a fuzzy abdomen. Although it is rare to be stung by one, their sheer size is scary and people generally stay clear of them. Bumble bees do not bore into wood, as do carpenter bees. Carpenter bees get their name from their ability to drill through wood and nest in the hole. Their drilling creates a near-perfect hole, approximately 1/2 inch in diameter. The hole is usually located on the underside of the wood surface; including siding, soffits, decks, overhangs, fence posts and window frames. Although the hole appears to be only an inch or two deep, it rarely ends there.

Carpenter Ants - In some areas of the country, carpenter ants (wood ants) cause more damage to structures than termites. They are difficult insects to control and can cause extensive damage to wood members in a fairly short period of time. Carpenter ants do not actually eat wood but excavate galleries within it to use as nesting sites. Foraging activity can occur at any time of day but usually peaks at night. When foraging inside houses, carpenter ants are attracted to sweets, meat, grease and fat. A carpenter ant colony is usually formed by a queen who begins a nest in a piece of old buried wood or in a partially decayed tree or stump. In mature infestations, there may be as many as ten satellite colonies linked to the parent colony by trails.

Argentine Ants - Argentine Ants are a small, dark-colored ant about 3 mm (1/8 inch) long that invades homes in search of food and water. They are especially fond of sweets, but will feed on practically any food. They love the yolks of hard boiled eggs and carry minute yellow clumps of yolk back to their nest in endless ant columns. These ants are extremely well adapted to urbanized areas of the United States with mild climates and well-watered gardens. They are especially formidable due to their aggressive behavior and the enormous size of their colonies which can literally "team up" with other colonies. If you are not treating the outside of you home for pests on a regular basis, ants will establish scent trails which will lead into your house.

Silverfish - Silverfish are small primitive insects that are found in dark, damp, warm places throughout our homes. They prefer starchy materials such as cereals, wallpaper and book bindings as food but in large populations they may do damage to cotton and linen fabrics. These wingless insects slightly resemble firebrats and are often called bristletails.

Scorpions - Scorpions are relatives of spiders, ticks and mites and are most often seen in the warmer parts of the country, particularly the South and Southwest. They range in size from 1 to 5 inches, depending on the species, with colors ranging from yellowish-brown to black. Scorpions do not usually attack man unless directly or accidentally provoked. Their food includes spiders, small insects, centipedes, other scorpions or earthworms. These menacing creatures have stout bodies which are elongated in front, with a large pair of pincers and 4 pairs of legs, followed by a slender, segmented tail-like abdomen with a stinger at the tip. Do not worry about the large pincers, which are used for capturing and holding food. Worry about that bulb-like poison gland (located at the tip of the tail) that is equipped with a stinger.

Millipedes - As a household pest, millipedes are more of an annoyance or nuisance, rather than an indoor-breeding pest that causes destruction. Millipedes normally are found outdoors. This occasional invader has two pair of legs per body segment (as compared to the centipede, which has one pair per segment,) except for the first three segments which have one pair of legs per segment. Millipedes are not poisonous, but many species have repugnatorial glands capable of producing mild acids which may produce allergenic reactions in sensitive individuals.

Spiders - Few creatures are as feared and misunderstood as spiders. For the most part, spiders are harmless and generally beneficial by keeping the insect populations in check. Spiders are seldom aggressive and bite only when threatened or injured. Few spiders bite people and the venom of most is harmless. However, the bite of the black widow and the brown recluse (also known as the Recluse or Fiddle Back) can be quite dangerous.