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The number one nuisance pest, ants make up the majority of local pest problems. Varying by species, the average colony is made up of anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 ants. With the capability of surviving more than seven years, it’s no surprise that they are likely to take up residence in your home.

The number one nuisance pest, ants make up the majority of local pest problems. Varying by species, the average colony is made up of anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 ants. With the capability of surviving more than seven years, it’s no surprise that they are likely to take up residence in your home.

German cockroaches will feed on almost anything, including soap, glue, toothpaste, furniture, and more. German cockroaches are good hitchhikers and often find their way into new structures via grocery bags, cardboard boxes, drink cartons and secondhand appliances. German cockroaches prefer to live in warm, humid places close to food and moisture sources. They are frequently found in residential and commercial kitchen environments and bathrooms, but have the capability of living in any portion of any heated structure.

A successful control program consists of properly sealing the building in question, good housekeeping, and the proper application of baits and traps. Normally rodent control is done on a monthly basis.

Scale insects feed by sucking sap from trees and shrubs through piercing-sucking mouth parts. Sap feeding by scale insects may cause yellowing or wilting of leaves, stunting or unhealthy appearance of the plants, and eventually death of all or part of the plant when infestations are heavy. Weakened plants may lose vigor and become more susceptible to injury caused by drought, severe winters, attack by other insects (such as borers), or infection by diseases.

Spider mites are members of the Acari family Tetranychidae, which includes about 1,200 species. They generally live on the undersides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, and they can cause damage by puncturing the plant cells to feed.

All spiders are predatory eight-legged creatures that have organs to spin silk at the back ends of their bodies. They are the largest part of the Arachnid family, a group that also includes scorpions and ticks. Spiders all have the ability to bite with venom-injecting fangs to kill prey and nearly all of them are poisonous (even if it's just a little).

The white pine weevil is considered the most destructive insect pest of Eastern White pine in North America. This species kills the terminal leader primarily of Eastern White pine. Colorado Blue, Norway, and Serbian spruces, Scots, Red, Pitch, Jack, and Austrian pines, and occasionally Douglas fir are also attacked.

Outdoor nests near human activity can pose a potential problem. Some wasps may become aggressive scavengers around human food and are attracted to outdoor activities where food or drinks are served. Most bees and wasps will not attack if left alone. However, stinging insects like bees, wasps, and hornets send more than 500,000 people to the emergency room each year. These pests are especially active during the second half of summer and early fall when the colonies forage for food that will sustain their queens during the winter.

Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects with long slender mouthparts that they use to pierce stems, leaves, and other tender plant parts to suck out fluids. Many species are green but other commonly occurring species may be white, wooly, black or colorless. Aphids have antennae with as many as six segments. They vary in length from 1 to 10 millimeters.

Wood-boring insects are among the most destructive pests of ornamental trees and shrubs. Most borers are the larvae (immature stages) of certain moths and beetles. They tunnel and feed under the bark in living wood, destroying water- and sap-conducting tissues. This causes girdling, branch dieback, structural weakness, decline and eventual death of susceptible plants. Infestation sites also provide entry points for plant diseases.