Common Pests
Some of these most common invaders will enter buildings year around. Over the years, PestRite has created an intuitive service program that adopts our eco-$mart (Green) service technology to keep these invaders out for good. Whether you are concerned for your health and safety or you just want to keep these pests out, our goal is to protect you and your investments.
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Quick Facts
(click on an image to view its quick facts)
Crickets (Field)
Crickets (Camel)
Centipedes
Earwigs
Millipedes
Pill Bugs
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Non-Poisonous Spiders
Daddy Longlegs
Funnel Weaver
Jumping
Orb Weaver
Sac
Sun
Wolf
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Poisonous Spiders
Black Widow
Brown Recluse
Hobo
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Crickets (Field)
Color: dark brown to black
Size: 9/16 to over 1 inch long
Feeding Habits: They can breed indoors, live in cool dark and damp habitats like caves, plumbing, under rocks, damp basements and inside privies. Spend the day in warm, dark cracks and crevices and emerge at night to feed. Feed on plant material, but are less of a plant pest problem than a nuisance when found in large numbers.
Crickets (Camel)
Color: tan, humped-backed
Size: 3/4 inch
Feeding & Habits: Unlike field crickets, camel crickets are wingless, found in cool, damp, and dark areas. Outdoors, they are often found under logs and stones and they feed on plant debris. Camel crickets are not attracted to light. When they enter homes, camel crickets search for conditions similar to their outdoor environment, which often leads them to basements and other dark areas. Indoors they sometimes feed on paper products and they seldom chew fabrics.
Centipedes (poisonous)
Color: reddish-brown, flattened, elongated animals with many segments, most of which have 1 pair of legs each
Size: 14 or more segments and deferent length depending on the life cycle they are in
Feeding & Habits: Live sometimes up to 6 years. They over winter as adults and lay eggs during the warm months. Usually eggs are laid in the soil and protected by adults. Cause a slight pinch when they bite and inject venom through their claw life hands. Feeds on insects, spiders and other small animals.
Earwig
Color: ranging from light red-brown to black and are easily recognized by their pincers on the end of the abdomen
Size: 1/2 to 3/4 inch
Feeding & Habits: The name earwig is derived from a European superstition that these insects enter the ears of a sleeping person and bore into the brain. This belief is totally unfounded. They are rapid runners and feed on mosses, lichens, algae, fungi, insects, spiders and mites, both dead and alive. Some earwigs are predators, feeding on aphids and others feed on living plants, becoming pests in greenhouses and on certain crops such as vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, forages and field plants.
Millipedes
Color: "thousand-legged worms", are brownish-black
Size: 1/2 to 1-1/4 inches long depending on the species
Feeding & Habits: attracted to dark, cool, moist environments, usually going unnoticed in the summer due to their nocturnal habits (activity at night) and tendency to disperse. They feed on living and decomposing vegetation and occasionally on dead snails, earthworms and insects.
Pill Bugs (rolly polly's)
Color: brownish or slate gray
Size: oval or slightly elongate with a flattened body and up to 3/4 inch
Feeding & Habits: mate throughout the year, feeding on decaying organic matter and occasionally young plants and their roots. They may become pests in and around homes where flower bed mulches, grass clippings, leaf litter, rotting boards, trash, rocks and pet droppings are present.
Spiders (daddy longlegs) not really a spider
Color: tan to brown
Size: 1/16 to 1/2 inch long
Feeding & Habits: usually are inactive and hidden during the day, then at sunset, they begin to wander about searching for food. Most feed on live insects, especially aphids. Other species feed on dead insects or plant juices and commonly live among plants or on tree trunks.
Spiders (funnel weaver)
Color: tanish bown with darker banded legs
Size: 1/2 inch long
Feeding & Habits: hides at the narrow end of the funnel; when it feels the vibration of an insect crossing the web, it dashes out, bites the insect, and then carries it back to the funnel. In former times, the silk of funnel web spiders was used to cover wounds to stop bleeding. Might be mistaken for the Hobo spider which is poisonous and is a member of the black widow family.
Spiders (jumping)
Color: black with spots of orange or red on the upper surface of the abdomen, confused with black widow spiders.
Size: 1/8 – 3/4 inch
Feeding & Habits: named because of their jumping ability. They can jump many times their own length. They make quick, sudden jumps to capture prey or avoid a threat. Active during the day and prefer sunshine. They normally live outdoors, but jumping spiders can become established indoors and their hunting activities often center about windows and entry doors where their prey is most common. Feed on other insects and small animals.
Spiders (orb weaver)
Color: silver hairs on their back and a large abdomen marked in black and bright yellow or orange
Size: about 1 inch
Feeding & Habits: hangs head down in the center of the web, which is found in brambles, bushes, tall grasses, etc. in open sunny places. Feed on other insects and small animals.
Spiders (sac)
Color: light yellow to pale yellowish green, sometimes with a orange-brown stripe on top of the abdomen
Size: 1/4- to 3/8 inches
Feeding & Habits: active hunters, emerging at twilight from their silken sac to seek out prey. Outdoors, they often search among foliage, waving their first pair of legs in front of them as they rapidly climb among leaves and stems of plants. Because of their active searching habits, sac spiders often enter homes, particularly during early autumn when their food supply decreases.
Spiders (sun)
Color: mistaken for a scorpion, translucent tan with dark bands
Size: 1-3 inches
Feeding & Habits: Feeds on other insects and small animals, prefers warm dry areas such as the lower elevations provide. They have strong jaws that protrude forward that are used to capture prey and can run very fast.
Spiders (wolf)
Color: mixture of black, gray, and brown & very hairy
Size: 1 – 3 inches
Feeding & Habits:active hunters that patrol the ground for insects, small spiders, and similar prey. They do not use webs to capture prey.
Spiders (black widow)
Color: shiny, jet black, spherical abdomen with two connected red triangles on the underside that form a characteristic hourglass marking
Size: 1-1/2 inches
Feeding & Habits: More reclusive and waits for pray such as other insects flying and crawling.
Spiders (brown recluse)
Color: abdomen is uniformly colored, although the coloration can range from light tan to dark brown, and is covered with numerous fine hairs that provide a velvety appearance with long, thin, brown legs. Their dark violin marking is well defined, with the neck of the violin pointing toward the abdomen
Size: 3/8 - 3/16 inches
Feeding & Habits: spins a loose, irregular web of very sticky, off-white to grayish threads. Serves as the spider's daytime retreat, and it often is constructed in an undisturbed corner. This spider roams at night searching for insect prey. Recent research indicates that the brown recluse spider is largely a scavenger, preferring dead insects. Mature males also roam in search of females.
Spiders (hobo)
Color: light brown with rust spots on the abdomen, light yellow marking at the central point of the legs on the underside.
Size: ½ - ¾ inches
Feeding & Habits: prefers moderately dry and warm environments, can be mistaken for the brown recluse. They are passive hunters and only feeds at night on other insects.
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