15 insects that live in your home

Author: V_V_V

10 January 2022 15:29

Tags: brrrrrrrr house insects

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Do you know all your neighbors? Sure? Some of them are so small that you simply can’t see them. Insects live in almost every home. This is a fact: even if you don’t see them, this almost always means that the “roommates” are simply hiding very successfully. In some cases, insects in an apartment are absolutely harmless, but some of their species pose a serious danger not only to food and things, but also to the person himself. In general, get acquainted!

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For thousands of years, people have sought shelter, starting with the first cave, then building shelters from tree branches and leaves, and making tents from animal skins. As time passed and additional tools were developed, humanity began to build houses from strong wood and stone, and houses appeared. And always, from the very first home, various insects lived next to a person. Today we see them as uninvited guests and prefer to live without them. But if you think about it, they were before us, and they will be after us. For your consideration, here is a list of 15 small creatures with whom you may share your home. They are also called synanthropes (non-domesticated plants and microorganisms whose lifestyle is associated with humans and their homes, for example, cockroaches, house flies, house mice, bed bugs).

Spiders

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Spiders are probably one of the most common creatures with which we share our homes, and some of these arachnids will appear on this list more than once. There is a great variety of spiders in nature, more than 45,000 different species. Overall, modern spiders have spread throughout the world over the past 200 million years, which is largely responsible for their wide distribution and diversity. The spider does not do anything bad in the house, sometimes it even does good - it catches flies. Our ancestors had a huge number of signs associated with spiders, mostly positive. They say spiders are harbingers of good things to come. But, probably, if you trust signs too much, you will be completely covered in cobwebs.

Flour beetle

The flour beetle is a larger kitchen “predator” (1–1.5 cm in length), interested in cereals, flour, bran, and flakes.
It usually appears in the house along with infected cereals and begins to spread. It poses a real threat to organizations involved in the cultivation and storage of cereals, producers of flour and bakery products. Products in which insect pupae and larvae were found must be thrown away. There is no point in wasting time and painstakingly sorting through the cereal, since you will not be able to thoroughly select the excrement and skins of the larvae.

Once the contaminated food has been disposed of, you can begin to meticulously clean the kitchen. You will have to rip out everything: cabinets, bedside tables, drawers, baseboards. When the fight against the beetle is over, select glass containers for storing cereals. It is important that their lids are screwed on tightly.

Ground beetles

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Just like spiders, beetles are very ancient and well-adapted creatures for survival. There are more than 40,000 species of ground beetles alone in the world, and these insects come to our homes uninvited. The most common is the bread ground beetle. They usually cause damage to crops in fields, but are increasingly found in ordinary apartments. The bread ground beetle crawls into the apartment only if it likes the living conditions. As soon as the insect gets into the house, when darkness falls, it goes to look for food (crumbs, food left on the table, cereals). Ground beetles interfere with sleep, rustle, fall from the ceiling onto the bed or directly onto you. And if they have found food, then the next step will be their reproduction. So, if a ground beetle appears in the house, you need to take immediate action.

Bugs

If everything is clear with cockroaches, then strange bugs in the kitchen cause the greatest concern for housewives. Since there is not enough information on these insects, it is difficult to even simply identify what kind of bugs attacked your products.

Possible options for domestic beetles:

The small brown bugs are wood beetles or furniture borers. Insects feed on wood, so they are only interested in your furniture, or at least crackers.
Mucoed beetles are very similar to tree beetles (the second name is cereal beetle), although their body is more elongated and oblong. Flour eaters live in kitchen cabinets where cereals and flour are stored. Beans, cookies and dried fruits are also of interest to flour eaters.

The appearance of a grinder or flour eater is a reason to conduct a thorough inventory of food supplies in the cupboard. It is better to throw away all products contaminated with insects. The next stage is disinfection of cabinets and drawers. It is best not to assume that if you thoroughly wash one cabinet where the bugs were noticed, the insects will disappear. Give your kitchen a thorough cleaning, only then can you count on some results. Use household chemicals to treat surfaces. Some housewives managed to get the bugs out after treating the boxes with vinegar. To prevent insects from appearing again, place bay leaves or peeled garlic cloves in cabinets. Unpeeled cloves can be added to containers with cereals; this will also repel pests.

Crickets

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The wise cricket who gave advice to Pinocchio probably looked something different. And ordinary crickets are creepy insects, sometimes of enormous size. A folk sign says that if there is a cricket in the house, then this is a sign of happiness and prosperity. But people who have been visited by this “happiness” in large numbers do not share this point of view and are looking for ways to get rid of them. About 2.3 thousand species of these insects are known in the world, of which only about 50 are found in Russia. Most of them live in subtropical and tropical countries. Our most famous species are the field cricket and the house cricket. The house cricket in the southern part of the country lives both in apartments and in nature. In the central and northern regions, it lives only in houses near people, and gives preference to old, warm rooms with high humidity. These insects live and breed well in warm basements flooded with water. Sometimes crickets can spoil food and even things in the apartment, just like moths. Therefore, although popular wisdom advises against offending them, it is better to remove the crickets. Unless, of course, you like the “night concerts” that crickets usually organize.

How to remove insects?

In large numbers, carpet beetles can cause significant damage to sweaters and other clothing and can infest pantry items. Professional extermination is not required. You just need to thoroughly clean the areas where carpet beetles live.

Getting rid of carpet beetles

First, clean out your pantry. Check all food storage areas—closets and pantries, as well as the garage and basement—for adult and larvae of live carpet beetles. If you notice signs of tiny black bugs around your food, throw away all food from the areas where you see the infestation. Wipe down shelves and cabinets with a regular household cleaner. Do not spray insecticides on food storage areas; this is unnecessary and will do more harm to you than to the insects.

Next, clean out your closets and dressers. Carpet beetles love wool sweaters and blankets. If you see signs of carpet beetles—adults, larvae, or skins—take non-washable items to the dry cleaner. Wipe down the insides of drawers and shelving with a household cleaner, not a pesticide. Vacuum your closet floor thoroughly, using a crevice tool on baseboards and corners. If you can, store clothes you don't use in airtight containers.

Finally, thoroughly vacuum upholstered furniture and all carpets. Carpet beetles tend to hide under furniture legs, so move furniture and vacuum underneath thoroughly.

Book louse

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If you hear the word “louse,” the first thing that probably comes to mind is the little reptiles that jump from head to head and feed on your blood, making your head itchy unbearably. These tiny creatures are their relatives, but live in books. They don’t read books, they don’t even have eyes! The book louse or book louse (Troctes divinatorius) is a small parasite that, with a large brood, causes irreparable damage to libraries, herbarium or insect collections, and in some conditions, to stocks of grain and other dry products. It feeds on organic remains of plant and animal origin. In houses he lives in dust and in the bindings of books. May damage zoological collections and bindings of ancient books containing paste. Clusters of book lice make faint ticking sounds that cannot be confused with anything. These insects do not have a detrimental effect on human health, but their presence can have a detrimental effect on valuable things: books, archival documents; on food stocks. The main preventive measure can be considered basic cleanliness, dryness and fresh air, in other words, timely cleaning.

What to do

To determine which type of insecticide to choose in the store, you need to understand the characteristics of each type of insect and the danger they pose.

The tough shell of the black cockroach makes a cracking sound when you press on it. The length of the body reaches 2-3 centimeters, but larger individuals are also found. They have high movement speed. The wings are atrophied, soft and fragile, they are not capable of flying. They are carriers of diseases and viruses; you should never touch them with bare hands. They feed on leftover food and sweets. They multiply quickly in conditions of high humidity and heat, so they can often be seen in kitchens and bathrooms.
The favorite habitat of the flour beetle is kitchen cabinets with provisions in the form of cereals, pasta, herbs and spices. You shouldn’t be surprised if, in addition to the beetles themselves, you also found insect larvae on the shelves. These are the so-called mealworms. The body length of the bug is not so small - 1.2-1.8 cm. They appear in mid-summer, fly in the evening, and are often found near light fixtures. They are not harmful to human health, but cereals, flour, grains, bran, dried fruits, and spices, which they love so much, become clogged with larvae, excrement, and beetle skins. If pests are detected, food must be sealed and removed from the home.

Carpet mite

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Scientists have found more than 1,000 different species of house ticks, and all of them cause great harm to humans, all year round. Any carpet or carpet perfectly collects dust, it accumulates in its fibers and even daily cleaning will not give a positive result - dust and mites will still remain there. Ticks, unlike most insects on this list, are very harmful to humans. The ticks themselves are capable of leaving behind their waste products in the form of feces, which contain digestive enzymes, they destroy the cells of the human body and can cause severe allergies and asthma. The damage caused by carpet mites is not limited to allergies: conjunctivitis, allergic rhinitis, atypical dermatitis and others can develop. It’s easy to deal with them - throw away all carpets and upholstered furniture once and for all!

Dark winged mosquito

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The main harm is that they squeak and interfere with sleep! Thank God, humanity has invented many ways to get rid of mosquitoes. Mosquito nets, repellents and fumigators are a whole industry. Place fresh branches of elderberry, bird cherry, Caucasian chamomile or basil in the rooms, and place a container with tomato seedlings or geranium in a pot under the windows and on the balcony. Mosquitoes do not like the smell of these plants, so they will want to leave your home as soon as possible. According to folk superstitions, these small, disgustingly buzzing bloodsuckers - mosquitoes - are capable of bringing not only absolute harm, but also benefit, predicting the weather and future events. Clouds of mosquitoes mean good weather tomorrow. Painful mosquito bites and especially active buzzing of bloodsuckers - foretells imminent bad weather and night rain.

Reasons for the appearance of cockroach-like beetles in human homes

Zhukov will never be attracted to an apartment where there are no suitable living conditions. The nature of all insects leads them to new territories in search of food, drink and comfortable housing. The owner of the premises is indirectly to blame for the appearance of the parasite. The premises at risk are:

with strong air humidity;
having leaks in sewer pipes;
with a large accumulation of dust and dirt;
without mosquito net on the window;
with large cracks in the floor, walls, ceiling, from where beetles can enter new territory;
where general cleaning is rarely carried out;
with large holes in the ventilation grille;
products are stored incorrectly;
leaving bread crumbs on the table;
They rarely wash the dishes/take out the trash can.

Spitting spider

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As mentioned earlier, this list will feature more than one species of spider. Spiders of this species catch prey by spraying a liquid onto it, which neutralizes it by solidifying into a toxic and sticky mass upon contact. You can observe the habit of spiders swaying from side to side. They do this to wrap up their prey. Most spiders are only capable of producing silk, but Scytodes spitting spiders are an exception. Together with the silk, they release poison from their mouths, and silk strands soaked in the toxin, falling on the spider’s victim, bind it. These spiders are not dangerous to humans, do not weave large trap webs, and are unremarkable in appearance. But they still have one peculiarity - during the hunt they “spit” their prey. This may sound a little harsh, but it's accurate. This is why they got their name “spits”. Spitting spiders live in both warm tropical and temperate regions, including Russia - in human homes, where it is warm.

Continuation of life

Longhorn beetles breed in areas where there is silence and at altitude.
An excellent place - roof crossbars, tall trees. This is where mating takes place. During the mating season, females secrete a special liquid that is attractive to the “male half”. Insects are not averse to sexual games lasting up to half an hour. The fertilized individual is looking for a secluded place for a nest in order to lay a clutch in the future. There can be more than a hundred eggs in one place. Soon the adult dies. Her life on average lasts up to a month.

The male does not leave the female, he moves after her and waits for offspring. After two weeks, voracious larvae hatch. Everything that surrounds them serves as food for them.

clothes moth

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Moths inhabit houses and are a household pest, whose caterpillars spoil fabrics by eating them and gnaw the silk upholstery of furniture. Only caterpillars cause damage to products, because adults lack gnawing type mouthparts. In the dark at night, adult moths fly towards an artificial light source. According to some data, house moth caterpillars also feed on substances of plant origin, namely grains of wheat, barley, oats, corn, flour and dry bread. House moths are widespread worldwide; this species of lepidoptera is a serious pest in human homes. They feed on clothing, carpets, blankets and upholstery, as well as fur, wool, feathers and miscellaneous items such as animal bristles used to make toothbrushes and piano fibers.

Woodlice

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Generally speaking, woodlice are not insects (they are crustaceans), but they lead approximately the same lifestyle as cockroaches. When threatened, they curl up, simulating death. In most cases, wood lice appear only in those apartments where it is constantly damp, for example, water leaks from pipes. These insects are excellent indicators of various plumbing breakdowns and depressurization of flanges. The appearance of woodlice in an apartment, first of all, should worry lovers of indoor flowers, because if measures are not taken in time and they are not removed, the plants will soon die. First of all, these insects harm moisture-loving tropical plants that have a thin and delicate root system (orchid, fern, cactus), affecting it specifically, so if you have just such plants, then you should fight more actively.

Facilities

Effective insect control sprays
Effective products to control bugs similar to cockroaches:

The most common means of fighting insects is aerosols. These include “Dichlorvos. Varan A”, “Raid”, “Raptor”, etc. Destroy both crawling and flying insects (cockroaches, ticks, bedbugs, etc.)

Composition "Dichlorvos. Varan A": tetramethrin 0.04%, permethrin 0.4%, piperonyl butoxide 0.3%, fragrance less than 5%, functional additives less than 5%, butane/propane/isobutane mixture more than 30%, solvents more than 30%.

Average price 160 rub.*

Gels are the safest among all insecticides. It is not necessary to isolate children and animals during processing. The pastes have a bitter taste and smell, so animals will not eat them. Do not apply directly to furniture, as damage may occur. Better on cardboard, sheets of paper, etc. The peak of action occurs after two to three weeks.

Gels and pastes can be purchased as follows, “Raptor”, “Dohlox”.

Average price - 347 rubles.

Powders for dilution. The solutions are intended for spraying floors, walls, window sills and baseboards; you must work strictly with masks and gloves. They paralyze the nervous system of bugs and cockroaches, which subsequently die. After treatment, ventilate the room.

Interesting fact! The best, “Tornado”, “Clean House”.

Prices vary.

Parasitic wasp (rider)

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They are primarily parasitoids of other animals, mainly other arthropods. Many of them, such as the Braconidae family and Trichogramma, are beneficial to humans because they regulate the number of agricultural pests. Ichneumon wasps differ from ordinary wasps in the absence of a sting as such; it is replaced by an ovipositor. Nevertheless, in the English-language literature, parasitic wasps are usually called parasitic wasps. With the help of an ovipositor, parasites lay eggs in the body of larvae (caterpillars) or in the eggs of their victims. The prey consists mainly of larger insects, such as butterfly caterpillars, beetle larvae, and other arthropods, including some species of spiders. The rider typically positions himself over the victim (like a rider on a horse, hence the name) and inserts the ovipositor. The wasp larvae hatch inside the victim and feed on their organs, gradually destroying them. Species of the genus Megarhyssa of the superfamily Ichneumonidae have a thin ovipositor several centimeters long, used for penetration into tree trunks. Fortunately, people are not considered suitable incubators for wasp babies and it does not lay larvae in humans.

Lifestyle and habitat

The longhorned beetle lives throughout the planet where there are forests. Their distribution depends on the availability of food - mainly trees. The exceptions are the Arctic and Antarctic, precisely because of the lack of food supply.

They are quite active in their lifestyle. They crawl, many very quickly. Some of them can fly. If you pick up a beetle, it makes a characteristic chirping sound. Their lifestyle depends on the climate and habitat.

In the southern regions, these insects “take wing” from mid-spring. Central Asian beetles begin to fly closer to autumn. Some are active during the day, feeding mainly on flowers that open during the day. Others are active at night. Their food does not hide in the dark.

Both nocturnal and daytime beetles find hard-to-reach places to rest or mate. Depending on the size, the flight range is determined. The larger the beetle, the less it flies and the more it crawls. They lead a very secretive lifestyle. Seeing an adult beetle in the forest is a real gift for an entomologist and an alarming signal for a forester.

Ants

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At different times of the year and in different regions of the country, in an apartment, and even more so in a private house, you can often find representatives of various species of ants. Very often, ants in an apartment are random guests, carried on clothes or with things. Among them there are insects of different sizes and colors. However, the only real pest in an apartment is the so-called pharaoh ant - an independent species of heat-loving small ants, which in our latitudes cannot live anywhere other than residential heated premises. These red ants in the apartment are a real problem: they are numerous, spoil food, can carry pathogens of various diseases, and besides, they are extremely difficult to remove. One colony of house ants can contain several dozen queens and up to 350 thousand workers. The reasons why red ants appear in an apartment, although not numerous, can be found in almost any home. That is why small red ants are successfully conquering more and more new areas and are likely to appear in any apartment, even the cleanest one.

Varieties of longhorned beetles

Each species differs in size, color, habitat, and diet. These types are among the most common.

Silverfish (common silverfish)

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You may have once seen them in the bathroom or toilet if you went there in the middle of the night (when the light is turned on, they quickly run away). Those thin, silvery, small things on the floor? Do you remember? They are called silverfish. Like most of the other creatures on this list, silverfish pose no real harm to us and they don't bite. Cases of contact did not reveal any negative impact on human health. They feed on products of plant origin containing starch or polysaccharides; but they may not eat anything for months. Their diet may include sugar, flour, glue, book binding, paper, photographs, starchy fabrics. From storage areas they can be brought into the home through the purchase of toilet paper or cartons of paper napkins. They are harmless to humans and pets and are not carriers of diseases, but can damage damp paper. Their scientific name is “common silverfish” (lat. Lepisma saccharina). It is believed that the silverfish is one of the oldest living insects - its ancestors lived on Earth more than 300 million years ago, back in the Paleozoic era. Silverfish prefer damp and dark places; if the house is dry and light, then there will be no silverfish there.

Reviews

Inna, 26 years old, Voronezh:

“In our apartment, cockroaches appeared first as single ones in sight in the bathroom, then every day their number began to increase throughout the apartment. It turned out that they came to us from the neighbors who had moved out through the ventilation shaft. There were openings in the bathroom and toilet through which insects crawled. The cracks in the walls and floors were carefully bricked up and additionally treated with boric acid. They didn't appear again."

Denis, 24 years old, Omsk:

“In July we moved into a rented apartment, it turned out that it was infested with cockroaches. These creatures did not crawl out during the day; the “movement” itself began at night. They didn’t change the apartment, they poisoned the cockroaches with Global, until they seemed to come back.”

Black bugs can occur in absolutely any family. The problem must be eliminated comprehensively, maintaining a high level of cleanliness, killing not only pests, but also egg laying. It is necessary to take absolutely everything into account: the storage conditions of food, the presence of cracks in floors and walls, and the general situation with insects in the entrance. If the number of insects approaches catastrophically high levels, it is better to immediately involve the help of specialists.

*Prices shown are current as of September 2022.

Cockroaches

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The remains of cockroaches are, along with the remains of cockroaches, the most numerous traces of insects in Paleozoic deposits. Additionally, cockroaches are the earliest known Polyneoptera, possibly descending from the ancestor of the entire subcohort. They have always been and will be on Earth. There are more than 4,600 known species of cockroaches; are especially numerous in the tropics and subtropics. There are 55 species on the territory of the former USSR. In recent years, there have been popular reports about a decrease in the number of certain species of cockroaches in the CIS (they say they have completely left apartments in St. Petersburg and some other cities - no one was upset, but the reasons are interesting). A number of cockroaches live in human dwellings, being synanthropes, for example, the red cockroach (Prusak), or the black cockroach. Others are brought with tropical products to temperate countries and sometimes take root in heated rooms (American cockroach). Cockroaches can damage food, leather goods, book bindings, indoor and greenhouse plants. Some cockroaches, feeding on various waste, including feces, are carriers of infectious diseases (for example, dysentery) and worm eggs.

Harvesting spider

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Hay-making spiders that build trapping webs are ubiquitous. Hanging upside down on their jumbled, tangled, uneven web. Webs are built in dark, damp niches of caves, trees and under stones, in lairs abandoned by mammals, for example, in cellars and various buildings. In human homes, they love dry and warm places near windows. How dangerous are harvest spiders to humans? Suffice it to say that they spend the poison they have exclusively on their victims, inflicting a paralyzing bite on them. He is not enough for anything more. The main reason for declaring war on arachnids is arachnophobia. Some people cannot even stand them visually; for others, a creature that gets on their body causes panic. The problem is so serious that psychologists are working on it.