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What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Eastern Blood-Sucking Conenose Bug

Not a Bed Bug
July 29, 2009
Over the past week, I’ve been subjected to a series of mysterious and painfully swollen bites. I never felt the bites when they occurred but after noticing them they would itch and swell up to a size a bit larger than a golfball.
Unable to find any other source I took my bed apart and discovered this lurking between the mattress and springs. I captured it with a tissue intending to transfer it to a jar for identification, but my grandmother asked to see it and then promptly crushed it when it moved.
When I asked her why she said “It had blood in it, it must be what bit you.” I am not quite so ready to assign guilt based on largely circumstantial evidence, so I was hoping you could provide an identification.
David
Missouri, North of Kansas City, My Bed

Eastern Blood-Sucking Conenose Bug

Eastern Blood-Sucking Conenose Bug

Hi David,
In this case, Grandma was right.  This is an Eastern Blood-Sucking Conenose Bug, Triatoma sanguisuga. According to BugGuide:  “Blood of mammals, especially Eastern Wood Rat, Neotoma floridana. Also feeds on bed bugs and other insects. Feeds at night” and “Sometimes bites humans, and the bite may be severe, causing an allergic reaction. See guide page for genus.” The genus page on BugGuide indicates:  “Bite causes severe allergic reaction in many humans. Bite and defecation into bite can transmit Chagas disease, caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, a protozoan. The most notorious vector is T. infestans, found in South America. The North American species are not normally thought to transmit the disease, though they can carry the parasite. (The North American species do not normally defecate at the site of the bite, which is what actually transmits the parasite–see Kissing bugs (Triatoma) and the skin. The CDC page on Chagas’ Disease says that ‘Rare vectorborne cases of Chagas disease have been noted in the southern United States.’”  We have an Unnecessary Carnage section of our site devoted to harmless insects that were killed unnecessarily.  This killing was justified and does not warrent posting on our Unnecessary Carnage section.

Posted 29 July 2009 § Assassin Bugs ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

American Cockroach: Drowned in the Fountain

nocturnal brown flying insect
July 21, 2009
Dear Mr. Bugman,
I hopelessly freaked out by bugs! Just last night, I saw a few of these bugs flying around my backyard. When they land they scurry around quickly like cockroaches but then take flight. The one photographed drowned in my waterfountain (oopsie). Can you please tell me what it is?
Buggin’ out
Fontana, CA (So. Cal)

American Cockroach

American Cockroach

Dear Buggin’ out,
These are American Cockroaches, Periplaneta americana, which is something of a misnomer since according to BugGuide:  “They are significant pests throughout the world. They are not native to the Americas at all. They come from tropical Africa. They were probably transported to the Americas on slave ships.” BugGuide also has this to report:  “Adults have wings and will occasionally fly. However, they are awkward fliers and prefer to run when disturbed. Males and females are about the same size and look very similar. Both have a pair of cerci, finger-like appendages, at the tips of their abdomens. The cerci are used to detect air currents in the cockroach’s surroundings. Male cockroaches have an additional set of appendages called styli on their abdomens. The styli are located between the cerci but are smaller and more delicate. The presence of styli is the easiest way to distinguish male from female cockroaches. Immature American cockroaches resemble adults, except they are wingless. The American cockroach egg capsules are mahogany brown and about 1/3 inch long.”

American Cockroach

American Cockroach

Posted 21 July 2009 § Cockroaches ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Termites after fatal nuptial flight

Winged, fly then drop wings and crawl
June 8, 2009
I live in a mobile home in South Florida. These have been found mostly in a bedroom near a window. they tend to come out around 7 pm or so, I find the wings all over and when I look closer (especially under a blanket) I find the bodies writhing around. I had the same problem same time last year but not as many as this year. I’ve been told they are termites, or “swarming flies” or flying ants.
These I just “caught” and are floating in a bowl of water.
Any help? Thanks!
Lynne
Stuart FL

Winged Termites: Drowned after nuptial flight

Winged Termites: Drowned after nuptial flight

Dear Lynne,
We are sorry for the delay, but your letter arrived while we were visiting relatives in Ohio and we are just catching up on old mail.  These are in fact reproductive Termites.  King and Queen Termites swarm, usually after a rain, and then shed their wings after mating.  They then try to establish a new colony.  We suspect you have an infestation inside your mobile home and you will continue to get swarms of Termites on their nuptial flight each year when the conditions are right. This is one of the rare cases where we would recommend a professional exterminator.

Posted 14 July 2009 § Termites ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination

Unknown Speck in the Linens is Dermestid Larva

Tubular, Hairy, spiked, 4?legs w/a pair of horns
Sun, May 31, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Found in the morning on linens as a speck
Curious In Missouri
West Central Missouri

Magnified Speck from Linens

Magnified Speck from Linens

Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 7:00 AM
Dear Bugman, Thank you for your WTB site it is very interesting and informative. I was wondering , I’ve sent in a photo on May 31, 2009 to see about getting the identification of the bug/insect. How do I get your answer ?
I wasn’t for sure if the was a special site to go to or do you send out the info. out in an E-mail ?
Thank You, Curious in Missouri

Magnified Speck from Linens

Magnified Speck from Linens

Dear Susan, AKA Curious in Missouri,
After our previous response that we cannot answer the volume of mail that we receive, and that we were unable to trace your initial inquiry by the name you provided, we checked and saw a letter signed Curious in Missouri. We are posting your images in the hope that one of our readers can assist in this identification, but we ourselves are clueless. It appears to be larval, but if it was a speck, it is entirely possible that it will change form drastically as it grows and matures. We must say that we are impressed that you inspected this speck from your linens using photo-microscopy, and we shudder to think what you might find should you happen to closely study our home and office. Also to further elaborate on your question about our responses, we are now just posting to the website with a courtesy email to the querant. We used to answer more letters via email than we posted, but our tired old computer has gotten very slow, and we cannot take the time to answer letters we do not post. We hope to buy a new computer with our book advance, and then we anticipate greater speed and efficiency with our correspondence.

Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Daniel:
With profusion of body hairs, banded appearance and the pair of spines or ‘horns’ on the hind end, this looks like the larva of some kind of Dermestidae beetle (carpet beetles, larder beetles ,hide beetles , skin beetles, etc.), possibly in the genus Dermestes (e.g., D. lardarius , the common larder beetle) . Since it was described as a speck, it may have been a very young one as you suggest. Regards.
Karl

Posted 02 June 2009 § Pantry Beetles, Grain Weevils, Spider Beetles, Meal Worms and Carpet Beetles ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Bathroom Fly

black flying heart-shaped bugs everywhere!
Sat, May 2, 2009 at 5:13 AM
I live in Northwest Ohio. I have had a black heart-shaped bug flying around my house for about 2 or 3 months. I can’t figure out where they are coming from. They seem to like water. They hang around in our bathrooms a lot. I have pictures of them on a recently wet towel. When you kill them, they leave a black residue almost like black dust on your wall. I have not had them bite but they will fly close to people. They also like lamps and light bulbs when it gets dark out. They are about half the size of a common house fly. Please help, I need to get rid of them!!!
Maranda
Northwest Ohio

Bathroom Fly

Bathroom Fly

Hi Maranda,
You have Bathroom Flies. The larvae of the Bathroom Fly live in the sludge of your sink and tub drains. If you want to get rid of them, you need to have the pipes cleaned.

Posted 03 May 2009 § Bathroom Flies ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged:

Meal Moths Mating

What are these moths?
Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 8:32 AM
We live in Western Pennsylvania, and seem to have found moths which have eaten some of a wool rug we have in a storage area. We started finding them a couple of weeks ago on our walls and ceilings. I have killed about 6 of them. I did my spring cleaning and found some damage on the edge of a wool rug. I am assuming these are the culprits, but I can’t find these on the web to id them.
Moth
Western Pa

Meal Moths Mating

Meal Moths Mating

Dear Moth,
These are mating Meal Moths and they would be feeding on your stored grain products, not your wool rugs. Generally when we get photos of Pantry Moths, it is the smaller Indian Meal Moth, Plodia interpunctella, but your moths are the Meal Moth, Pyralis farinalis. It has a worldwide distribution. According to our Audubon Guide, the “Caterpillar eats grains, meal, bran, husks, straw, and moist stored hay. … Cleanliness and frequent emptying of storage bins are the best means of controlling this insect. Its caterpillars spin tubular webs amond food, eating from an open end.” We would advise that you check the pantry to see if you have an infestation in the oatmeal or other likely food source.

Posted 11 April 2009 § Pantry Moths, Clothes Moths, Case-Bearers and Meal Moths ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Mating Indian Meal Moths

Indian Meal Moths
Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 4:25 PM
First of all, let me say I love your website. I moved from a fairly new and well-insulated family house into a pretty old appartment building, ground level, a few months ago. I’m no more a bug lover than the next person, so I’m just happy I found this site, which has saved me from freaking out a couple of times. First time with a classic case of house centipedes. Now, I only wish! I haven’t killed them (at least not once I knew what they were), but for some reason there are none around anymore. Maybe because of winter? Anyway, now I found out that I have some Indian Meal Moths. They’ve been around on and off. During summer and fall I was pretty sure they were just some normal moth that came in from outside (especially since there was only one or two of them), but in the middle of the winter, much less probable. So I researc hed your website, ended up cleaning my whole pantry (and yes, some stuff was infested, I’m still grossed out). I do still have a few questions, though. Do these types of moths also have cases at the larva stage, or am I dealing with more than one type of moth if I find discarded or unhatched cases? Might meal moths also infest pasta, raisins or even chocolate (I found a larva in an old Nutella jar, which fortunately I hadn’t eaten from in very long)? Also, they seem to be able to munch through thin plastic wrappings….just how thick a plastic bag can they break open? Last question, apart from transferring everything to plastic and glass containers, is there anything that might keep them away, sort of like cedar wood with clothing moths? I tried a bit of rosemary branches in the past, seemed to work, but when I cleaned up, the little pile of rosemary needles had unhatched cases in it….gross. (For the record, I have cleaned the pantry regularly since I moved and I do throw out anything that sits around too long…)
Thanks for your time, I know there are a lot of questions. I’ve included a picture of two meal moths apparently reproducing, which I found while cleaning the said pantry. Thought it might be an interesting addition to the nice pictures on your website. I guess spring is coming for everyone! :P
Genevieve
Ottawa

Mating Indian Meal Moths

Mating Indian Meal Moths

Dear Genevieve,
The cases you are finding may be the cast off larval or pupa skins. when the insect metamorphoses, it leaves behind the exoskeleton. The caterpillars form a silken webbing in the food source. According to BugGuide, the larvae of the Indian Meal Moth “infests a wide variety of stored food products such as flour, oatmeal, dried fruits, seeds, nuts, powdered milk, biscuits, chocolate, and bird seed ” and “spin silken threads as they crawl through stored products, creating a matted layer of product, frass, and pupal cases.” Vigilance is the best method for controlling Indian Meal Moths and other pantry pests. Your question regarding chewing through plastic may need an expert to answer.

Update: Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 8:32 AM
Thank you for the information. I read somewhere online that bay leaves might be a good way to repel insects from your food stores, so I might give it a try. I’ve captured the remaining adults, so as to limit the damages, and was a bit surprised this morning to find eggs in the jar. They’re still laying them, it’s sort of interesting to see. Anyway, I’m keeping tabs on that (taking pictures and everything) from now on, because I strongly suspect an already-infested bag of rice was the source of the problem (the need to pinpoint a source has become quite strong to my curious mind). I put a few rice grains and a bit of what looks disturbingly like eggs in another jar, and I’m also keeping tabs on that. The egg-like grains were already in the bag before I even opened it. Well, this said, I’ll let you know if anything interesting comes up from all of this.
Genevieve, Ottawa, Canada
P.S. I don’t know if it’s of any interest, pantry moths being very common, but I’ve enclosed pictures of the said moths and eggs…they’re kind of blurry, but it’s the best quality I could get out of my generic Canon. The whitish blurs are the eggs (but obviously not the pile of rice grains!)

Thanks for teh update Genevieve.  Your photo is a bit too blurry to post.  Many aromatic plants are said to repel moths, including your previously mentioned rosemary.  We have also heard wormwood (Artemesia), lavender and mint will repel moths.  The cedar you mentioned may also work.

Posted 08 March 2009 § Pantry Moths, Clothes Moths, Case-Bearers and Meal Moths ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Bedbug

Short, Flat, Red, and Tiny
Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Recently my girlfriend and I have been finding these in our apartment every few days, and we’re a little concerned. We took two photos:
I squished one in kleenex the other day and it seemed like lots of blood was inside of it.
Save us from the insect overlords,
San Francisco, CA

Bedbug

Bedbug

Dear Sir or Madam,
You and your girlfriend have cause for concern. This is a Bedbug, and indications are that there is currently an epidemic of Bedbug infestations in many large cities. Bedbugs feed on human blood, and they can survive for long periods of time without a meal. Bedbugs often hide by day under the mattress, between the wall and baseboards, or under picture frames. They emerge at night when the human inhabitants are asleep. The bite of a Bedbug can get red and itchy, but often the first indication of an infestation is the dark stains on the sheets from the bug’s excrement. The Bedbugs also emit a foul musty odor. Bedbugs can be difficult to eradicate.  On a positive note, Bedbugs are not known to be disease vectors.

Posted 04 March 2009 § Bedbugs ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Mediterranean Flour Moth, possibly

Pantry moths Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Hi, Bugman! I just spent the day cleaning out my pantry, re-packaging food, and cleaning everything down.
I am having a problem with small tan moths that I haven’t been able to identify online. I see the moths most often at night, and they seem attracted to lights. The moths are about 1/2 inch long.
The closest match I can find is the angoumois moth. As you can see from the attached pic, they do have a fringe at the ends of their wings. However, the pics I’ve seen of angoumois moths show pointier wings. And my moths all have a pair of large brown spots midway on the wings.
Erika
Pacific Northwest

Mediterranean Flour Moth???

Mediterranean Flour Moth???

Hi Erika,
Most Pantry Moths we receive are Indian Meal Moths, but we believe you have Mediterranean Flour Moths or Mill Moths, Anagasta kuehniella, or sometimes Ephestia kuehniella .  The PennState College of Agricultural Sciences Department of Entomology has fact sheet on the Mediterranean Flour Moth with drawings, and describes the moth as:  “a pale-gray color and from one-forth to one-half inch long, with a wingspread of slightly less than one inch. The wings are marked with two indistinct, black zigzag lines. The hindwings are a dirty          white. When at rest, the moth extends the forelegs which raises the head          and gives the body a sloping appearance. This posture is very distinctive          and is a more reliable character for identification than the wing markings         which may be rubbed off. “  There is also a drawing on the UK Stored Product Insects website.  The larger size of your specimen is a contributing factor to our hesitant identification, but we eagerly welcome a more expert opinion on this matter.  Though it doesn’t have a photo that resembles your moth, we found the very helpful Kendall Bioresearch Services Domestic Moth page.

Posted 18 January 2009 § Pantry Moths, Clothes Moths, Case-Bearers and Meal Moths ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged:

Silverfish

Strange Cockroach (?)
Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 10:41 AM
I keep seeing these bugs in my bathroom which vary greatly in size. they run between being less than a centimeter in size to almost half an inch. They have long antennae coming out of both ends and it seems sort of furry around the head area and are yellow/gold with black/grey spots. It almost seems like an immature kind of beetle. I finally caught one to post a picture, they are unbelievably fast! Sorry the photo isn’t closer or more clear, they move like there’s no tomorrow! Can you please tell me what these creepy bugs infesting my bathroom are!?
Taylor W.
Denver, Co

Silverfish

Silverfish

Hi Taylor,
You have Silverfish, a common household pest. You can find much information online about the difficult to eradicate Silverfish.

Posted 16 January 2009 § Silverfish, Bristletails and Firebrats ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged:

Bathroom Fly from Portugal

Please indicate us another bug site
Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 3:14 AM
Please indicate us another bug site where we can place this question. We’d like to think we didn’t lose time with this for nothing. Thank you.

Bathroom Fly

Bathroom Fly

Original Letter
Date: 12 June 2008 15:38:25 BST
Tiny Moths
Dear bug-watchers:
We don’t know how vulgar these might be over the world but they are already very familiar to us in (the North of) Portugal. They obviously like humidity in darker places. Lately there was a problem with our WC vent and some very small dark stains (fungus colonies?) appeared on the ceiling & top of the walls. Coincidentally these sort of tiny moths appeared and started to multiply themselves (though I haven’t found any pupas or so) or coming from who-knows-where…
I fixed the problem with the vent but before I expelled the whole bunch (one by one, out the kitchen window) I made these shots of 2 or 3 individuals. Their size is approximately w5mm x h4.5mm.
They’re not buggering at all. In fact, they don’t like to be buggered themselves. Their behavior could be described as very relaxed or lazy. They can fly away like fruit-mosquitos but if they really really have to move then they rather jump away from the threat, which anyway has to be manifested very close.
I only threw them out because I don’t know what kind of bacteriological environment they might start.
Where can we see a little more info on these sort of tiny moths? We need to know if this fellow on our tap was having a funguses snack or taking some sips of our water, in which case it would be fair to share the bill with us.
Cheers!
Dalion & Diana

Bathroom Fly

Bathroom Fly

Dear Dalion and Diana,
While we understand your frustration at not having your letter answered in six months, there is no need to look any further than What’s That Bug? for your answer.  Your original letter arrived while we were in Ohio visiting Mom and planting her tomato plants.  Hundreds of emails arrived in our absence, and we can honestly say that hundreds went unanswered.  Between May and September, What’s That Bug? gets over 100 emails per day and we are a small operation that can only answer possibly a quarter of those letters and some days we can post about 10 letters to our site.
This is a Bathroom Fly, Clogmia albipunctata.  It is a Moth Fly in the family Psychodidae.  The larvae live in the sludge that accumulates in drain pipes.  Now that you know what they are, you should be able to find additional information online.  We like that your background color of your composite matches our website.

Bathroom Fly

Bathroom Fly

Posted 12 December 2008 § Flies ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

Lawn Shrimp

small brown crustacean in house
Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 10:39 PM
I live in Southern CA and we’ve had heavy rain the last few days. Since this morning we are finding small brown bugs that look like a crustacean and kind of like a maggot. They are in the front rooms of the house and on the front patio. Could they be from the rain and what are they? The picture attached is from the web, but the look almost identical. Thanks
Lauren
in house in Southern CA

Lawn Shrimp

Lawn Shrimp

Hi Lauren,
What a wonderful photo of Arcitalitrus sylvaticus, a Lawn Shrimp, according to BugGuide, or House Hopper, according to Charles Hogue in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin.  According to BugGuide:  “These are rarely seen except when flooding or lack of moisture forces them to abandon their home in the soil in search for suitable conditions. At such times they often end up dieing on pavement or in homes and become a nuisance. Once they start appearing, there’s not much that can be done except to sweep them up- pesticides are pointless, because by then they’re already dieing or dead. The best solution is to keep the numbers down the rest of the year by keeping the soil from staying too moist- in California, especially, they’re a sign of overwatering. Physical barriers like weather-stripping can also help to keep them out of homes, but their bodies are flat and narrow, allowing them to slip through surprisingly narrow cracks. ”

Posted 30 November 2008 § Sow Bugs, Pill Bugs, Isopods, Lawn Shrimp and Amphipods ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

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