Mice are explorers and scavengers extraordinaire. They are always on the lookout for shelter, water, and food. If they have chosen your home and taken up residence it doesn’t mean it’s dirty or messy. It’s just a target of opportunity for a mouse.
Mice are explorers and scavengers extraordinaire. They are always on the lookout for shelter, water, and food. If they have chosen your home and taken up residence it doesn’t mean it’s dirty or messy. It’s just a target of opportunity for a mouse.
Snails and Slugs, may be slow but the damage they do to ornamental plants, vegetable gardens and citrus orchards is devastating and costly. These gastropods, have eaten and slimed their way into the top 5 most unwanted pests in the...
Rats and even mice can create a ton of damage and a dangerous amount of contamination in a very short time. Cleaning up after them can be a “big” job and a hazardous one to boot. The messes they make are “TOXIC”! Rats and mice are constantly...
A rat is a rat but not a mouse or a mole or a shrew! But they are all rodents. The two most prolific rats that we, in Southern California, deal with, in our urban settings, are the Roof/Tree or Black rat , which inhabits mostly suburban...
Rats are everywhere! That is, everywhere humans are.Rats can be traced first, from Asia where they then spread throughout Europe along trade routes. Then they were brought to the Americas by ships transporting people and supplies, to the new...
Whether it’s people, living in jam-packed cities or groups of social insects, ants to be exact, living in teaming colonies, disease can spread quickly among these severely dense populations. Fighting disease seems to require the same efforts no...
It’s the German cockroach that is now being dubbed the “Superbug” of the insect world. These tiny roaches are swift, prolific and love to live right up close and personal with human beings. Blattella germanica, better known as the German...
We have a lot to be thankful for this year. But did you know that there are a lot of reasons to be thankful for insects, our co-inhabitants of this planet? Besides being a nutritious food source for millions of people, they provide their own form...
There are lots of flying insects out and about in our gardens, fields and other open areas and they are all busy at work fulfilling nature’s directives. So, since we humans are also frequenting these same places it’s important for us to steer...
The two most dominant factors of mosquito attraction have to do with sight and smell, so there’s no brushing these guys (oops! Girls) off when they’re out looking for a quickie in the moonlight. Here are four reasons a Mosquito may pick you for...
Giant Rats: Giant rats are no longer just figments of the imagination. Now, it seems, these once mythical rodents are in fact real, and they’re absolutely, ginormous. That’s really, really big! A rat, which was called “Vika” by locals on Vangunu...
It's getting close to Halloween and it's time to think about scary, creepy and ghoulish things . The "Assassin Bug" fits the bill . It's name stirs up scary thoughts and its persona is ghoulish. Here's why it's the perfect Halloween bad bug:...
It's Summer and the California beaches are the vacation destinations of millions of people. It's where we have fun in the sun, cool off in the water, and relax on the sand under colorful umbrellas with cool drinks and our favorite books. Reality...
As an invasive species, Argentine ants have been extremely successful invaders. These aggressive, territorial ants, which can live in super-colonies comprised of thousands of queens and millions of workers, easily displaced native species as they...
Here in California, the brown recluse spider has been elevated to a major urban legend alongside UFOs, Bigfoot, the Jackalope, and Elvis. There is a great "fear" of brown recluse spiders in California, mostly because of misguided and...
Producing extreme wet weather conditions, Mother Nature is gearing up for another bloodthirsty assault on mankind and this time we won’t see them coming. The same conditions that encourage mosquitoes, give rise to the infamous “No-See-Ums”, also...
Controlling the minds of other living creatures is science fiction or at best the stuff of horror stories, right? Well for some, becoming a real live zombie is a deadly reality. In the race for survival, mind control has become something of a...
September 22nd, marked the fall equinox this year; Where Summer blasts our days with her last hot breaths, and Fall creeps in with his first cool evening breezes. It's the time when, days and nights begin as equals and where days slowly shorten and...
Mosquitoes became the preeminent pest in America after the 1900 discovery, by Sir Ronald Ross, that linked them to the dreaded disease, Malaria. This was the Progressive Era, and American entomologist, Leland O. Howard, a staunch progressive,...
Cockroaches are some of the nastiest bugs found in the United States. Every state has some area that is infested with these disease carrying bugs, including California. Within the cockroach world, American Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana) are on...
Put the movie “The Birds” together with the 1999 film, “Murder of Crows” and you have a great horror show and it’s playing out right here is Southern California. Look, up in the sky, great flocks of crows are winging their way from communal...
Fear of insects (also known as entomophobia) mainly includes disgust or aversion to bugs. Insects and bugs often appear “ugly or disgusting” owing to their shape, colors, or wiggly parts. Bugs like flies, mosquitoes and fleas are also associated...
Cockroaches are one of the dirtiest and hardiest of natures’ creations. Their saliva, droppings and decomposing bodies contain allergen proteins known to trigger asthma and allergy symptoms, especially in children. In addition to exacerbating skin...
The shortest poem ever written, composed by American poet Strickland Gillilan (also attributed to Ogden Nash) in the early 20th century, reads, “Adam, Had 'em”. Straight to the point, man has a long history with fleas. A fossil flea discovered...
There’s nothing like being awoken from a sound sleep by sudden itching, pinches or stings. These sensations send us scrambling from our warm covers, checking for bite marks and scouring our beds for the creepy crawlies we just know are using our...
At this time of year, in the early mornings, there is a soft glistening webbing in the trees and on the lawn, and hillsides are decorated with dew-frosted beauty. There is a fairytale quality to the scene and Nature’s art gallery is open for...