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Latin Name: Scatopsidae
Common Name: Minute Black Scavenger Flies
Other Names: Dung midges
Pest Details
Origin:These are native species in North America.
Biology:
There are over 72 species of these small, black flies in North America. The larvae of most kinds feed on decaying plant material and feces and for this reason are important decomposers in a natural environment. Their presence in a structure in numbers suggests that a food resource of this kind may be present that is supporting the larvae, and finding this and removing it is an important part of control. The adult flies often feed on nectar and will be found on flowers. Because of their common association with excrement the potential exists for them to vector pathogens onto humans or our food.
Identification:The Scatopsid flies are similar to the March flies and for many years were included in the same family. They are smaller than March
Latin Name: Scatopsidae
Common Name: Minute Black Scavenger Flies
Other Names: Dung midges
Pest Details
Origin:These are native species in North America.
Biology:
There are over 72 species of these small, black flies in North America. The larvae of most kinds feed on decaying plant material and feces and for this reason are important decomposers in a natural environment. Their presence in a structure in numbers suggests that a food resource of this kind may be present that is supporting the larvae, and finding this and removing it is an important part of control. The adult flies often feed on nectar and will be found on flowers. Because of their common association with excrement the potential exists for them to vector pathogens onto humans or our food.
Identification:The Scatopsid flies are similar to the March flies and for many years were included in the same family. They are smaller than March
Latin Name: Megacelia sp.
Common Name: Phorid Fly
Latin Family Name: Phoridae
Other Names: Hump-backed fly
Pest Details
Origin:These flies, including the common species found in the United States, may be found throughout the world.
Biology:
Phorid flies breed in many of the same conditions that support either vinegar flies (fermenting vegetable and fruit juices and material) or drain flies (accumulations of wet organic sludge). They may also live in fungus or decaying plant tissues. Their name of “hump-backed” fly is derived from their appearance, in which their thorax is prominently arched on top. Adults are attracted to light, and have the distinctive habit of running quickly across a surface when they land on it. A few species of Phoridae are parasites of ants, and are being studied with respect to possible bio-control efforts for Red Imported Fire Ants. Some species also have been found invading
Latin Name: Stomoxys calcitrans
Common Name: Stable Fly
Latin Family Name: Muscidae
Other Names: Biting stable fly, beach fly, dog fly
Pest Details
Origin:This species is found throughout North America and Europe.
Biology:
Both male and female adults are blood-feeders, with a long, stout, piercing mouth that easily distinguishes them from the similar house fly. This proboscis is held like a bayonet under the head and pointing slightly forward. Their common name is derived from the common occurrence in livestock stables, where they find abundant and suitable conditions for their larvae in the mixture of hay, feces, and urine that may accumulate. It commonly breeds in pet droppings in residential settings, as well as the other typical habitats of decaying organic material. The bite is usually painful, and commonly is around the ankle or lower leg. They are not incriminated specifically as disease vectors,
Latin Name: Aedes aegypti
Common Name: Yellow Fever Mosquito
Other Names: Tiger mosquito
Pest Details
Origin:This species is found throughout the world in tropical regions, its true origin not well known.
Biology:
This is the infamous species that interfered with the completion of the Panama Canal, infecting up to 85% of the workers before the link between the mosquitoes and the diseases, including malaria, was firmly established and eradication efforts took place in 1904. The adult females feed primarily at dusk and at dawn. Eggs are deposited singly in small containers of water, including basins in plants such as bromeliads, old tires and other artificial containers, and small areas of stagnant water including drainage ditches and abandoned swimming pools.
Identification:The adult mosquito has black scales over its entire body along with silvery white scales as bands around each segment of the abdomen and
Latin Name: Ctenocephalides felis
Common Name: Cat Flea
Latin Family Name: Siphonaptera
Other Names: N/A
Pest Details
Origin:There are dozens of different species of fleas, but the Cat Flea is by far the most common flea on pets and in structures in the United States. It originated in Africa as an ectoparasite of the large native cats.
Biology:
The Cat Flea is a blood feeder as the adult, and a scavenger as the larva. The adults remain on the animals they feed on unless physically forced off, and may live up to a year. The female lays the eggs on the host animal and these eggs fall off to the floor or other surface below. The eggs hatch in a few days and the larvae begins to feed on organic debris it finds, but also must consume some dried blood in order to progress to the pupa stage. This blood is from the dried feces of the adult fleas, and it falls off the pets wherever they spend time.
Latin Name: Tunga penetrans
Common Name: Chigoe Flea
Other Names: Family also Tungidae, Jigger, Chigger (in Latin America), Chique, Sand Flea
Pest Details
Origin:This flea is found throughout most of the world. It is tropical in origin and may only be found in the southern U.S. as well as all of Latin America.
Biology:
These fleas have an unusual biology in that they generally live in soil and sandy areas, but on a regular basis they will get onto a host animal to feed and then fall off again. The female, when ready to produce her eggs, needs a final blood meal and at this time she burrows into the skin of the host animal, head first to allow the tip of the abdomen to protrude so that she can breathe. Over the next 2 weeks she swells to the size of a pea, produces several dozen eggs that are released to drop to the soil, and following this the female flea dies. On humans the infection is nearly always on the feet, due to barefoot
Latin Name: Pulex irritans
Common Name: Human Flea
Other Names: N/A
Pest Details
Origin:It is believed that this flea, now found throughout the world, may have originated in South America, feeding on native mammals there. It is extremely rare in North America.
Biology:
Despite its common name this flea rarely feeds on human, but is known to feed on a great many other warm blooded animals, including peridomestic rats, fowl, bats, opossum and other wild mammals, horses, as well as cats and dogs. The adult fleas may live nearly 2 years. The females deposit up to 500 eggs on the host animal as well as on the floors of the structures they inhabit. The fleas are capable of transmitting the numerous pathogens such as plague, tularemia and tapeworm, but is most implicated in spreading murine typhus.
Identification:All fleas are similar in appearance, as wingless insects with bodies flattened from side to
Latin Name: Xenopsylla cheopis
Common Name: Oriental Rat Flea
Other Names: Tropical rat flea
Pest Details
Origin:It is possible this flea originated in eastern Asia in association with Norway and Roof rats.
Biology:
This flea species is the one most notorious for spreading Bubonic Plague, as it has a tendency to become infected with the pathogen. While feeding on an infected host animal the plague bacteria are ingested, but these bacteria may form a blockage in the foregut of the flea, preventing it from swallowing additional blood. In an effort to clear this blockage the adult flea regurgitates as it attempts to feed, potentially pushing the bacteria into the new host animal. The worse the blockage gets the more it attempts to feed, accelerating the transmitting of the disease to many hosts. The life cycle is, otherwise, similar to most fleas. Eggs are deposited on the host animals, which includes rodents most
Latin Name: Hoplopsyllus sp., Diamanus sp.
Common Name: Squirrel Flea
Other Names: N/A
Pest Details
Origin:These are likely to be native fleas in North America.
Biology:
These are additional flea species that commonly infest wild rodents of many kinds and which may bite humans when people are active in areas where heavily infested squirrels live. They are capable of harboring and vectoring the plague bacteria and may result in closures of campgrounds and park areas when squirrel populations are high and plague surveillance detects infected fleas on them.
Identification:All fleas are similar in appearance, as wingless insects with bodies flattened from side to side and with long hind legs for jumping. They are black to reddish black in color and have spiny legs as well as rows of spines along other body areas called “combs”. These combs are important for identification of the species. The genal comb