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At Veseris, we take pride in providing customers with the most current industry news and knowledge - within local communities and nationwide.
Here's an overview of this fall's biggest trends as reported by Veseris sales manager across the country.
The Turkestan cockroach is native to much of the Middle East through Central Asia. It was most likely introduced to the United States in military equipment returning from the Middle East in the late 1970s. Since then, it has become common in southern California and across the southwestern states into Texas where it appears to be displacing the Oriental cockroach. It may occur in other states near military bases or due to its popularity as a live feeder insect for reptile pets.
The Turkestan cockroach is a peridomestic pest, meaning it can live in or around structures. In less humid environments, it tends to be more of an outdoor pest often found in underground utility boxes and hollow block walls. They become more of an indoor pest as heat and humidity increases.
Excluding the northeastern and upper midwestern states, scorpions are present across most of the US and just over the border into southwestern Canada. Although they can be found in a variety of habitats, many live in hot and arid deserts. Of the 90 or so species in the U.S., all but four naturally occur west of the Mississippi river with the highest concentration in the desert southwest. Most are terrestrial, living under objects on the ground or in burrows, but some are arboreal, meaning they live up in trees.
Scorpions are predators that may use venom from their stinging tail to subdue prey. Like other venomous arthropods, they may defensively
Earwigs belong to their own small order of insects. Most are easily recognizable by having a pair of cerci at the end of their long abdomens. Immature earwigs have straight cerci that remain so in adult females but generally become curved in adult males. Earwigs use their cerci to defend themselves and for grasping prey or each other during mating.
Most earwigs scavenge on dead plants and animals. Some are insect predators and others may eat and damage live plants. Earwigs need cool and moist environments, so they are usually active at night and spend the day hiding under tree bark or objects on the ground. After mating in the fall, adult pairs overwinter in soil together. When males leave in the spring, females lay eggs and continue to care for their offspring through the early nymphal stages, a behavior that is unusual in non-social insects.
Springtails are a group of organisms that have six legs (hexapods) like insects. However, springtails are not insects, mainly because their mouthparts are enclosed within the head, whereas insects have external mouthparts. Most springtails have a forked appendage (furcula) held under the abdomen that helps them escape predators by catapulting them into the air when sprung against the ground. Hence the name springtails.
Springtails primarily live in moist soil and leaf litter, feeding on microbes and organic material. Most of them breathe through their cuticle because they do not have a tracheal respiratory system. This makes springtails vulnerable to desiccation and dependent on having moisture in their environment. Sometimes their populations boom by the thousands during periods of high moisture, usually provided by excess precipitation or structural leaks.
The most common skunk in North America is the striped skunk, which is found across southern Canada down through the continental United States and into northern Mexico. Skunks have enlarged anal scent glands that produce an oily defensive fluid containing sulfur-based compounds that can be sprayed up to 10 feet away. If not surprised, skunks may warn before spraying by raising their tail and stomping their front feet.
Striped skunks are adapted to human environments. They are mostly active at night and may damage grass in yards while searching for insects to eat. They may also den under structures or fall into basement window wells. Aside from spraying people or pets if surprised or confronted, skunks may vector rabies, especially in California and the center of the United States up into Canada.
Black Widow Spiders are one of the two groups of medically important spiders in the United States. Three species of black widow spiders are native to the U.S., but only two are common around structures – the southern and western black widow spiders. Adult females of both species have shiny black bodies and globular abdomens with a red hourglass marking underneath, except the western black widow has an additional red spot above the tip of the abdomen.
Only black widow females can cause an envenomating bite to humans. They are usually brushed up against in their webs built-in quiet, protected places low to the ground. Their venom contains a neurotoxin that causes constant muscle contraction, which can produce severe pain that lasts for several days. Black widow spider bites do not develop necrotic lesions and are rarely fatal.
The pharaoh ant is native to Africa and was named in 1758 by Linnaeus using a type specimen from Egypt. In naming this ant, Linnaeus may have been under the impression that it was one of the ten plagues of Egypt. It has been a worldwide pest (or plague) for over 100 years and is historically well-known for infesting structures. Being a tropical ant species, it can nest outdoors in soil in subtropical areas. In temperate regions, it mainly nests inside heated structures because it cannot survive outdoors year-round.
Indoor pharaoh ant populations are difficult to manage because they nest in hard-to-find voids. They also reproduce by mating
The house mouse probably originated around northern India and stowed away in grain supplies as people migrated around the world. It is now a worldwide pest and, in most cities, it is the top rodent pest. In addition to being transported to new areas as stowaways, house mice are able to enter smaller structural openings than rats and require very little living space. They also require less water than rats because, if necessary, they are able to meet their body’s moisture requirement by producing metabolic water from food. Once indoors and a food resource is established, they can breed throughout the year.
House mice contaminate our food and environments with their saliva, urine, and feces. They may spread food-borne illnesses by leaving pathogens on food, preparation surfaces, or utensils. Allergic reactions, including asthma attacks, can occur from repeated exposure to mouse urinary proteins. House mice are the primary carriers of a virus, lymphocytic choriomeningitis
Boxelder bugs are pests of the boxelder tree, a species of maple native to the Midwest. As the boxelder tree was introduced to other areas of the United States and Canada, boxelder bugs followed. The western boxelder bug is present from New Mexico, Utah and Idaho westward to the Pacific coast and up into British Columbia. The boxelder bug is present east of this region in Canada and the United States with some overlap between the two regions. These two boxelder bugs look similar except the western boxelder bug has more red veins on the upper membranous half of its forewings.
Since boxelder bugs prefer to feed on seeds, they are mainly found