Although the American dog tick does not spread Lyme disease to people, it is responsible for transmitting Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Fortunately, this disease is not as common in New England as it is farther south. In Massachusetts, cases occur most often in the southeastern part of the state, on Cape Cod, or on Martha’s Vineyard.
VIEW MORESow bugs and pill bugs go by other names like water bug, wood louse, or roly poly. They are actually not insects, but are more closely related to lobsters.
VIEW MOREDEET works well against mosquitoes, no-see-ums (punkies or biting midges), black flies, ticks, chiggers, and even fleas. Like all of the other repellents, it does not work against the larger deer flies, greenheads, or horse flies. DEET products tend to have a greasy feel and can dissolve some plastics and paints.
VIEW MOREDog heartworms are parasitic roundworms that develop and reproduce inside a dog’s body, eventually causing illness and sometimes death if untreated.
Heartworms are spread when a female mosquito sucks blood from an already infected dog. Along with the blood, she ingests the tiny worm larvae, called “microfiliariae.” After developing in the gut of the mosquito, heartworm larvae are passed along to the next dog that the mosquito feeds on. Inside the dog’s bloodstream, the larvae mature into adult worms and migrate to the dog’s heart, lungs, and blood vessels where they mate and continue to produce more microfilariae.
VIEW MOREClover mites are arachnids that can sometimes build up in very large numbers on or in your home, but they don’t cause much damage, and they don’t bite.
VIEW MOREAround homes, tiny phorid fly larvae can be found feeding on all kinds of gross stuff: dead animals, rotting fruit or vegetables, dead insects, and animal feces including human sewage. We look for them in clogged drains and dirty garbage cans, too. Out in the real world, phorid flies even feed on human wounds in hospitals and on corpses, which is why morticians call them “coffin flies.”
VIEW MOREI remember as a kid sort of being creeped out a bit by earwigs. Mind you, I was a guy who used to ‘play’ with spiders, keep praying mantises for pets, go looking for monarch butterfly caterpillars, etc. but there was just something weird about earwigs. The neighborhood kids would call them ‘pincher bugs’ referring
VIEW MOREBecause organic mulches (shredded wood, bark, or chips, sawdust, pine needles, grass clippings, straw) are made of plant material that gradually decomposes, they attract insects and arthropods that feed on rotting vegetation such as millipedes, sowbugs or pillbugs, cockroaches, slugs, earwigs, and crickets, to name a few. Arthropod predators like spiders, centipedes, ants, and ground beetles also occupy mulch where they find insects to feed on.
VIEW MOREThe first, and most important, step is to make sure the clothes are clean before you store them. Clothes should be dry cleaned after the last wearing. This is not just your mom talking, there’s a scientific reason for this. Fabric pests attack soiled clothing and woolens first.
VIEW MORE32 Lake Ave.
Worcester, MA 01604
47 Thames Rd Ste 6&7
Hooksett, NH 03106