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Pest Library

Look up common household pests. How to identify them, the signs of an infestation, and when it's time to call a pro.

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Lone Star Tick

Ticks

The tick behind the red meat allergy. The female carries a single white dot, and it moves toward a host.
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Meadow Vole

Rodents

Not a mouse and not a house pest. A stocky short-tailed grass eater that lives its whole life at ground level.
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Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes

Three of the four life stages happen in water. Tipping out standing water is the cheapest control there is.
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Muskrat

Furbearers

A semi-aquatic rodent built for water: oily coat, part-webbed hind feet, and a flattened tail it sculls with.
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Northern Flicker

Birds

A large brown woodpecker that feeds on the ground. It reaches pest control for hammering on the house.
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Northern Watersnake (Common Watersnake)

Snakes - Non-Venomous

The most widespread watersnake in North America, killed in places where cottonmouths have never lived.
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Norway Rats

Rodents

It digs at ground level. Burrows along foundations and holes in the yard separate it from the roof rat.
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Odorous House Ants

Ants

Crush one and smell it. That is the whole identification, though the smell is not really coconut.
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Pack Rat / Woodrat

Rodents

Pack rat and woodrat are the same animal, and neither name means one species. It hauls objects back to a stick nest.
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Pine Vole (Woodland Vole)

Rodents

The vole you almost never see, and that is the whole problem. It works below ground instead of in surface runways.
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Pond Slider (Red-Eared and Yellow-Bellied Slider)

Amphibians/Reptiles

The turtle on the log. If you have a pond, a canal or a water hazard, this is what is lined up along it.
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Pygmy Rattlesnake

Snakes - Venomous

The smallest rattlesnake in the United States, and almost everything that follows from that, people get backward.
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Raccoon

Furbearers

Most calls start the same way: scratching in the attic or chimney in spring, and it is almost always a female with young.
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Red Fox

Furbearers

One of four terrestrial rabies reservoirs in the United States. Never handle one, and never attempt a home capture.
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Rock Pigeon

Birds

The bird most people stop seeing. On the ledge, on the sign, on the parking deck, and leaving droppings on all three.
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Roof Rats

Rodents

It rarely burrows. It climbs a tree, crosses a branch to the roof, and moves in above your ceiling.
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Southern Flying Squirrel

Rodents

Flying squirrels do not fly. They glide on a membrane from wrist to ankle, about 30 feet at a time.
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Stink Bugs

Occasional Invaders

It does not live in your house, it hides there. It flew in last autumn and eats nothing all winter.
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Striped Skunk

Furbearers

Almost every call starts with a smell or a hole. The holes are small cone-shaped divots punched in the lawn.
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Ticks

Ticks

Arachnids, not insects. Tick season is not summer, and most people protect themselves for the wrong half of the year.
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Timber Rattlesnake

Snakes - Venomous

A forest and rock-outcrop snake, not a yard-and-basement one. Its legal status matters before anything else.
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Turkey Vulture

Birds

A roost on your roof or tower is a federal wildlife matter, not a homeowner project. It is protected.
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Virginia Opossum

Furbearers

The only marsupial native to the United States and Canada, which makes it the odd animal out among backyard wildlife.
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Wasps, Hornets and Yellowjackets

Stinging Insects

"Wasp" is not one insect. The name covers paper wasps, yellowjackets, the bald-faced hornet, the European hornet and mud daubers, and they nest, sting and behave differently enough that getting the identification right decides what you should do next. One of them builds a colony that can reach 15,000 and turns defensive in late summer. Another is a solitary spider hunter whose venom lacks the compounds that make a sting hurt.
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