For those who suffer from entomophobia, or the fear of insects, a single ant can cause a nervous reaction. Even for those unafraid, it’s important to be able to recognize which insects pose a form of threat and which may just be a nuisance so that you can respond accordingly.
Proctor and Gamble entomologist Daniel Perry talks about the most common insects, and which to be alarmed by. Perry is currently working on ZEVO, an insecticide brand that focuses on biotechnology and natural ingredients in warding off pests.
Unproblematic pests
If you see either of the following insects, keep calm. They are an annoyance rather than a threat of infestation or to your health.
“I’ll start by saying that no matter what insects you see, if you don’t want to see more of them, you should probably jump on them as soon as you see them. You shouldn’t panic when you see flies and ants.
If you see a trail of ants coming into your home, it’s frustrating, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to see more trails. That just means there’s a food source in your house that they’re wanting and getting rid of that food source will stop them from trailing inside.
Similarly, it’s impossible not to see some flies. They’re everywhere. But again, there’s probably just some food lying out somewhere that they’re eating and if you get rid of that, then you’re probably gonna stop seeing those flies,” Perry said.
Panic Pests
If you see either of the following insects, you need to take action.
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German cockroaches
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Bed bugs
“German cockroaches are a really nasty problem. If you see even just one German roach, that’s a bad sign because that probably means there are a whole lot more of them in the walls already.
I want to make a distinction here because there are lots of other kinds of cockroaches. You don’t want to see them, but seeing one isn’t necessarily that big of a deal because they usually live outside and they just come inside to look for food. The American cockroach, also called the Palm roach, are the really big ones, typically several inches long. They can also fly. So they’re kind of horrifying, but they don’t live in your house. They live outside and they’re just coming inside to look for a warm place or something to eat. A lot of people will panic anyways because they’re just so big, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have some horrible problem.
The other insect problem is bed bugs. If you see even just a couple, you need to call a professional immediately because they’re really hard to get rid of and there’s probably more lurking around,” Perry said.
pest control
Depending on the type of insect you are looking to eliminate from your home, different control techniques may be in order.
“If you’re dealing with flying insects you can use a wall plug-in. It provides that passive control where if an insect sees the UV light that the trap is emitting, it’ll fly into the trap and it’ll get stuck.
For things like cockroaches and ants, you need a different kind of product—baits. There are baits available that incorporate something like a sugar that the insects like to eat alongside an insecticide. These products are meant to work slowly over time and there’s a good reason for that.
If you want to control ants, you need to get rid of the whole colony to actually stop the problem. So the insecticides that are built into baits are designed to work where after several days they’ll have an effect on the insect. So an ant will come and eat the bait, carry it back to the colony and share the food. Then after several days they start to die off and after a couple of weeks you’ll start to see control,” Perry said.
Check out the science behind ZEVO’s insecticide sprays and traps at the linked web pages.
