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Outdoor Nuisance Pests
FliesDomestic flies, often called "Filth Flies," are not only a nuisance by their presence, but are important from a human and animal health standpoint. House flies may spread diseases such as conjunctivitis, poliomyelitis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, anthrax, leprosy, cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. They may serve as intermediate hosts for parasitic tapeworms on poultry or parasitic roundworms on horses. Certain larvae of blow flies, bottle flies, screwworm flies and flesh flies may feed on dead as well as living tissue of mammals, causing blood poisoning and even death, especially in sheep. Stable flies bite painfully, sucking blood from humans and animals. False stable flies do not bite, but spread certain diseases, whereas the little house fly hovers in mid air in the middle of rooms. |
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GnatsFungus gnats occasionally become a nuisance indoors when adults emerge in large numbers as mosquito-like insects from potted plants or flower boxes containing damp soil rich in humus. Adults are attracted to lights and are often first noticed at windows. Larvae or maggots, which feed in soil high in orangic matter, can injure the roots of bedding plants, African violets, carnations, cyclamens, geraniums, poinsettias and foliage plants. Plant symptoms may appear as sudden wilting, loss of vigor, poor growth, yellowing and foliage loss. Some are serious pests in mushroom houses. Fungus gnats inhabit fungi or dead plant materials and are harmless to humans and animals. |
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HornetsPaper wasps and hornets may become a nuisance when nesting around homes and other structures where people live, work or play. Although considered beneficial to agriculture, (since northern or paper wasps feed abundantly on corn earworms, armyworms, tobacco hornworms, etc. and hornets on house flies, blow flies, harmful caterpillars, etc.), it is their painful stinging ability that causes alarm and fear. Nevertheless, unless the threat of stings and nest location present a hazard, it is often best to wait for Mother Nature to kill these annual colonies with freezing temperatures in late November and December. Stinging workers do not survive the winter, and the same nest usually is not reused the following year, except by the yellow and black dominulus paper wasp, on occasion. |
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MillipedesMillipedes normally live outdoors but may become nuisance pests indoors by their presence. At certain times of the year (usually late summer and autumn) due to excessive rainfall or even drought, a few or hundreds or more leave the soil and crawl into houses, basements, first-floor rooms, up foundation walls, into living rooms, up side walls and drop from the ceilings. Some homeowners as early as late June have reported annoying populations accumulating in swimming pools. Fall migrations during rainy and cool weather may result as a natural urge to seek hibernation quarters. Heavy continuous rainfall in newly developed wooded areas with virgin soil (decaying organic matter habitats) are often troublesome sites. Millipedes do not bite humans nor damage structures, household possessions or foods. They can give off a disagreeable odor and if crushed, leave an unsightly mess. |
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