There are seven types of insects that people contract us about:
Ants
There are roughly more than 13,000 types of ants across the world. Many of these species are suited to warmer conditions so don’t tend to end up in the UK.
We have around 50 species of ants, though we generally only find 6 species causing problems.
Perhaps the best-known ant in England is the common black garden ant. It is well known due to its tendency to enter houses. Nesting under pavements, in soil, along the edges of lawns.
A very quick, robust, and prolific ant, colonies can be as large as 15,000 workers, though about 4000 to 7000 is more average.
Another common ant found in gardens is the yellow meadow ant. These ants build small mounds in your lawns and are often mistaken for red ants due to their yellow-orange colour, they are more harmful than their common black cousins.
They are the most skilled nest builder tending to forage below ground and therefore are not often seen except perhaps when its nest is disturbed, or during the annual mating flights.
Bedbugs
Bedbugs may enter your home undetected and are usually transported into your home, they come from other infested areas or from used furniture. They can hitch a ride in luggage, purses, backpacks, or other items placed on soft or upholstered surfaces. They can travel through walls in multi-unit buildings, such as apartment complexes and hotels.
Their flattened bodies make it possible for them to fit into tiny spaces, about the width of a credit card. Bedbugs do not have nests like ants or bees, but tend to live in groups in hiding places.
Bedbugs are small, oval, brownish insects that live on the blood of animals or humans. Adult bedbugs have flat bodies about the size of an apple seed. After feeding, however, their bodies swell and are a reddish colour.
Bedbugs live solely on blood. Having them in your home is not a sign of dirtiness; you are as likely to find them in immaculate homes and hotel rooms as in filthy ones.
As the name suggest they are found in beds but can easily be in soft furnishings like sittees.
There are three types of bed bugs, but only one type of bedbug is native to the UK, the Cimex lectularius. Bed bugs weren’t common here until the 1930s and since then the problem has grown. In fact, immediately after WWII, it’s reported that nearly 30% of British homes were infested with these wicked bugs.
Signs of bedbugs include:
- bites – often on skin exposed while sleeping, like the face, neck and arms.
- spots of blood on your bedding – from the bites or from squashing a bedbug.
- small brown spots on bedding or furniture (bedbug poo).
Cockroaches
There are two types of cockroaches found in the UK, the Oriental cockroach, and the German cockroach.
Cockroaches will feed on almost anything, from food to faecal matter. They are commonly found in kitchens and heating systems, preferring warm moist conditions, and they reproduce rapidly.
The German cockroach can produce up to 240 eggs per month, they spread bacteria germs can be spread from the body of a cockroach or from their droppings.
They spread dysentery, gastroenteritis, typhoid and food poisoning organisms.
Fleas
Over 2500 species of flea have been recognised worldwide and due to global warming, it is estimated that this number could eventually increase by 50 per cent. Of these, 62 species have been found in the UK.
We find three types of flea in our work the most common is the cat flea Ctenocephalides felis. Less often, we get dog fleas Ctenocephalides canis. While rare, we do occasionally get human flea Pulex irritans infestations.
Fleas act as a vector for disease, they transmit a variety of viral and bacterial diseases to humans. Living off the blood of mammals and birds, and include cat/dog fleas, human fleas and rat fleas.
Wasps and bees
Wasp nests are normally built-in sheltered spots, with easy access to outside. They can be found in areas such as wall cavities, roof spaces and under eaves. They can grow to around the size of a rugby ball as the summer progresses. Only female wasps sting, but they can do so repeatedly.
Bees live in colonies often greater than 30,000 in roof and wall cavities, and hollow trees. They swarm in early summer. They have a barbed sting and die once this is used but will sting when provoked. Untreated infestations can cause contamination of food, harm to mortar and building fabric, and threats of stings. Some people may experience anaphylactic shock on being stung and will require prompt treatment.
Flies
There are seven types of flies that we deal with in the UK: Bluebottle’s, Houseflies, the Cluster fly, Horse flies, Fruit fly, Filter fly and Autumn flies. These pests carry a wide variety of diseases such as food poisoning and dysentery.
Moths
There are around 2,500 species of moths in the UK, with more establishing every decade following migration from continental Europe.
The two moths most in homes doing damage to natural fibres are the common clothes moth and the case-bearing clothes moth.
It is the immature larvae, rather than the adult moths, that cause the damage to natural fibres such as woollen clothing, upholstery and carpets. Females lay eggs within natural fibres, which hatch between 4 and 10 days in summer months and up to three weeks in colder weather.
Because the larvae is so small, you won’t notice their presence until it’s too late. Moth larvae are equal opportunity destroyers of clothing. As long as there is an item made from natural fibres, they don’t care if it is in a chest of drawers or a wardrobe.
You are quite likely to find them scuttling menacingly across the floor as they prefer walking to flying, despite having functional wings.