Common Outdoor Pests
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Ticks are parasites that survive by feeding on blood from warm blooded mammals. The deer tick is the primary carrier of 9 different diseases in humans including Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis, and Lyme’s Disease. Ticks often crawl up on foliage or tall grass and wait for a host to come by. Female ticks lay approximately 3,000 eggs that hatch into sexually immature larvae. The larval ticks infect small animals like mice and birds where they feed and fall off and molt into nymphs. This is the stage when humans are at the highest risk for Lyme’s Disease. The adults latch on to large animals like deer, etc., where they mate. The females drop off and lay their eggs in leaves on the ground. The entire process can take up to 2 years. |
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Bagworms are often found feeding on evergreen trees and shrubs, but they most commonly prefer Juniper trees. Each female can produce 500 to 1,000 eggs. Approximately 1/2 the bags on a host plant will contain female bagworms. Bagworms spend the winter in the egg stage inside the bag. The females will attach themselves to twigs. Newly hatched larvae spin silk and needle fragments forming protective cases or “bags” around themselves after hatching. As the bagworm grows, needles are added to the bags. Bags can reach 2″ in length. The eggs hatch in late May or early June where they begin to do their damage eating the trees. Bagworms that feed on conifers are most damaging as the foliage that is destroyed is usually not regenerated. The adult female moth is wingless and never leaves the bag. The adult male moths are grey with clear wings. Bags can be picked off and discarded or destroyed. Never throw them on the ground, or they will soon re-infest the tree. If physical removal is not possible; the trees need to be sprayed with an appropriate pesticide or product. |
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Gypsy Moth Caterpillar was brought to the US in 1869 in a failed attempt to start a silkworm industry. Over the past Century the Gypsy Moth has become a major nuisance in the US. The damage is caused by the larva which emerges from their eggs in early spring through mid May. They do most of their eating of leaves at night. Feeding continues through early July when the caterpillar enters the pupal stage and finally as a moth. Male and female moths exist only to reproduce, and once the females lay their eggs July-September. Both moth sexes then die off. |
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Japanese Beetle has destroyed golf courses, lawns, and gardens since it was imported to NJ in 1916. This insect destroys more than 200 plant species. The larvae of the Japanese Beetle are the white grub. The adults are a metallic green color, oval shaped, and their wing covers are copper brown. The beetle larva feeds on grass roots while the adults feed on flowers, leaves, and fruit. Adults are called “skeletonizers” because they eat the leaf between the veins leaving only the veins of the leaves. Female Japanese beetles bury into the ground where they lay 40-60 eggs in moist soil. The eggs usually hatch in 8-9 days. The young newly emerged beetles secrete pheromones which attract the adults to congregate where they do their damage. |
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Eastern Mole is the most common pest in lawn and gardens in the U.S. Moles have soft fur, pointed noses, and powerful clawed feet used for tunneling through soil. They are very destructive to lawns and golf courses because their tunneling causes separation of plant roots from the soil. A sure sign of moles is their protruding tunnels in lawns. Moles are considered beneficial to most farmers because they love to eat grubs and other insects. |
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Yellow Jackets, also known as wasps, are stinging insects that impose danger to humans and are very important insects to the environment. The yellow jacket is identified as black and yellow wasps that are often confused as bees. The yellow jacket stinger can sting more than once. The wasp doesn’t reuse their nest from year to year and the bee does. Wasps have smooth abdomens whereas the bee has a hairy abdomen. They are very social insects that live in colonies that consist of several thousand members. The nest combs are made up of tiny bits of wood fiber chewed into paper like pulp. All yellow jacket colonies begin with a fertilized queen. The queen and the larvae are fed by the workers who forage for food by capturing insects. They feed abundantly on caterpillars and harmful flies. In the fall they prefer protein foods and sugars. The colonies become less social in the fall. This is when they are aggressively in search of food individually, not for the colony. Therefore, our chances of yellow jacket stings increase. The queen and workers die with the onset of cold temperatures. A new colony emerges next spring. |
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Honeybees are often confused with yellow jackets, but honeybees have a hairy abdomen, where the yellow jacket has a smooth abdomen. The honeybee is a stinging insect, but will only sting once. The stinger of the honeybee is barbed. The queen lays about 1200 eggs per day and over 200,000 per season. Worker bees gather pollen which they collect on the backs of their legs. They carry the pollen back to the hive where it is used for food. Nectar from flowers is sucked up, mixed with enzymes in the stomach and taken back to the hive where it is stored in waxed cells and evaporated into honey. Worker bees must maintain the temperature of the hive at 94o F. to incubate the eggs. They must fan their wings to keep it cool, or they must cluster together to keep the hive chamber warm. |
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Mosquitoes, also called true flies, have 2 wings that have scales. Female mosquito’s mouths have a long piercing-sucking proboscis. Females require blood meals that are necessary for egg production. Females may feed on cattle, horses, birds, small mammals, and humans. The male mosquitoes have a feathery antennae and mouth parts and are not capable of piercing the skin for a blood meal. Males feed on the nectar of flowers and sugary substances. Mosquitoes are annoying creatures that are capable of transmitting diseases like malaria, yellow fever, denque, encephalitis, West Nile Virus, West Equine encephalitis to humans and animals. Water is a necessary part of the mosquito’s habitat. The eggs are laid in the water and most eggs hatch within 48 hours. The mosquito develops in 4 different stages. The egg, larvae, pupa and adult stages. The amount of time spent between each stage depends on temperature and generally develops between 4-14 days. |
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Carpenter Bee resembles a bumble bee but their upper abdomen is bare, shiny, and black, whereas the bumble bee has a hairy abdomen with some yellow markings. Carpenter Bee’s usually nest by tunneling into wood to lay eggs. They prefer bare, unpainted wood, particularly redwood, cedar, cypress and pine. They will nest in eaves, window trim, siding, wooden decks, and patio furniture. Male carpenter bees are quite aggressive but harmless because they lack stingers. Female carpenter bees can inflict painful stings. Carpenter bees overwinter as adults in wood tunnels that were bored out and lay their eggs in the spring. The extent of wood damage caused by the Carpenter bee can be extensive. |
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Mealy Bugs are considered scale insects with small, oval, soft segmented bodies that are dusted with white powder. They are a piercing sucking insect that injure plants by sucking the sap out of the plant. Plants heavily infested often look to be covered in cotton along branches and stems. Scale type insects are very attracted to Tulip trees and Hemlocks for example. |
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Aphids are small soft bodied sucking insects and can be found in a variety of colors. They destroy plants by sucking sap and liquid from the leaves of plants. Overwintering eggs hatch into wingless females in the spring and reproduce without fertilization. They hold their eggs in their bodies and give birth to live young. Some of the offspring are similar to the females and develop wings. Near autumn male and female wingless aphids are born. They then mate and the females lay fertilized eggs for overwintering. All stages of the aphid lifecycle are damaging to plants and gardens. |
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Leaf Hoppers have wedge shaped bodies with triangular curved heads and two pair of wings. The leaf hopper grows to about 1/2″ in length. Leaf hoppers are damaging to plants and can transmit viruses and diseases to plants. Leaf hoppers are very hard to see as they are almost completely camouflaged on the leaves of trees. |
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Lace Bugs are noted for their netlike pattern on their wings that are dotted with brown and black and grow to 1/8″ – 1/4″ long. The eggs are small and black and are attached to the underside of Azalea, Rhododendron, Sycamore, broad leaved evergreens, and deciduous trees and shrubs. Lace bugs damage leaves by feeding on the underside of leaves and producing a brownish varnish that spot the underside of leaves which helps to keep the eggs protected. |
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Slugs are not considered insects; they are mollusks, with soft un-segmented bodies. Slugs feed at night by eating holes in foliage and are usually found in moist places. They are whitish-yellow to black in color. Slugs can often be found in basements and cellars. Their shiny trails are often key evidence. |
