What kind of domestic insects can be found in human housing: parasites and pests

Domestic insects are so diverse that there is not enough fingers to enumerate even their main representatives. Nevertheless, you can still try to classify them: for example, according to the degree of harmfulness and danger to humans. And in order that the reader can always quickly understand who he had just met in his home, photos of domestic insects with names will be given below.

So, all domestic insects can be divided into the following groups:

1. Domestic insect parasites are those insects in the house that bite a person and feed on his blood. The parasites include bedbugs, mosquitoes, lice and fleas, temporarily or permanently living near the person and capable of breeding in his home.
2. Pests are those arthropods that do not directly touch a person, but actively harm various objects in the house or food, making them unsuitable.These include the well-known cockroaches, moths, springtails, whiteflies, ants, termites, woodlice, leather bugs, and book louse.
3. Harmless cohabitants who do not pose a danger to a person and do not cause any harm to the house. These are small spiders, silverfish, flycatchers and millipedes.

You can also select another group of insects in the house - the so-called random "guests" who fly through the window, "come" on their clothes or crawl into the living room themselves. Among them, among others, there may be parasites already noted above, for example, ticks or mosquitoes, pests such as hruschakov and flies, and relatively harmless insects - forest bugs, bees and wasps, gold-eyed and many others.

However, most of them are non-domestic insects, so we will talk further about the first three groups.

It is worth noting that many small arthropods in the house - to be exact - insects are not at all. For example, it is woodlice, centipedes and spiders, which are called insects unknowingly or simply for convenience. However, we will further describe them with photos and titles,so that the owner of the apartment probably could, if necessary, identify his co-residents.

 

Cockroaches in the house: dirt and unsanitary conditions

Cockroaches are perhaps the most well-known domestic pest insects. In the photo below are their views that live in apartments - naturally, against the will of the owners.

Certainly, the first place is occupied by one of the most numerous and well-known household insects - the red cockroach (having another name “Prusac”):

The second species, quite familiar to our latitudes, is the black cockroach (the Latin name is Blatta orientalis). This is a relatively large domestic insect, gradually disappearing under the onslaught of its red fellow (Prusac actively eats black cockroach's eggs).

Photo black cockroach:

The third type of these pests is american cockroach (Latin name Periplaneta americana):

Initially, it was extremely rare for our country, but with the development of international trade, this species began to conquer the warehouses and shops of large megacities, and afterwards - living quarters located in the neighborhood.

The key to successful "occupation" of these household pests of human housing lies in the characteristics of their biology.Cockroaches are insects that feed on absolutely any food waste, as well as many other household items - for example, various adhesives, shoe polish, paper. In addition, they can go without food for quite a long time - sometimes even up to 20 days.

Below are some more photos of these household pests:

Cockroaches breed very quicklyand the life span of an adult individual is approximately 9-16 months.

In addition to the obvious harm that cockroaches cause to various foods (eat, pollute them), they, among other things, are carriers of various infectious diseases and even the eggs of some helminths.

Therefore, the fight against these domestic insects should be carried out necessarily.

 

Bed bugs: who bites at night

Bed bugs - perhaps the most unpleasant domestic insect parasites. The main harm that they inflict on a person is undoubtedly bites. And although today there are no scientifically proven facts that these parasites infect with any infectious diseases, nevertheless, they have repeatedly found dangerous pathogens in their bodies.

In the photo - the nest of these small parasites in the mattress:

And then in the photo - adult bugs, their larvae and eggs:

Bedbugs can live in almost any secluded places of the apartment, but here they breed at an incredible speed. Being typical parasites, at night these insects crawl onto the bed, bite a man and suck his blood. Interestingly, the larvae begin to feed from the first days of life and differ from adult bugs only in their size.

Generally speaking, several types of bed bugs can parasitize a person’s house, but it is almost impossible to distinguish them from each other without a microscope and certain knowledge.

In the photo - blood drunken bugs:

To poison these small parasites in general is much more difficult than cockroaches, since a large proportion of the available insecticidal preparations against them is simply powerless. Usually for the extermination of bedbugs, special aerosol insecticides, sprays, and sometimes dusts are used. Very effective is the destruction of bedbugs cold mist.

 

Domestic ants

One of the most difficult to remove domestic pest insects are ants.Most often in the apartment of a person you can meet representatives of two species of these insects - red house ants, also called pharaohs, and thief ants. For a non-professional to distinguish them from each other, these two species will be quite difficult, but, nevertheless, Pharaoh ants are still more frequent guests in people's homes.

In the photo - Pharaoh ants on the kitchen table (the Latin name is Monomorium pharaonis):

And in this photo you can see the domestic ants moving between the food source and the nest in a string:

Speaking about the damage caused to a person, it can be said that these household pests - like many of their fellow "workers" - spoil the food, and are also able to carry various infections.

The main problem in the breeding of ants is that often their colonies have many nests, which are united with each other and are located even in different apartments, garbage chutes and basements (super grass). That is why the destruction of one such nest will not bring the desired effect: as long as there is a single colony, the ants will return and settle again and again in the apartment.

It is necessary to fight together with these small household pests - it is better for all tenants of the house at once. Only in this case, the efforts will not be in vain, otherwise - you can only achieve a temporary removal or reduction of the number of ants in each individual apartment.

Practically any modern insecticide will be suitable for extermination of ants, but special poison baits, for example, in the form of gels, will be the best option.

 

Fleas: pet defectors

The bugs mentioned above alone, unfortunately, do not end the list of domestic bloodsucking insects. Fleas are another parasites that can often be found in a person’s housing.

It is they and the bugs most often bite in the house.

By and large, fleas do not have “permanent residence”: they can be found both in the apartment and in the wild. In the house, they usually keep close to the resting places of pets, on which they parasitize, feeding on blood.

Fleas are common domestic blood-sucking insects that easily move from one host to another (for example, to a human). They need blood both for nutrition and for reproduction - without it, the eggs inside the female simply do not develop.

The photo shows one of the most common fleas - cat (Latin name Ctenocephalides felis):

Potentially, fleas are capable of enduring many deadly diseases - from plague and typhoid to encephalitis and brucellosis, and therefore it is necessary to deal with them especially carefully. But even if there is no infection in a single insect, its bite itself is quite painful, causes severe itching and, as a consequence, the appearance of pustular inflammations on the skin.

Bringing fleas in general is not so difficult if you act competently. First, it is necessary to poison these parasites on pets, in their bedding and resting places. Secondly, it is necessary to process the entire apartment, because flea larvae can be found in floorcloths, in the crevices of the floors, and behind the plinths.

 

Mole: the threat to food and clothing

Moths are a fairly large group of insects, including several types of domestic pests. Some of them feed on groceries and cereals, spoiling stocks of products, while others harm clothes, preferring mainly fur and woolen products (coarse moth).

In the photo - food moth:

But photos of clothes moth and its larvae:

This photograph shows the larva of the fur-coat moth in a protective case:

All adult moths are butterflies. They are at the caterpillar stage with active domestic pests, but adult insects may not eat at all.

That is why, at home killing a single moth butterfly flying near a cupboard with clothes or in the kitchen, it is unlikely that it will be possible to destroy or at least reduce the number of these pests - most likely, an adult insect has already laid eggs, and further “battle” should be directed directly against them and caterpillars, which appear approximately 6-14 days after laying.

The mole is removed by insecticidal preparations, and also - if it is, of course, possible - by high temperatures (up to 70 ° C) or, on the contrary, by freezing clothes. Folk remedies based on lavender and various other herbal preparations, unfortunately, will not rid the home of this domestic pest - they can only be used to prevent contamination of the premises.

The fight against food moths should be aimed primarily at the destruction of contaminated food.

 

Wets in the house - not really insects

But the wood lice (as already mentioned at the very beginning) cannot be attributed to the insects living in the house — these arthropods belong to the class of higher crayfish.

This photo shows the armadillo lice (Latin name Armadillidium vulgare):

And here - a rough wood lice, more frequent guest in the houses:

They do not cause any special harm to humans, for example, from typical parasites of bedbugs: only occasionally wood insects spoil their vegetable stores or (if they get there) damage the young parts of houseplants. However, a meeting with these miniature roommates is always unpleasant.

As a rule, woodlice appear in areas where high humidity is constantly maintained or there are water leaks: these are usually bathrooms and toilets. Here, in abundance, there are also secluded dark shelters (woodlice, like cockroaches, do not like bright light), and a source of food - for example, a trash can, in which you can eat various organic residues.

The existence of wood lice in one degree or another associated with water (after all, they are still crustaceans), so it is quite simple to remove them.

In most cases, all you need to do is eliminate the humidity that is vital for them: dry the bathroom or, for example, fix the leak in the faucet.If for some reason these measures do not bring the desired effect, then the woodlice can be exterminated by any modern insecticidal agent (Get, Delta-Zone, Tsifoks, Dobrokhim FOS, etc.).

 

Kozheeda beetles: the enemies of books and clothes

The kozheed beetle is one of the most prominent examples of an insect in a man’s house, which the landlord usually does not realize. The reason for this is simple: adult individuals of the kozheeda beetle hardly reach 3.5 mm in length, and their larvae are 2 mm.

In general, there are a lot of different types of kozheedov beetles; in nature, they almost always settle where there is an excess of organic residues of animals, birds or other insects. If we talk about human habitation, then here these domestic insects settle where there is paper, leather or clothing.

In apartments or houses, these pests feed on bookbinding, wardrobe items and even plain paper. We can say that kozheedy in their food preferences are the real "universal": their larvae can be found, among other things, in cereals, herbaria and insect collections of amateur entomologists. They are able to eat even the remains of dust in the dust and multiply for years behind baseboards, where no one sees them.

The photo shows the kozheed museum (otherwise - the museum beetle, in Latin Anthrenus museorum), which got its name in ancient times and is one of the most frequent pests of museum exhibits:

Important

However, damage to food and household items of a person is not the worst thing to expect from kozheedov beetles. It is proved that these household pests can cause a person to become infected with worms and even some infectious diseases, therefore their timely destruction is simply necessary.

Most often, kozheedov remove various aerosol insecticides, but folk remedies in the case of these insects can provide significant assistance. For example, the larvae of these beetles do not tolerate the smell of lavender and wormwood, so their use, if not destroy insects, it can be an excellent preventive measure.

 

Champions are innocent bystanders

The silverfish are perhaps the most "quiet" and almost harmless species of domestic insects. In a way of life they can be compared, for example, with wood lice: these small human partners of a person also love moisture, darkness and warmth.

The photo shows the most common species - the sugar silverfish (aka ordinary, the Latin name Lepisma saccharina):

These domestic insects feed on various organics, which are found in dust, sugar on the table, bread crumbs, and sometimes all that which is preferred by the kozheedy beetles mentioned above.

The silverfish never breed in large quantities and are caught mainly in the evenings when the landlord, turning on the light, takes the insects by surprise (by the way, these human neighbors have impressive speed for their size and quickly hide in life-seekers).

They rarely fight with silverfish purposefully and usually develop in parallel with other synanthropic insects. For this purpose, as a rule, various aerosol insecticides are used, although it is possible to get rid of them in the simplest ways - with cold or dryness in the house.

 

Spiders and their benefits

Spiders are another example of non-insect invertebrates living in the house. Their presence is perhaps the most terrible thing one can expect from them: after all, spiders in a human’s dwelling are neither parasites nor pests.

On the contrary, these “roommates” can be called a kind of human helpers in the fight against domestic insects, since their main “task” here is to catch flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes. Thus, if the spiders do not tighten all the corners in the room with their nets, they can be considered rather useful.

In this photo, one of the most frequent "neighbors" is the spider-haymaker (aka the centipede, the Latin name Pholcidae):

And here - the usual spider jade (Araneus diadematus):

Spiders are rarely numerous in the house, and therefore it is easy to display them: most often they are simply caught, for example, with a broom and thrown into the street with the web.

 

Lice: always near - in the house and on the street

Louse is a classic bloodsucking parasite. These insects are not tied to the house, but directly to the person himself, and they cannot live outside his body, or at least clothes. That is why it is impossible to call lice typical domestic insects.

In the photo - head louse, which, among other things, is a carrier of some dangerous infectious diseases:

And the photograph below shows the pubic louse, the presence of which is considered to be a venereal disease (another name is plositer, Pthirus pubis):

Adult parasitic lice and their larvae spend most of their time clinging tightly to a person’s hair, and to feed themselves, they slip onto the surface of the skin every few hours. Their eggs in a dense shell are called nits and badly spoil the appearance of the hair.

Due to the fact that lice feed on human blood and, accordingly, it constantly bite, their presence causes severe itching. Today there is a large arsenal of specialized lice products: pediculicidal shampoos, sprays and combs.

 

Mosquitoes: guests for a few days

It is difficult to imagine a person who would not know what mosquitoes look like. These insects appear in the house for a short time only in order to drink blood and fly back to the street to lay eggs.

Blood suckers are exclusively females (they need blood for the production of eggs), but the males, as a rule, feed on plant nectars.

The common mosquito, the most common biting parasite of our country (another name - mosquito-pusher, Culex pipiens):

And the next photo shows an anopheles mosquito, an insect commonly found in the homes of people living in the tropics, and carrying the corresponding disease.The photo shows how he holds his body - this is the main way to distinguish the anopheles mosquito from his usual fellow:

On a note

Many other mosquito species can also carry infectious diseases that threaten human life. Fortunately, this trouble practically does not affect our latitudes, and the only thing that a mosquito can be dangerous for the population of our country is a strong itch that appears after a bite.

The development of mosquitoes is always closely related to water, so homes with flooded basements are an ideal breeding ground for these blood-sucking parasites. Also, very often these insects are found in private houses and cottages, where they always have an available source of moisture nearby.

There are a great many means of mosquito bites today: ointments, creams, and various other forms of repellents. The main way to prevent these household insects from entering the apartment is mosquito nets fixed on the windows, as well as maintaining the basement and yard territories in a normal condition.

 

Flies in the house and harm from them

Flies are known to all as a “dirty” insect.Indeed, their whole life is to one degree or another associated with various kinds of waste, both of plant and animal origin.

In the human house, flies live and actively reproduce, subject to the presence of organic residues - for example, food. Often they settle where there are domestic animals, in the excrement and leftover food of which the larvae of flies successfully develop. In addition, often these insect pests breed in the attics of houses in deposits of bird droppings.

In the photo - gray meat fly (Latin name Sarcophagidae):

And this photo shows a housefly, which got its name because it lives exclusively next to a person, and it is extremely rare away from its habitat:

Knowing at least a little about the lifestyle of flies, it is easy to guess about their harmful meaning to humans. Besides the fact that these domestic insects simply pollute the products and often make them unsuitable for consumption due to laying eggs (for example, in pieces of meat or fish), flies are also dangerous because they can transfer pathogens from their excrement to human food. various infectious diseases and helminth eggs.

They remove flies by direct extermination using a variety of insecticides, hanging glue traps and banal maintenance of cleanliness in the room.

 

Tails

In the apartment of the person, springtails are not infrequent inhabitants of flower pots, and if we talk about home gardens, they can often be found in greenhouses and greenhouses.

The tails are very small domestic insects (some modern scientists tend to distinguish them into a separate class). In the photo you can see these miniature "neighbors" on a coma of earth from a flower pot:

They begin to harm springtails only when there are a lot of them: they damage the underground parts of the plants and - occasionally - low leaves.

These domestic insects live only in a humid environment, so when they appear in the soil of plants, you must first try to reduce watering as much as possible. In addition, experienced growers are advised to add special preparations to the water for irrigation, and as a preventive measure, use prepared decontaminated soil for planting and create drainage in a pot that will not allow water to accumulate.

 

Kivsyaki and centipedes

Centipedes, kitsyas and centipedes, although not belonging to the class of insects, but, nevertheless, may be called domestic invertebrates. In general, their infrequent appearance directly in the person’s dwelling does not cause any harm, however, frankly, their appearance is not entirely pleasant.

Along with earthworms on land plots, kivsiaks play a significant positive role in the formation of humus, and centipedes actively exterminate the larvae of harmful agricultural insects, therefore all of them can be attributed to creatures that are useful to people than to pests.

These invertebrates mostly enter the dwelling of man with the onset of cold weather - they prefer to hide in dark, warm and humid places (mostly in basements, rarely in bathrooms and toilets).

In the photo - the Crimean mountain dog (the Latin name is Pachyiulus flavipes), a fetid creature that dwells together with woodlice in wet places:

And here - the common flycatcher, a predatory creature that feeds on mosquitoes, ants, small cockroaches and flies:

All centipedes rarely breed in large numbers and therefore do not require special breeding.

 

Insects - pests of a wooden house

A separate conversation deserves a number of insect pests of a wooden house. They do not live in the premises and are not shown on the eyes, but their active livelihoods can lead to a decrease in the strength of wooden structures and even subsequent destruction of the building.

Among such insects that live in a wooden house, it is possible to distinguish wood ants, grinders, some moles, and termites in the south of our country. To protect against these pests, the construction of the house at the construction stage is processed with special stains or impregnations, and then regularly painted.

The photo shows a red-breasted woodwalker ant (Latin name is Camponotus herculeanus):

And here - the grinder beetle:

In this photo you can see termite - a typical inhabitant of Turkmenistan, sometimes penetrating into the southern regions of our country:

 

Insect insects in the house

All other insects that can be found in the house of a person are more rationally attributed to random “stray” guests. This group includes various butterflies, beetles, cicadas, bug bugs, ladybirds, as well as wasps, bees and hornets.

It is not worthwhile to purposefully destroy them, and for your own peace and security, it is enough just to release the insects through the open window.That's just with some of them you need to be careful - they can sting (for example, the hornet) or badly spoil the air (such as a bug stink).

 

About parasite insects and means of getting rid of them

 

Useful video: preparing a poisoned bait for domestic insects from egg yolk and boric acid