This post Research Begins to Unravel Why Some Spiders are Social appeared first on Entomology Today - Brought to you by the Entomological Society of America.
Earlier this year, a new study combined extensive genetic and life history data to explore how sociality evolved in huntsman spiders. The findings set the stage for further research on the evolution of social behavior.
The post Research Begins to Unravel Why Some Spiders are Social appeared first on Entomology Today.
Did you find some flying termite wings in your home? Wondering if flying termites eat wood, or whether they are harmless? Let’s find out.
Infamous for the damage they cause to wood structures, flying termites are a huge nuisance and a nightmare for homeowners.
Termite infestations can wreak havoc on wooden houses in a matter of weeks, resulting in expensive repairs.
They not only eat the wood but also bore tunnels to build their colonies and break down wood to farm fungi for food.
Interestingly, winged termites and non-winged ones aren’t necessarily always of different species. Even among the same species or colony, not every termite is capable of flying.
Only the reproductive males and females grow termite wings. Stage flight is an essential part of their life cycle, as they have to head out and find a new place to start a colony and lay eggs.
Flying termites grow their wings only when they’ve matured completely. They usually set out on their flight during spring, after the rains.
However, unfavorable conditions like high humidity and excess rainfall can force them out of their current colony and trigger a swarm too.
In case you were unaware, flying termites are known by a specific term – alates. There are three major termite species – Formosan termites, subterranean termites, and drywood termites.
Unfortunately, the reproductive members of all these three species grow into alates, which means they all get two pairs of wings.
It’s a crucial part of their life cycle, and they wouldn’t survive without this stage. The alates are the most troublesome members of a termite colony since they’re the ones that begin the infestation to build a termite nest.
This is a bit of a tricky question since flying termites don’t fly throughout their lifecycle. They don’t usually eat wood while they are flying termites, i.e., while they have wings.
However, they shed their wings once they get to a suitable nesting spot and are ready to infest. Right after getting rid of the wings, they begin to feed on the wood and bore tunnels.
So, to answer your question, flying termites do eat wood, but only when they’re no longer capable of flying.
You may notice termite swarms during various times of the year, as different species of termites swarm during different seasons and are attracted to different things.
For instance, damp wood termites swarm during summer and infest wet and rotting wood. Drywood termites, on the other hand, may swarm both during late summer and fall.
They usually do this during the evening hours and are highly attracted to artificial lights. The subterranean termites swarm under broad daylight during the spring months.
Flying termites do not live very long. Although the soldier termites and the termite workers can live up to a year or so, the reproductive termites die soon after their first flight.
They live just long enough to reproduce and start a new colony. Besides, a majority of the alates do not survive the flight in the first place.
Most of them end up getting eaten by predators during the flight, while many get trapped in spider webs.
However, although the flying termites that begin the infestation would die, their offspring will continue to wreak havoc.
There’s a common misconception that termites mostly eat wood. However, it’s the cellulose they feed on.
They get it from several food sources besides wood too, such as grass, manure of herbivorous animals, paper, and other materials made from plant matter, etc.
Quite interestingly, termites breaking down the wood in your home might not be doing it to eat the wood. Instead, they often use the wood to farm fungi and feed on the fungi.
Yes, flying termites are a huge menace, and they can cause severe structural damage if you aren’t careful.
If you find termites in your home, you should find their colony immediately and eliminate them. If needed, you may also have to replace the wood they infested.
All flying termites are termites, but not every termite is a flying termite. Only the king and queen termites that are capable of reproduction turn into flying termites by growing wings.
The rest, i.e., the worker and soldier termites, don’t grow wings. Also known as alates, flying termites are found among most termite species.
I hate to tell you this, but finding a swarm of flying termites in or around your home can mean two things.
Either your home is at risk of a termite infestation, or the infestation is already underway. Inspect your wooded structures and furniture immediately and take the necessary steps.
Although it varies from one termite species to another, most termites are drawn to a light source. Wood structures are attractive to flying termites, too, since the whole purpose behind the flight is to find a suitable place to nest.
Especially if you have any decaying wood at home, you’re more likely to face a termite infestation.
Termite colonies grow rapidly, and so does the extent of the damage they cause. If you notice even a couple of termites, consider getting a professional termite inspection carried out.
The sooner you can identify the infestation, the less damage the termites can cause. Never ignore the signs of a termite infestation on your property.
Make sure to get termite treatment done the moment you find winged termites in your home by a reputed pest control company. Thank you for reading, and I hope you don’t have to deal with a major termite infestation.
Flying termites are a nuisance, but more than that, they are an indicator that your house is already termite infested.
Many of our readers have asked us questions about whether the flying species of termites will start eating wood.
They won’t – but they will set up a colony somewhere that is sure to eat through your precious wooden furniture.
Read some of the emails below to learn more about the experience of our readers with these winged menaces.
Subject: Found a bunch of these guys under my sink Location: San Ramon, CA April 11, 2014 11:55 am I live east of Berkeley California and have been finding these winged bugs around my hallroom bathroom. Are they flying termites? Thanks for any help you can provide! Signature: Andy
Subject: Bug identification Location: Suffolk, VA April 7, 2015 1:22 pm We get these bugs every spring for a few days. They seem to come from under refrigerator and make their way to back door. What are they? Signature: Dee
Subject: What is this?! Geographic location of the bug: Central Florida Date: 02/16/2018 Time: 11:54 AM EDT Your letter to the bugman: Hi! I found a bunch of these in my greenhouse recently, some had shed their wings, and others had not yet. Some were actually on top of the soil in some of the plants, but mostly dead on the ground around them. What could it be? How you want your letter signed: LBY
Subject: Flying Insect Identification Geographic location of the bug: Mercer Island, WA Date: 09/25/2021 Time: 04:49 PM EDT Your letter to the bugman: Hi I don’t know if the pictured bug from my patio is a flying termite or flying ant. Please help with id. Thanks How you want your letter signed: Victor
The post Do Flying Termites Eat Wood? How To Prevent Damage From Flying Termites appeared first on What's That Bug?.
Do you suspect there are termites in your house and are wondering how to get rid of them? If yes, then you asked the right question- are termite alates attracted to light – because the answer is yes.
Termite Alates, or winged termites, are fascinating insects. They are the only ones with wings in the termite colony, but they immediately shed them the minute their life’s purpose is complete.
There are many exciting things to learn about them, including their attraction to light.
Continue reading to understand why they are attracted to light, how to eliminate a termite infestation, and more.
There are four main types of termites in a termite colony
The kings and queens are the ones who bear the responsibility of reproducing and spreading the colony as much as possible.
Workers are the ones who forage for food, and soldiers are the ones who protect the rest of the colony from dangers like predators.
A certain class of soldiers becomes alates or reproductive termites. The difference between alates and other termite castes is that they grow wings.
Their job is to fly around and look for a good spot to start a new colony when the old one becomes too overpopulated to sustain itself.
The minute they settle for the new colony, they shed their wings and get down to the business of becoming kings and queens of their new colony! Hence alates are only a temporary caste.
The term “Alate” comes from the Latin word ‘ālatus,’ which means wings. This insect group typically includes termites, ants, aphids, and thrips.
In the case of termites, only the wing-bearing termites are called alates. They can include both females and males.
Alates are 3/8th of an inch long (approximately) and have two transparent sets of wings used for creating new termite colonies.
These are usually the most well-fed and looked-after termites in the entire colony because of the huge responsibility they bear.
They also have an antenna, a thorax, and an abdomen( with a slight curve) about the same length, which makes them similar to the appearance of a true bug.
However, the termite species is entirely different and is not a true bug.
As explained earlier, the winged reproductives are responsible for creating new colonies so that new caste members are born.
These termites’ sole purpose is to produce and pick the king and queen of their colony.
At some point in the year, the mature colonies pick their king and queen. These kings and queens are then fed the most nutritious food available till the day they take their nuptial flight to found a new colony.
You will find termite swarms in your house at this time since they would be flying around looking for good spots to set up camp.
Once the new colony is created, the couple sheds their wings since the purpose is served.
Remember that it’s only the mature colonies that produce alates, not the young ones since they don’t have the need to look for new colonies.
They swarm to find an ideal place to create new termite colonies. However, it is a challenging task for the alates to take a long flight to find a suitable place for mating.
Many die mid-way, but those who make it shed their wings and start mating immediately.
It is not necessary for the swarm to have large numbers of termites. It depends on the size of the colony, whether they swarm in thousands or only a few.
The winged termites do not swarm throughout the year. They look for the time which ensures the highest survival rate, for example, after a dry spell.
Most alates do not have strong wings, and many fall prey to predators during this time. Hence it is absolutely critical for them to find an appropriate time for swarming.
Winged termites are attracted to a light source. If you want to eliminate termite infestation in your home, it is a good idea to turn on the lights when the termites swarm.
Once you do, check every room (mainly wooden areas with cracks) for the infestation. If only a handful of termites are found, you don’t have to worry much about it.
However, if you find them in a bunch in different corners of the rooms, they are most likely trying to set up new colonies, which means there is already an existing colony is your house.
Next, step outside your house and look near the trees and around your garden for a sign of termites.
Remember, if you have noticed termites swarming in and around your home, the worker termites would be living nearby.
In any case, leave the lights on until you find the termite colony and get rid of it for good.
You can find termites scurrying around cracks of wooden parts of your window, ceilings, and other areas of your home.
A termite infestation can be a huge problem for your home, so it is better to prevent their entry than get rid of them.
As mentioned, you can turn the lights on to find the termite colonies in and around your house and then tackle them with the following termite treatments.
The first step to getting rid of termites is to identify which species of termites we are dealing with because it is not a one-method-kills-all method.
For example, fuming will not kill subterranean termites because they come from the soil.
In the same way, you cannot kill drywood termites by installing a termite bait station in the ground.
You can hire a professional termite control company to identify the termite species and use the following methods to repel them.
Yes, alates are attracted to light. If you doubt a termite infestation in your home, you can turn on the lights when the termites swarm to confirm it.
Once you know about the infestation, seek a good termite treatment with your local company.
Flying termites are attracted to lights because it helps them find their way around. Moreover, bright lights tend to confuse their navigational systems.
You can notice swarms of flying termites under the street lamps or the fluorescent lights during the right season.
If you want to get rid of termites, turn off your house’s lights, and they will swarm away to the nearby street lamp.
However, if you are doing a termite inspection in your place, leave it on to spot them and get rid of them.
Flying termites are usually attracted to bright white light. Yellowish and purple-colored light often chases them away. In some cases, yellow and red light bulbs do the job.
You can put up some of these colored light bulbs outside your home to drive away alates, but if they are already in your house, the best thing to do will be to get a professional to inspect the whole home.
Alates are attracted to lights in the same way moths are attracted to flames – they simply get confused when they see them.
Fortunately, their predilection towards lights is an easy way to spot them and get rid of them.
Moreover, by turning on the lights, you can also make sure that they congregate near the lights rather than setting up a colony. Thank you for reading!
Many readers have shared with us pics of flying termites, their wings, and groups of them swarmed under light bulbs over the years.
Read on to know all about their quest to get rid of these bugs and what methods they used to ensure that their homes were termite free.
Swarm of small black beetles Location: Santa Cruz, CA October 26, 2010 5:08 pm Every year in Santa Cruz, CA we get a small flood of these small black beetles in our upstairs bedroom. They seem to congregate under skylights and near windows (lots of sun). They are looking for mates, as I can see a number of them paired end to end, while others wander searching. They never have wings and don’t look like termites we see elsewhere around the yard. We just had our first big rainfall and it’s sunny and warm today. Signature: Thanks, David
Up from the rocks! Location: Stone April 8, 2011 12:13 pm Hello Bugman, It is the beginning of Spring here in Santa Fe, NM. We finally had some rain yesterday and I was sitting outside my place of work when all of a sudden tons of this little flying things seemed to hatch right out of a rock behind me. Any idea what they are? Signature: Gallery Gal
Subject: bocce bug Location: Surrey, British Columbia August 26, 2012 12:33 am Thanks for your time… I have description below that I also gave on the bug id request for bug guide. Surrey, Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada August 25, 2012 Size: 1”, body only 3/8th” We were playing bocce in the backyard with friends and noticed that when we walked through a bit of grass these flying insects would arise. We honed in on where they were coming from and noticed that they were crawling out of a small hole in the earth scrambling over each other sometimes 4 at a time. We watched for a few minutes then went to the front of the house to wave our friends off. When we returned it appeared that the earth had cracked open and masses of the bugs were crawling out of the ground from numerous holes. They would walk or flop around for a bit before taking flight. The ground they were coming from used to house a large tree (unknown variety) we had the stump ground down several years ago but there are sure to be rotting roots still there… At one point we saw a dragon fly come and eat one of the flying insects. What are these? Wasps? Why so many? Signature: Henderson
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This post Inviting Speakers and Organizing Symposia: How to Engage as a Student appeared first on Entomology Today - Brought to you by the Entomological Society of America.
Organizing a presentation or symposium at your institution or for a conference isn't as hard as it looks, and it can be a great networking opportunity for students. Learn advice from fellow students and speakers on how to make effective invitations and plan a great symposium lineup.
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Want to know what those tiny black bugs look like poppy seeds are doing in your home? Figure out which one it is from the five common ones in the article below.
If your home is suddenly attracting a large number of tiny black bugs that resemble poppy seeds, you’d want to find out what they are.
Many of these insects can trigger allergic reactions, leave nasty bites, or damage your home.
While there are numerous tiny bugs that are black, we’ll be checking out five insects common in US homes.
Popularly known as pantry bugs, black weevils can prove to be quite a nuisance by destroying your cupboard foods and grains.
These bugs have slender, black bodies with long snouts that make them easy to identify. There are several subspecies of black weevils, such as the rice weevil, maize weevil, bean weevils, etc.
As you might notice, they’re named after what they tend to infest and feed on.
While black weevils can cause considerable damage by destroying your foodstuff and grains, they don’t bite and are harmless to humans and pets.
None of the weevil species spread any diseases to humans or animals.
Yes, finding weevils in your kitchen isn’t unusual as long as you have stored food grains or anything they can feed on.
You’ll have to clean your pantry completely to get rid of these pests. Use hot soapy water to wash the insides of your kitchen cabinets after removing the weevils and their larvae with a vacuum cleaner.
Black weevils tend to lay eggs in the grains they infest. This is why you might find these bugs even in packaged grains.
These bugs are especially attracted to moisture and the presence of food.
Although spider beetles closely resemble spiders or large mites, they have six legs, and scientists classify them as bugs.
The American spider beetle, also known as the black spider beetle, has a shiny and globular abdomen and yellowish or cream-colored hair on the legs, thorax, and antennae.
The color of this bug ranges from deep reddish brown to black. These beetles feed on a variety of dry plant and animal matter, which may include dried foods stored in your pantry.
You need not be afraid of spider beetles, as they neither bite humans and pets nor harm them in any other way.
These bugs do not spread any diseases among humans. However, food infested by spider beetles wouldn’t be safe to consume,
Spider beetles usually live indoors and stay in wall cracks, crevices, and attics.
To get rid of spider beetles:
These bugs usually lay eggs on plant leaves or in containers of stored food.
Dark, damp, and moist areas tend to attract spider beetles, especially if there’s plenty of organic matter like bat and rodent droppings for them to feed on.
If you are already familiar with bed bugs, you likely know that these pesky insects hide in the bed and feed on human blood.
Apart from their disturbing feeding habit, their bites also result in itchy welts on the skin. Dark brown (almost black) in color, these bloodsucking insects have flattened, and oval bodies and are 0.16 – 0.2 inches long.
Yes, the main issue with these insects is that they suck human blood by biting into the skin. Although they don’t live on pets, these bugs may still bite your pet on contact.
Bed bugs do not spread any diseases, but they might trigger allergic reactions in some individuals.
Bed bugs can easily get into your house by hitching a ride on an item you bring home from an infested place.
A steam cleaner will help you eliminate bed bugs, with the heat killing them off. For a large bed bug infestation, you may need a pest control professional to deal with it.
These insects lay their eggs on or near a bed, usually on the seams and the joints of a mattress.
Bed bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide, blood, and warmth.
Among the five bugs covered in this article, ticks present the biggest problem. These troublesome pests not only attack both humans and pets to suck blood but also spread a variety of diseases.
Ticks are very hard to notice due to their small size – even adult ticks might be just 0.11 inches long. Upon drinking blood, these pests bloat into globular shapes that closely resemble poppy seeds.
Ticks bite humans and animals, burrowing into the skin to attach themselves while they feed. A tick bite can be very painful and cause swelling and burning.
Ticks can spread various diseases to humans and animals, including serious infections like Lyme disease.
Ticks mostly live outdoors, and indoor environments aren’t humid enough. However, ticks attack pets (especially dogs) very often and may carry them home. Few species of ticks prefer to live indoors.
You may use a steam cleaner or an insecticide spray to eliminate ticks.
Ticks lay eggs on open surfaces such as soil, leaves, blades of grass, etc. If you have a tick infestation in your home, the bugs might lay eggs on your clothing or in undisturbed corners of your home, garage, or dog kennel.
Warm, moist, and shady environments attract ticks.
A black oriental cockroach infestation in your home is a cause of concern because they carry various diseases.
Unlike most cockroaches, these nocturnal bugs are black. However, while baby cockroaches can be tiny, the adult ones can grow up to 1.2 inches in length.
Oriental cockroaches bite both humans and pets, but it’s quite rare.
This is the biggest issue with these pests – they spread various disease-producing organisms, mostly by contaminating food. They are often responsible for causing diarrhea, food poisoning, and dysentery.
Oriental cockroaches can get in your house by crawling through cracks and holes, hitchhiking on bags, or simply flying inside.
You can use diatomaceous earth, bait traps, or non-toxic and natural insecticides. For heavy cockroach infestations, look for pest control companies near you.
Female oriental cockroaches lay their egg capsules in protected areas close to a food source. This makes filthy corners and kitchen cabinets ideal breeding grounds.
These bugs are especially attracted to damp and dark spaces with decaying organic matter.
Knowing what pests are infesting your home and taking the necessary steps to eliminate them will help keep your family, your pets, and yourself safe.
Some of the other tiny bugs that look like black seeds, such as the black carpet beetle, can also damage your soft furnishings and carpets.
Some of the food-infesting bugs even contaminate pet food. Hopefully, the information you found in this article will prove to be useful but don’t hesitate to seek professional assistance if you can’t identify the bugs.
Black bugs in bed and pantry are a constant source of emails for us from our readers, both past and present.
Read through some of these emails to learn more about some of the surprising things that might infest your kitchen and remain incognito, like a poppy seed.
Location: Monterey Park, CA
December 1, 2010 10:48 pm
Hello,
I’ve looked high & low on the internet in my attempt to figure out what these are but I give up. I imagine they are eggs. By naked eye I thought each black ”raspberry” to be an individual egg, but now that I look at my photos they look a bit more intricate than that.
They were found on the back of chrysanthemum leaves on a flower arrangement today. I am very curious to know what they belong to.
Signature: joAnn
Hi JoAnn,
We have not had any luck with a conclusive identification, but we do not believe these spore-like things are insect related. Rather, we believe they may be the spores of some type of Fungus, but we would eagerly welcome assistance from our readership. We found a site dedicated to Chrysanthemum Diseases and Insect Pests an American Gardening online book page on Chrysanthemum rust, and a Chrysanthemum Plant Health Problems page, but nothing seems to exactly match your photographs. Whatever they are, they are so evenly distributed.
Correction: Fern Spores
Those are the mature spore capsules of the plant itself, which is a fern, not a chrysanthemum leaf. You mentioned it was from an arrangement, so I’m guessing the florist added them to give the arrangement volume, since ferns are quit inexpensive and hardy.If you touch them you’ll get the black dust-like spores on your fingers, but I’ve never heard of anyone having any adverse reactions to them. They may fall off the leaf and make your table dusty though.
Giorgana
Hi Daniel,
Thank you so much for the identification. Ironically, I had just photographed it again as your email came in. I was observing that nothing had hatched but there was now a fine black dust in the container I put the leaves in. I then started to think spores but never did I think they were a part of the plant. My guess was more along the lines of a fungus or something parasitic.
As for the flower arrangement, it didn’t occur to me that what I has was something other than chrysanthemum leaves!
Again, thank you very much for the ID on this. Now I’m going to try to propagate fern 
Have a nice weekend.
joAnn
Ed. Note: We hope joAnn becomes a successful entrepreneur of cultivated ferns.
Location: Portland, Ct.
December 7, 2014 7:23 pm
for the past few years I have discovered piles (100+) of these tiny bead sized, black, shiny, hard shelled eggs. There only found in my basement. two piles were found in my garage. One was in a drawer of a RubberMaid rolling cart and the other large pile was on a open cabinet shelf piled high in a corner. when I touched the pile they all collapsed as if they were wet at one point. the other piles were in the cellar in a large plastic storage bin and also in my storage bag for my Christmas tree.
I took a picture with a microscope app the magnified 8xs and I will also include a few in my hand for a prospective.
Signature: Susan Popielaski
Dear Susan,
These look more like seeds than bug eggs to us, but we have no explanation regarding why you found them or what they might be. Interestingly, we just received another nearly identical identification request from Massachusetts, so we feel compelled to research this more. Termite Pellets also come to mind, but they look different from Termite Pellets we have seen in the past.
Thanks for replying. We don’t have termites..we did have a ant problem that we eradicated. I’ve done research as well and found that some insects eggs are seed imposters,?
The piles are sort of glued together in a type of thin transparent sac. As soon as you touch them with slight pressure they break free and the tidy pile collapses.
Keep me posted, my FB friends are as curious as I.
Best,
Susan.
Some ants may stockpile seeds, but we believe that is a very remote possibility.
Update: April 12, 2015
Thanks to a comment from Teri, we believe this is a Rodent’s stash of Pokeweed seeds which are pictured on the Ohio Perennial & Biennial Weed Guide.
Location: central MA
December 10, 2014 9:49 am
Hello,
Recently I noticed the bottom drawer of my desk was sticking and little hard black seed like things were falling out to the floor when I opened it. Today I pulled the whole drawer out and found it was loaded with these seeds in the runner area of the drawer. They are black, hard, and fairly circular. They do not look like mouse droppings to me. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Danielle
Signature: Danielle
Dear Danielle,
We do not believe these are mouse droppings, and interestingly, we just posted a nearly identical identification request from Connecticut. We do not believe they are either eggs or seeds. Our best guess is Termite Pellets at this time, but the black coloration is unlike any Termite Pellets we have seen. We will continue to research this matter and perhaps one of our readers has a better suggestion.
Update: April 12, 2015
Thanks to a comment from Teri on a different posting, we believe this is a Rodent’s stash of Pokeweed seeds which are pictured on the Ohio Perennial & Biennial Weed Guide.
Location: Northwest Ohio
April 12, 2015 10:21 am
Thanks bugman, here are the photos of my mysterious seeds / bug droppings
Signature: Jeffrey
Dear Jeffrey,
Thanks for submitting your images after providing a comment on a similar Seed posting on our site. After much deliberation, we agree with a comment by Teri that these are Pokeweed seeds based on an image on the Ohio Perennial & Biennial Weed Guide, and that they are a rodent’s seed stash.
Thanks
Good that they are seeds,
Bad how they got there
Thanks a lot!
Jeffrey
Location: Yardley, PA
January 14, 2016 12:10 pm
Today I found a pile of these black eggs nestling in the folds of a clean but not recently used bathmat. The cold weather just hit this last week but up until the first week of Jan 2016 it has been an unusually mild winter. The eggs look like seeds but they cannot be seeds as there have been no plants upstairs in this second floor bathroom. The mat has been sitting under the sink on this tiled bathroom floor for 1 to 4 months. We live in an old farmhouse and wear layers as we prefer to heat the house in zones and only during our active hours.
Can you help me identify these eggs so I can address this potential infestation appropriately? We don’t like chemical bug sprays so I’m crossing my fingers that these pasts will be relatively easy to expunge!
Signature: Devon
Dear Devon,
We received several requests some time back with a similar situation and we surmised that the piles were a Rodent’s stash. Later we identified the seeds as Pokeweed Seeds and we still maintain that a resourceful rodent created a stash of seeds to use as food during the cold winter months.
Daniel you are fabulous! I’m pulling out my stash of unused mouse traps and suspect that the field mice I am catching downstairs have decided to migrate upwards. My intention is to send them heavenward!
Bless you,
Devon
Location: Canton, OH
February 24, 2016 11:59 am
I have now found 2 piles of these mysterious seeds in various piles of clothing. I cannot for the life of me figure out exactly what it is and how they appeared. They’re mostly flat, semi-shiny, light to medium brown, and slightly pointed at one end. I’ve google searched to my whits end but absolutely nothing looks like these….flax seed-looking…droppings? I have NO idea but a few days after I found this pile, the entire pile was gone. GONE. As in disappeared. I’m not kidding!! Help!
Signature: Scared and Alone In Home
Dear Scared and Alone in Home,
Though we cannot tell you what kind of seeds you found, we are very confident that they were put there by a rodent. Mice will frequently gather seeds and provision them indoors where conditions are comfortable, but where food is scarce. We have several postings of Poke Seeds found indoors, but your seeds are different.
Location: Pillow case and bed in RI
January 6, 2017 10:05 am
Hi, I just went into our guest room..(seldom used) and found these little black beadlike things all over the bed and discovered that they came from deep inside the pillow case!! There is hundreds of them…really hard but you can smash them…kind of white inside, or cream colored? The bed was slept in last night so it was unmade…I discovered these things all in the sheets but definitely the source was the pillow case…OMG! We live in Rhode Island in an old colonial style home, but I had the Pest guy over recently because we thought we heard a squirrel or something int he house but he found no evidence….what is this? Can you please help?
Thank you in advance…
Margaret Scully
Signature: Little black things
Dear Margaret,
We have several postings in our archive that are similar, and while we have always suspected that this is the result of a rodent, like a mouse, stashing away seeds indoors, we eventually identified the actual seeds as Pokeweed Seeds. Our suspicion is that a rodent was squirrelling away seeds in anticipation of a harsh winter.
I have contacted the pest control guy and he is coming Monday…. Thank you so much for the identification, I am indeed consoled… and happy that it wasn’t aliens.
Have a wonderful New Year,
Margaret
Geographic location of the bug: Windham, New York
Date: 12/15/2017
Time: 10:07 PM EDT
Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to read/look into our issue.
My wife and I recently acquired a vacation home on the Catskills in Windham, New York. We have discovered in a few locations very small stashes of what looks to me like seeds of some kind, but I am no longer sure what we are finding.
It is always inside a bed, or folded towels, or folded blankets or laundry.
We do know there are mice in this area, but from what I understand, they wouldn’t be just seeds but no droppings. We have setup mouse traps and will continue to setup more, but again we only find seeds and no droppings. Not around the house or along the walls or any if that.
There is snow on the ground outside, so my gut tells me it may be a squirrel or chipmunk, but haven’t heard any noises nor have we found any acorns.
I am submitting a couple pictures to try to help solve the mistery.
How you want your letter signed: George & Elena
Dear George & Elena,
Our best bet on this is that a rodent is stashing seeds inside your home as a winter meal. You wouldn’t necessarily find droppings near the food stash. We will be postdating your submission to go live to our site while our editorial staff is away for the holidays.
The post Tiny Black Bugs Look Like Poppy Seeds appeared first on What's That Bug?.
