It can be hard to know exactly what small critters might be running around in your home. Unless you’ve seen them directly, some bugs are masters of hiding out and avoiding contact with humans, and others are small enough that they go largely undetected.
The good news is that many of these pests will eave behind distinctive clues that they’ve joined your household. Keeping an eye out for certain signs will help you to know if your home has a problem and if so, who’s behind it. This is the key to bug identification.
The Most Common Pests
Ants, bed bugs, and cockroaches are some of the most common pests that plague houses.
Ants are most easily noticeable in kitchens and bathrooms, but they can nest anywhere by traveling through tiny cracks. Pay particular attention to kitchen pantries and storeroom areas, since Ants travel in groups, it can be easy to know they are present, and with the help of a professional, you can identify the location of their colony and wipe them out.
Bed Bugs are some of the hardest pests to find and eradicate. They do leave a unique bite when they attack humans during the night that can help to identify them, usually three small red marks. If you suspect that you might be experiencing visits from bed bugs, look for small dead bugs in bedroom areas as well as reddish-black fecal matter, and cream colored eggs that can be tucked away in the corners and crevices of furniture.
The cockroach has a flat, oval body usually 13 to 16 mm long for the most common species. If you’ve seen a bug fitting this description scurry away from you, it unfortunately means there could be many, many more. The rapid rate of reproduction in cockroaches means that they easily invade small spaces, reproduce rapidly, and take over behind walls.
With all three of these most common pests, many at-home methods of extermination are ineffective of getting rid of the bugs completely. Professional exterminators can help you to better identify the exact species that is bothering your home, and determine the best course of action to get rid of them for good.