Common Ants

1. Introduction Ants are the most common pest that could be found in and around homes which could cause nuisance to many residents. Ants nest outdoors and enter into a home to look for food source and eventually to nest indoor where the condition is favourable. Different species of ants have various food preferences such as sweet-based materials, protein-rich food or grease. Ants could form a new colony once the existing colony is overpopulated by swarming or budding. Common ants which usually cause the nuisance include the pharaoh ant, crazy ant, fire ant, ghost ant, carpenter ant and weaver ant. 2. Biology Ants are social insects live in with a caste system (Queen, drone and workers) while performing different functions respectively. Worker ants will forage and leave pheromone trail to lead their members from the same colony to find the right way for food source. The process of sharing food among the colony members is known as trophallaxis by transferring the liquid food via the mouth. Besides, ants communicate with each other by rubbing the antennae to confirm the membership. A small amount of workers will forage for food while the rest remain in the nest to do cleaning and caring for the brood. They have the complete metamorphosis of life cycle which includes the level of egg, larva, pupa and adult.

3. Damage

Ants can become a serious pest when they infest or invade into our living space. As a vector of disease, they have caused a great concern in hospitals, health-care facilities and food manufacturing plants. Pharaoh ants could contaminate the food or kitchen utensils. Carpenter ants able to cause damage to wooden material although they do not feed on the wood but they excavate the galleries to build a nest rearing their youngs. The sting of fire ants could be very annoying, painful and life-threatening for hypersensitive person.

4. Fun Facts

In South Amerika, decapitating flies (phorid flies) could attack fire ants by laying eggs into ant’s head. The head of the fire ant will be decapitated by the chemical produced by the flies and the host will eventually die and the mature phorid flies will emerge from the head of ants.

Rodents

Reproduction rate of rodents is very high especially under favorable condition. They can breed throughout a year and a female can give birth to 5-8 young per litter where up to 10 litters per year. Mating process can be happen at the age of 2 – 3 months. Gestation period is 20-23 days and the amazing part is they can conceive again in 10-24 hours after giving birth. Generally, their lifespan is about 1 year.

3. Damage

In the 14th Century, about one-third of Europe’s population was killed due the Yersinia pestis infected fleas carried by rodents and caused the plague.

Nowadays, they could still cause the transmission of disease as they cause contamination of food by their shed hair, droppings and urine. Apart from that, the gnawing activity of rodent has become one of the major concern especially to the wiring which could trigger the electrical fire.

4. Fun Facts

This rodent-like mammal, which is known as shrew is always mistaken for rodents. In fact, the shrew does not gnaw and it is harmless to human. The food source of shrew is mainly on invertebrate, vegetation and grains or seeds. Even cat dislikes the shrew due to its musky smell. 

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Mosquitoes

1. Introduction The distribution of mosquitoes is found worldwide from the tropics to the Arctic and they pose a greater threat to man’s health than any other animal species. A single bite from the mosquitoes might be lethal. Generally, there are some genera of mosquitoes which need our concern: Aedes, Anopheles and Culex. Not all species suck blood such as female of Toxorhynchites which has proboscis that is not adapted to do piercing. 2. Biology

The male and female feed on plant nectar but only the female will feed on protein-rich blood as blood contains protein for the formulation of eggs. However, there are some species of female which may produce a first batch of eggs without the first blood meal. Most female could produce fertile eggs for life just by single mating.

The mosquito has four distinct stages in its life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The adult is an active flying insect, while the larvae and pupae are aquatic and occur only in water. Depending on the species, eggs are laid either on the surface of water or are deposited on moist soil or other objects that will often be flooded.

Generally, adult female mosquitoes have a life span from two weeks to one month while adult male mosquitoes only live about one week.

3. Damage

Mosquitoes are very annoying as they bothering people and the presence of mosquitoes could reduce the outdoor recreation. They have caused public health concern as they are vectors of disease such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever and filariasis.

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Cockroaches

1. Introduction Cockroaches have existed for more than 300 million years but their shape of bodies has slight evolution. These mostly originated from Africa cockroaches are highly adapted to the environment and they can live wherever with food, water and shelter provided. However, not all species of cockroach are categorized as pests. For an example, Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is a pet. Common household pests are American cockroaches, German cockroaches, and Brownbanded cockroaches. 2. Biology The cockroaches are usually active at night and they hide during the daytime in shelter especially in cracks and crevices. They are omnivores which consume almost everything especially starchy items, paper, sugar, meat and decaying organic matters. They are scavengers which consume dead cockroach and feces as well. They wander more frequent if deprived of food source and they leave chemical trail in feces to lead other cockroaches to food source and harbourages. 3. Life cycle They have incomplete metamorphosis. Ootheca (egg case) produced by female cockroaches contains up to 20 eggs and even more than that depends on the species. The nymph looks like a smaller size adult which will undergo a few level of molting process and eventually will become adult. The lifespan of an adult cockroach is usually 1 year or even less than that.

4. Damage

Cockroaches are the disease carriers for various kinds of bacteria and virus such as diarrhea, salmonellosis, tuberculosis and certain fungus diseases. Their excrement, skin and vomit will contaminate food, food utensils, and food preparation areas. People who are sensitive will get  asthma and allergies.

6. Fun Facts

Survive up to 1 week to 1 month without its head. Do you know the reason? Cockroaches breathe through tubes attached to small, valved openings on the sides of its body which is known as tracheae. Thus, cockroaches can still breathe without head.

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Flies

1. Introduction Flies are nuisance to human. In general, they have a pair of wings, large compound of eyes and their have mouthparts for them to ingest only liquid materials and some are adapted for the activity of piercing or sucking. Commonly found species are house flies, flesh flies, fruit flies, blow flies, sand flies and sewer flies. 2. Biology Generally, flies feed on various organic substances including excrement, sweet and other food. Their mouthparts only enable them to ingest liquid food while the solid food is liquefied by means of regurgitated saliva followed by the re-ingestion to the digestive tract. Flies are active during the daylight hours while they remain inactive at night and they tend to congregate on ceiling areas. However, they still prefer to rest on the corners and edges of thin objects such as wires and strings. Flies exhibit complete metamorphosis: egg, larvae (maggot), pupa and adult. Eggs of flies will be laid in almost any warm moist material such as animal manure, human excrement, decaying organic material or garbage. The larvae are usually soft, legless and headless.  3. Damage

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Termites

1. Introduction Termites exist for more than 200 million years ago and naturally they play important role in recycling the nutrient to the environment. They are beneficial insects in nature by breaking down dead trees and wood materials to the soil as organic matter. They consume cellulose-based material with the help of bacterial or protozoan symbionts in their hindguts. However, these tiny size creatures will become very destructive when they invade into the building properties. 2. Biology Termites are social insects live in a highly coordinated colony with caste system. Swarmers (alates) will start a new colony before they turn to the queen or king. The worker termite will forage for food and feed the colony members including the queen besides building and repairing the mud tubes, tending for the queen. Soldier plays its role as defender for the colony from the predators such as ants. Termites are very hard-working. The workers work non-stop every day to build the mud tubes and the queen could lay up to 20,000 eggs per day in the colony. The queen can survive up to 20 years in the colony while the workers and soldiers generally can live for 2 years. The king, on the other hand, can survive up to 7 years. 3. Damage

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