We have customers refer to insect “nests” quite a bit. In most line of questioning, they’re trying to learn “how to find the nest”?
For insects, like YELLOW JACKETS or FIRE ANTS, it’s pretty easy.
But for COCKROACHES or BED BUGS? Not so much. And then there are some that seem as if they emerge from thin air. Pests like CLOVER MITES or SPRING TAILS fall into this group.
So why is it so easy to spot some insects nests but not all of them? Well for starters, not all insects nest! But lets start dividing all insects into three groups.
INSECTS WITH COMMUNAL NESTS
Pests like Fire Ants or Paper Wasps are very much communal or what we call “eusocial”. This means they act in a group with all members having very different roles and responsibilities. They’re kind of a like a military base where all of the “ranks” have very specific jobs to do designed to help the community survive and thrive as one united entity.
There aren’t many species of insects that have this highly structured community and this is important.
These nests are often easy to spot, like an ant mound or a hanging wasp nest. But it could be hidden in the ground like a TERMITE colony or YELLOW JACKET.
Communal nesting insects are usually easy to treat (as you’ll learn below) but the bulk of other insects do not develop a sophisticated society and in turn, why they can be so hard to control!
INSECTS THAT GROUP TOGETHER BUT ARE NOT COMMUNAL
Now if you’ve ever had GERMAN ROACHES or BOXELDER BUGS, you would know they tend to group together. Roaches do this in the back of a dark cabinet or underneath a box of cereal.
BOX ELDER BUGS do this on the side of your home during the fall (like ASIAN LADY BUGS and STINK BUGS). But these insects are not communal!
In other words, they do work together or share the work load needed to survive from day to day. They act independent of one another – much like people do in an apartment building or town house. So yes, they may group together in the fall as they seek shelter from the soon to arrive winter. Or maybe they meet at one place during the day when it’s very bright out like BED BUGS. But once its night time and they need to feed, they’ll go out independent of one another. And they don’t share food.
SOLITARY INSECTS
And then there are solitary pests. These represent the largest group of insects and overall, are the hardest to control.
Solitary insects live on their own solely responsible for both food and shelter. But just because they’re solitary it does not mean you won’t find them in loosely formed group.
They may very well share a common area but they do not interact in any structured way. So if you were to turn over a paver in the yard, say one that is 2′ wide by 2′ long, it may have several sow bugs underneath. But watch as they interact. They don’t “touch” one another and then latch on for 5-10 seconds in a calm way and share information (like communal pests). Instead they “bump” into one another and then keep moving, as if they bumped into a wall.
And if you see them grouped up in one area, it usually means it’s a good spot to stay safe or find a bite to eat.
Common pests that are solitary include silverfish, centipedes, sow bugs, pill pugs, clover mites and springtails.
Silverfish the most likely to spread out far from one another so it could be hard to find more than 1-2 in any given area. But sow bugs and pill bugs will likely be somewhere with 5-10 others.
And springtails or clover mites? You may find hundreds together – especially when this spot has lots of food. But there is no connection to one another – even as they forage about. These pests will be feeding on algae, mold and mildew and why they may all come together as if they were part of the nest. The reality is that they are only this close because there is plenty of food and a safe space to rest.
WHY DOES IT MATTER IF INSECTS ARE COMMUNAL, GROUPING INSECTS OR SOLITARY?
It means everything when it comes to what treatment methods actually work!
So for starters, pests that are communal can be controlled with a wide range of insect bait. This is why you can use TERMITE BAIT STATIONS or ANT GEL to control the entire nest. Foraging workers will collect the offering, bring it back to their family and then it will get shared. The very best baits will take a few days to “kick in” but when they do, the targeted nest will have consumed a lot and so most of the colony will die within a few weeks.
There are also non-repellent sprays like BITHOR that can be used as a surface spray to affect them same way as a bait. Spraying their trails and paths can lead to positive results as the non-repellent is brought back to their nest where it can be shared.
But these options are not viable for most insects.
HOW TO TREAT FOR GROUPING PESTS THAT ARE NOT COMMUNAL
Now with these pests, insects like roaches or bed bugs, you can surface spray with a non repellent and get good results. That’s because both have to forage out into the open to find food. And as long as you’re using something like Bithor, they will readily walk over the treated area and in a couple of days, die (assuming they walk over a treated area). And if you’re lucky, they’ll bring some back to where others are hanging out in a group.
And there are some baits that work on these insects too.
Of course directly treating the area where they hang out together can help – especially with something like cave crickets – but in general it can be hard to locate all of these locations so this approach is flawed. In general, surface spraying where they’re active is best and the more area you cover, the better results you’ll get. But don’t be surprised if you find some new activity a few months later. This would signal that you missed a key area so plan on trying a few times to truly eliminate them for good.
WHAT ABOUT SOLITARY INSECTS?
These are the toughest to control. And the reasons are many.
Solitary insects can be tricky because will likely be spread out over a vast area. And even though you may be able to spot their nests (like digger bees in the yard with hundreds, sometimes thousands of holes), you won’t be seeing all of them nor will you be affecting new ones coming from other yards looking to start a new nest.
And what about solitary insects that feed and live in hidden spaces or deep in the ground? These can be the toughest of all to control!
THE HARDEST SOLITARY INSECTS TO CONTROL!
To best understand why these pests are so hard to control, we’ll use 3 of the most common and explain why their “nesting” behavior makes them challenging to eradicate.
Lets start with Ground Pearls. These little guys are rarely seen because they live deep in the ground feeding on plant roots. But when food is scarce, they forage up close to the surface where they eat grass roots. This leads to dead spots on the lawn. And though we have treatments to help keep a treated “zone” deep enough to save your grass, ground pearls migrate from yard to yard well below the treated areas! So not only do you never see them; you never know just how much of the yard they’ve infected.
Same is true with Clover Mites and Springtails. Both of these like to live in the soil under rocks and trees. But remember, homes are constructed with cement (a type of rock as far as these pests are concerned) and lots of wood. And if you build a house over either pest? Your home is likely to have both move in and even thrive even though they’ll be above ground.
WHY ARE THESE PESTS SUCH A NUISANCE?
The problem is these insects can live their lives very happily out of sight. And both would prefer to do this. It’s safest for them to live that way and if they have all they can eat inside your wall, under your home siding or beneath the cement slabs around your home? Why come out?
Well in fact they do not need to emerge. But they will if certain conditions are met.
WHAT ABOUT SPRINGTAILS?
With Springtails, they’ll becoming out to reproduce and mate. This results if they have a good supply of food. In general, they won’t forage out if they are in balance with their home.
To be clear, they’re in balance when the mold/algae/mildew being produced in the hidden space is enough to keep them fed but not too much to turn on their desire to start reproducing. This balance is often met in most homes and why the vast majority of homeowners never even know they have springtails.
But if the need to reproduce is turned on? You’ll see them coming out of the wood work as they begin the mating process. This can happen in the cold of winter, spring or summer. Springtails have natural anti-freeze and will remain active the entire year – even in the coldest of the cold our country has to offer.
And since they are solitary, they can be most anywhere. From one end of the baseboard to the other side of the home; from the inner wall up to the roof not to mention under the roofing asphalt or the rafters in the attic.
Springtails can and will live most anywhere so they don’t congregate together on purpose at any time and they certainly don’t migrate due to seasonal changes or moisture changes. They’re motivated and pre-wired to exist everywhere and if the conditions around them are ideal for this to happen? They’ll try.
WHAT ABOUT CLOVER MITES?
Clover mites are more likely to be grouped together compared to springtails BUT these groupings will be wide spread. They’re equally likely to be nesting under a cement slab or under the roof tiles atop your home. And if they’re under the roofing? They’ll get into your gutters and then behind your home siding, into your wall voids, around windows and under baseboards.
And since females lay hundreds of eggs in late winter/early spring, it’s just a matter of time before the young start emerging in mass numbers. Their young ones are wired to find new places to live in as soon as they’re able to crawl away and this pattern can happen several times a year. for 2- 4 weeks.
EASY TO TREAT SOLITARY PESTS
Now there are solitary pests that are easier to target. Pests like Ground Beetles or Camel Crickets can live most anywhere too though they prefer dark protected areas. Commonly found in crawl spaces or under decks, they’re nocturnal. But they’re also solitary.
The areas they use during the day will be limited and so all you have to do is treat those spots with a dust or surface spray and you’ll knock them out.
Unfortunately surface spraying for pests like clover mites or springtails won’t stop them from emerging. And though you need to surface spray to stop them from spreading, it won’t end the issue.
To end the invasions with pests like springtails or clover mites, you’ll need to treat every crack and crevice they might be utilizing. And rest assured, accomplishing this goal can be a challenge for about 1-2% of our customers.
The good news is that most houses won’t have them so entrenched that they can’t end the issue with a steady regime of liquid treatments and our Power Injector. But for those find them keep coming back from the same areas, it will be frustrating! In most of these scenarios, the targets have found gaps in the layers you haven’t yet reached.
In summary, communal pests are likely to be some of the most damaging pests of all. But with the right products and a thorough treatment, they can be eliminated.
And the same goes for most insects that like to group together even though they’re not communal.
Unfortunately if your problem is with a truly solitary pest, the fix to eradicate them for good can be daunting! But if you follow our recommendations, you should be able to eliminate one good area after another until there won’t be many (if any) spaces left for them to hide.
Leave a Reply