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BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
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Photos from the last gathering (Minnesota 2007)

DRAFT: Common household bugs

Seems like an article along these lines would be a useful addition--maybe a supplement to the "Most frequently requested IDs" one. The idea is to have a collection of images of species that are often encountered indoors. At some point content can be added with information about each species, but to start off, I've just thrown a bunch of images and names down, and folks can try clicking the 'info' tab on the pages you get to by clicking these thumbnails. Suggestions are welcome. (Please note that my progress will be very sporadic--I don't want anyone to think I'm ignoring their suggestions!)

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Varied Carpet Beetle

Larder Beetle

Spider Beetles

Meal Moth

Indian Meal Moth

Clothes Moth

Fruit Fly

Cluster Fly

House Fly

Flesh Fly

Carpet Beetle larva

Household Casebearer Moth larva

Indian Meal Moth larva

House Centipede

Common Silverfish

House Pseudoscorpion

Common House Spider

Long-bodied Cellar Spider

Western Conifer Seed Bug

Green Lacewing

Some notes for when I get around to adding content to this article:

The Golden Guide to Insect Pests lists the following ants as household pests: odorous house ants (Tapinoma sessile), Argentine ants (Iridomyrmex humilis), thief ants (Solenopsis molesta), pharaoh ants (Monomorium pharaonis), crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis), cornfield ants (Lasius alienus), southern fire ants (Solenopsis xyloni), black carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus).

4 species of cockroaches are common household pests: German (Blattella germanica), oriental (Blatta orientalis), brown-banded (Supella supellectilium), and American (Periplaneta americana).

Other flies: little house fly (Fannia canicularis), moth fly (Psychoda alternata)

Et cetera: firebrat (Thermobia domestica), european earwig, house cricket, field cricket, booklice (Liposcelis divinatorius), house springtail (Sira buski), Parajulus impressus millipede

The following is Eric Eaton's comment on controlling carpet beetles, cut and pasted from another page:
"Do not employ an extermination service, or use chemicals. They are surprisingly immune to things like mothballs and moth crystals for example. Find the infested item(s) and discard them. Since the larvae feed on dried animal products, check the pet food, cured meats, taxidermy mounts, insect collection (you mean you don't have one?:-), wool garments and blankets, furs, and silks, etc. Store all vulnerable foodstuffs, including pet food, in glass or metal containers with tight-fitting lids. Store woolens, furs, and silks in a cedar chest, as cedar has proven repellent qualities. If you can't bear to part with an item, put it through a freezing and thawing cycle of about two weeks each, over about a month, to ensure no eggs will still be viable."

Contributed by Charley Eiseman on 24 March, 2008 - 11:13pm
Last updated 28 April, 2008 - 12:27pm

Good start.

I apologize for not complimenting you sooner:-) I would also add: springtails (whatever the common household varieties are), moth flies, dark-winged fungus gnats, phorid flies (scuttle flies). I get asked about all of those quite a bit. Keep up the great work.

… Eric R. Eaton, 25 March, 2008 - 12:56pm

Thanks!

I don't run into most of those, so when I get around to adding them I'll need somebody to verify that the ones I've added are species that actually turn up in houses regularly.

… Charley Eiseman, 25 March, 2008 - 2:33pm

Formatting

It's best not to have several per line: depending on the window size, either a thumbnail or a caption is likely to wrap to the next line without its counterpart. The result is a jumble that looks messy and makes no sense.

… Chuck Entz, 25 March, 2008 - 4:30am

Non-breaking space

I think if the space between the thumb and the caption is relaced with a Non-breaking space, the 2 will be bound together and fill and wrap as wide as the window allows.

… John R. Maxwell, 27 March, 2008 - 5:26pm

Non-breaking space

How do I make one? I know just barely enough HTML code to get by...

… Charley Eiseman, 27 March, 2008 - 6:28pm

Non-breaking space

Replace all of the normal space characters between the thumb and the name with these six characters   Normally a browser will break a line as needed to fit the window, but that special sequence tells the browser "don't break here", so the two joined items should stay together. Also any spaces in a name will need to be replaced with   TOO! This will keep the parts of the name joined. I can't promise that it will work with thumbs, but I think it is worth a try.
Then you can remove all of your line breaks and just let the browser break where needed.
Normall spaces between the end of a name and the next bug thumb.

… John R. Maxwell, 27 March, 2008 - 6:55pm

Oh well.

Doesn't seem to work with thumbs. I'll have to figure something else out.
Do you (or anyone) know how Christopher got several lines of text to appear next to each image here? I didn't see anything obvious in the source code.

… Charley Eiseman, 27 March, 2008 - 8:03pm

Moth articles

You could just get rid of the names and do it with all thumbs like the moth articles in this forum. Let the user click a thumb to find out what it is.

… John R. Maxwell, 27 March, 2008 - 10:52pm

I think

that's probably what I'll do ultimately, and that will maximize how many images the user can see at once. Interesting that it's working on your computer though.

… Charley Eiseman, 27 March, 2008 - 11:53pm

It did work

The initial problem was "depending on the window size, either a thumbnail or a caption is likely to wrap to the next line without its counterpart". Now (at least on my system) the thumbs and the names associated with them stay together. It looks like you still have a few hard crlf, but it is better than before.

… John R. Maxwell, 27 March, 2008 - 10:36pm

Good to know.

That hadn't occurred to me, since I have a pretty wide-screened computer and always have the window maximized.

… Charley Eiseman, 25 March, 2008 - 2:31pm

Others encountered frequently in my house at different seasons:

mosquitos, dermestid larvae, "boxelder bugs", and small dark weevils at or close to the "strawberry weevil". A photo of the "yellow sac spider" (not uncommon in homes) is useful as it can deliver a mild venomous bite.

… Peter Messer, 25 March, 2008 - 3:04pm

more common household critters

I now see that larvae of dermestids (carpet beetles) are represented. Three other groups overlooked: Ants (red vs black), Flea (around furniture especially when there's dog or cat resident), various tiny grain weevils (especially with storage of 'organic' grains). Finally, "Bed Bugs" are getting more common in homes across the country.

… Peter Messer, 29 March, 2008 - 9:55am

ants

Do you know the species names of the most common household ants? I guess Monomorium minimum is one of them?

… Charley Eiseman, 29 March, 2008 - 10:36am

Household ant names

I don't know off hand without more checking; not my area of expertise.
I recall there being at least a couple species of both smaller red and larger black types indoors - probably depends somewhat on geographic region. "Termites" just now occurred to me as something seen in and around wood buildings (more in south?). I'm sure BugGuide experts will fill us in.

… Peter Messer, 29 March, 2008 - 11:43am

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