Finding strange, dark brown pellets in your kitchen or bathroom cabinets can be an unsettling experience. You’re pretty confident that what you have found is cockroach droppings, but you’re hoping that your hunch is off. So, what do cockroach droppings look like and, if these are roach droppings, how serious is the problem?

In general, roach droppings look like little black or dark brown pellets, very similar in appearance to coffee grounds or crushed pepper. When fresh, these pellets are usually round or oval and, unlike coffee grounds or pepper, these pellets stick to surfaces and might smear. Older droppings may start to become flattened out as cockroaches continue to move around and walk through their own feces.

The bigger the infestation, the more obvious these droppings will become. Cockroaches don’t care about cleanliness—they are more than willing to excrete where they live and eat, so droppings tend to be more prominent … Read Full Post »

When you see a large bug darting across the floor or—far worse—your kitchen counter, your initial response might be simply to shriek, leap around in fright or maybe take a few wild swings at it with a shoe. But later, when you’re able to think more calmly, you might start wondering exactly what kind of bug it was. Was it a cockroach or a water bug, or something else altogether? There’s plenty of confusion in the great water bug vs. cockroach debate, and for good reason: While these two bugs are distinct from one another, it can be hard to tell the difference between them—especially when you’re in the midst of an unwelcome encounter with one of these creatures.

Fortunately, there are several ways to determine whether you have cockroaches or water bugs on your property. Once you know which type of pest has invaded your personal territory, you can figure … Read Full Post »

You turn on the bathroom light in the middle of the night and spot it—a cockroach. The next morning as you go into the kitchen, you spot another one, scuttling away. After a few of these unwelcome encounters, you’ve come to the conclusion that you have cockroaches in your home. Most importantly, you want that to change. When it comes to getting rid of roaches, often the best route is to contact a pest control specialist who can apply effective treatments to roach nesting and breeding grounds. However, there are some things you can do to help limit your roach population and make your home less attractive to these common pests.

The first step to eliminating a roach infestation is pinpointing where these creatures are nesting. Common areas around a home include:

• Around sinks in the bathroom and kitchen
• Behind the refrigerator
• In closets and cabinets
• Under beds or couches
• Around doors or windows

When you’ve discovered … Read Full Post »

If you had to make a list of the creepiest of creepy-crawlies you’d rather not have in your home, Florida centipedes would probably be near the top. Who wants a pest with all those legs showing up inside?

Centipedes do more than freak Floridians out in the middle of the night. These creatures bite, which can be pretty painful, due to the toxins they release. You won’t get sick from a centipede bite, and they are certainly not fatal, but victims will tell you a close encounter is still quite unpleasant.

To make matters worse, these arthropods lay dozens of eggs at a time, which can easily turn into a horrifying centipede infestation in your home. To add insult to injury, a pest control expert will tell you that when centipedes show up inside your house, it’s likely that other pests are also present.

Why is that?

Centipedes are situated right in the middle … Read Full Post »