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Pest World for Kids

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For Teachers and Kids

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Visit PestworldforKids.org for more fun activities and to learn how to outwit the pests in your world.

 

Trivia from our series “Did you know?”

Ants

  • Ants are the #1 nuisance pest in the United States.
  • An ant can lift 20 times its own body weight. That’s like you lifting 20 of you up in the air!
  • Ants don’t sleep.
  • If crushed the odorous ant gives off a rotten coconut odor, hence it’s name.
  • Amazon ants steal the larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants build homes for and feed the Amazon ants who cannot do anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves for survival.
  • Large number of fire ant stings can result in death.
  • More people in the South and West report having problems with ants.
  • Ants cannot chew their food. They move their jaws sidewards, like a scissor to extract the juices from the food.
  • African weaver ants can haul prey weighing more than 1,000 times their own weight up trees to their nests mainly through the aid of large adhesive pads on each foot.
  • After mating, queen ants lose their wings and never fly again.
  • A small portion of the population is allergic to fire ant stings and should see medical treatment immediately if stung.
  • Odorous house ants may be difficult to control because they don’t feed much from baiting stations.
  • Fire ants continue to move and infest more and more of the country. The entire pacific coast is ripe for infestation.
  • Fire ants first entered the United States in the 1920′s through the port of Mobile, Alabama.
  • While their name may be misleading, pavement ants can also be found inside the home.

Bed bugs

  • Bedbugs find people by the heat and carbon dioxide they give off. A bedbug will close in on an object that is only 2 degrees warmer than the surrounding surrounding air.
  • Bedbugs sleep during the day and come out during the night to look for blood.
  • A typical bedbug usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.
  • An adult bedbug can survive up to one year without feeding.
  • Bed bug hatchlings are so small they can pass through a stich-hole in a mattress.
  • There has been a 500% increase in bed bugs since 1999.
  • Bed bugs grow up to 1/4 inch.
  • Bedbugs can withstand a wide range temperatures from nearly freezing to almost 113 degrees fahrenheit.
  • bedbugs are now found in all 50 states.
  • In addition to being found in beds, bed bugs can also be found in carpets, under wallpaper, behind baseboards, and in small cracks and crevices throughout a room.
  • 70% of homeowners view bed bugs as a nuisance pest, while 20% term them a disease threat.
  • The use of DDT nearly wiped out bed bugs at the end of WW II but experts believe that the ban of DDT in 1972 has contributed to the resurgence of bed bugs.
  • 11% of women homeowners believe bed bugs are a threat to their families health.
  • In 2000, 59.4% of surveyed pest professionals received no bed bug calls. In 2004, 67.1% reported receiving bed bug calls. That’s a 63.6% increase!!
  • Bed bugs can ingest seven times their own weight in blood, which would be equivalent of an average-sized male drinking 120 gallons of liquid.
  • Bed bugs leave a cluster of itchy bites.
  • A bed bug is brown before it feeds and afterwards turns reddish-brown.
  • Bed bugs draw blood for about 5 minutes before retreating to digest.
  • Bed bugs can lay 1-5 eggs in a day and can lay up too 500 eggs in a lifetime.
  • It dosn’t matter if a room is dirty or clean. Bed bugs only care about a dark hole to hide in and access to humans.

Bees and Wasps

  • More than 2 million people in the United States are allergic to insect stings.
  • A single colony of honey bees contains between 20,000 and 80,000 individuals.
  • Bees have been used as symbols for health, wealth, and prosperity by the ancients. Honey was used as currency by the Romans and later the image of the bee was minted on their currency.
  • The honeybee, one of man’s oldest insect friends, gives us honey, beeswax and most important of all, the fertilization of many of our crops bearing plants.
  • The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.
  • A queen bee can lay her weight in eggs each day, laying 1 per minute, all day and night, for a total of 1,500 eggs in 24 hours, and 200,000 in a year.
  • The total distance traveled by all the bees to create a pound of honey may equal twice the distance around the world.
  • Honeybees may make 10,000.000 trips to gather enough nectar to make a single pound of honey.
  • Honeybees have 2 compound eyes and 3 simple eyes, for a total of 5 eyes.
  • As many as 100 people die as a result of bee and wasp stings a year.
  • Wasps feed on sweet liquids, and some that have been feeding on fermenting juice have been observed ,eventually, to get drunk and pass out.
  • Only female bees and wasps can sting. Males do not have the egg-laying “ovipositor” that is modified as the stinger on female insects.
  • Unlike bees, a wasp’s body is smooth and has no hair.
  • Three percent of the American population is allergic to a stinging insect’s venom.
  • In many species of wasps, fertilized eggs become females, while unfertilized eggs become males.
  • When searching for food sources a honeybee may travel up to 60 miles in a single day.
  • The African Honey Bee (a.k.a. “Killer bee”) have been known to chase people for over a quarter of a mile once that have gotten excited and aggressive.

Beetles

  • While most beetles are not toxic to humans, warehouse beetles have small hairs on their abdomens that can irritate your mouth and digestive tract.
  • Japanese beetles winter underground.
  • Powerpost beetles larvae will tunnel into hardwood floors, wooden antiques and the like, turning the wood in it’s path into fine, powdery sawdust.
  • Firefly beetles use their glow to attract other fireflies. Males flash about every 5 seconds; females flash about about every two seconds.
  • The abdominal area of the firefly beetle glows a bright yellow-green color.
  • Merchant grain beetles prefer to attack boxes of cake mix, cereal, macaroni and cookies rather than grain, as their name applies.
  • One in every 4 animals on earth is a beetle.
  • It can take up to 3 years for a carpet beetle to grow form an egg to an adult, and adults only live between 13-44 days.
  • There are about 500,000 species of beetles.
  • Firefly beetles are carnivores and eat insects, (including other fireflies) insect larvae and snails.

Butterflies

  • Did you know that butterflies see the colors red, green and yellow? Their taste sensors are located on their feet and a butterfly has to have a body temperature greater than 86 degrees to be able to fly.
  • On many butterflies the color is only an illusion. The color we perceive is created by refraction of the light as it reflects off the surface of the scale.
  • Poisons in the body of a Monarch butterfly are sufficient to kill a small lizard and cause severe vomiting in large birds.
  • The largest butterfly species in the world is a “Birdwing” butterfly from the Solomon Islands, whose wings span twelve inches.
  • On many butterflies the color is only an illusion. The color we perceive is created by refraction of the light as it reflects off the surface of the scale.

Cockroaches

  • Cockroaches can go without eating for a month but will only live a week or two without water.
  • Cockroaches can flatten their bodies and crawl through a crack thinner than a dime.
  • Cockroaches can eat anything-food,leather, hair, and the glue in book bindings.
  • They can live off the toothpaste residue in your toothbrush.
  • The American cockroach has shown a marked attraction to alcoholic beverages, especially beer.
  • Cockroaches can run up to three miles in an a hour.
  • A one-day-old baby cockroach , which is about the size of a speck of dust, can run as fast as its parents.
  • A cockroach can live a week without it’s head. it only dies because without a mouth it can’t drink water.
  • Did you know a cockroach can run nearly 14.5 miles per hour? That’s faster than most people.
  • The largest cockroach on record is measured at 3.81 inches in length.
  • In extreme cases roaches will feed off of humans.
  • The average roach-infested household contains more than 20,000 roaches.
  • Roaches are startled by the smallest of air movements and can run for cover less than .05 seconds.
  • Female German cockroaches can produce one egg capsule every 20 to 25 days. Each capsule contains from 18-48 eggs.
  • Newborn German cockroaches become adults in as little as 36 days.
  • Cockroaches can withstand temperatures as cold as 32′F. In extremely cold places, however, they survive by moving in with humans.
  • Adult German cockroaches can live up to one year.
  • The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to their young, rather than laying eggs.
  • Cockroaches spend 75% of their time resting.
  • A cockroach that has just shed its skeleton is white with black eyes.. After eight hours,it has regained its regular coloring.
  • The world’s largest cockroach (which lives in South America) is six inches long with a one-foot wingspan.
  • American cockroaches can produce 6-14 egg capsules, each containing 14-16 eggs each, in one mating season.
  • The brown-banded cockroach often hides her egg capsules, containing up to 18 eggs in furniture.
  • The German cockroach is not really German. In fact, the Germans call it the Prussian cockroach. It is thought to have originated from Asia.
  • A cockroach can hold its breath for 40 minutes.
  • 1-4 people are sensitive to cockroaches.
  • Cockroach allergens are derived from secretions, excretions, dead bodies and associated debris.
  • Cockroaches are believed to have originated more than 280 million years ago, in the Carboniferous era.
  • There are 5000 species of cockroaches worldwide.
  • Detectable levels of cockroach allergens can be found in at least one location in 63% of U.S. homes.
  • Most cockroach species live in the tropics but they can make their home all over the world, including the North and South Poles.
  • The German cockroach is the most common cockroach found in and around apartments, homes, supermarkets and restaurants.
  • Cockroaches can can transmit a wide variety of diseases and cause common allergic reactions previously thought to be cause by dust.

Crickets

  • Crickets are active at night and are attracted to light.
  • Not all crickets have wings.
  • House crickets can damage silk, woolens, paper, fruits and vegetables.
  • Crickets are omnivores and eat both plants and animals.
  • Crickets hear through their knees.
  • Males of most cricket species make a loud chirping noise by rubbing their forewings together.

Earwigs

  • Earwigs got their name from the myth that they crawl into sleeping people’s ears and tunnel into the brain.
  • The long cerci, or clippers on their backsides can easily identify an earwig.

Fleas

  • Fleas can jump nearly 8 inches high and as far as 13 inches long. That doesn’t seem far, but if you compare that with how high a person can jump, that person would have to jump over a 30 story building that’s at least 800 feet wide.
  • More human deaths have been attributed to fleas than to all the wars ever fought.
  • Fleas can remain frozen for a year and still survive.
  • Fleas are vectors of Bubonic Plague, carried form rodents to humans when they suck our blood. In 14th century Europe, more than 1/3 of the continent died from the disease.
  • Fleas leave little bites on exposed areas, ankles and wrists.
  • Flea larvae feed on undigested organic matter, particularly the feces of adult fleas, which contain undigested blood.
  • Its flat shape allows cat fleas to pass easily between the hairs of animals.
  • There are 1,830 different kinds of fleas known throughout the world.
  • Fleas can survive for months without feeding.
  • Flea eggs will hatch on the ground, in nests, carpet, bedding, upholstery or cracks in the floor.
  • One female flea can lay about 18 eggs a day and just 20 fleas on a dog can produce 360 eggs per day and over 2000 eggs in a week.
  • Cat fleas attack both cats and dogs.
  • A female flea may consume up to fifteen times her own body weight in blood each day, to support the huge production of eggs.

Flies

  • Filth flies can carry diseases such as E. coli, leprosy, typhoid and polio.
  • Flies taste what they walk on.
  • There are more than 200 species of filth flies.
  • Flies use the hairs that cover their bodies to feel, taste and smell.
  • About 400 people in the United States, contract Typhoid, a fly-borne illness each year.  75% of these cases are associated with international travel.
  • A female housefly can lay up to 600 eggs in her short lifetime.
  • The light deflected from an eye of a horsefly can form a rainbow.

Lice

  • Girls get head lice more often than boys, women more than men.
  • In the United States, African-Americans rarely get head lice.
  • Lice are most easily spread among children who share clothing, hats or very close contact in these classroom settings.
  • Body lice infestation is unlikely to persist  on anyone who bathes regularly and who  regularly has access to freshly laundered clothing and bedding.
  • Headlice are not necessarily present due to neglect, unsanitary living conditions, or any kind of abuse.

Mice and Rats

  • Mice can fit through an opening the size of a nickel.
  • In the United States, rodents try to come inside form October through February for warmth and food.
  • Mice feed 15-20 times a day.
  • A rat can swim for three day before it drowns.
  • One pair of mice can produce hundreds of offspring in a year.
  • A mouse produces between 40 to 100 droppings per day, while a rat produces between 20 to 50 droppings a day.
  • Rats contaminate and destroy enough food worldwide each year to feed 200 million people.
  • Each year in the winter, rodents invade an estimated 21 million homes in the U.S.
  • Rats will eat just about anything, including decaying matter.
  • Mice can jump a foot high.
  • House mice are said to be the most common mammal in the US.
  • 36% of the reported Hantavirus cases in the United States have resulted in death. Hantavirus is a virus spread by rodents.
  • Rats can squeeze through a space as small as a half dollar.
  • A female house mouse can give birth to up to a dozen babies every three weeks. Imagine having as many as 150 babies a year!

Mites

Once away from the human body, mites do not survive more than 48-72 hours.

Mosquitos

  • In most cases, mosquitos must feed on an infected person in order to pass on disease. They transmit but seldom carry disease-causing pathogens.
  • West Nile Virus is the number one mosquito transmitted disease in the United States.
  • The average mosquito has 47 teeth.
  • Mosquitos transmit some of the worst diseases known to man, including dengue fever, malaria, encephalitis, and yellow fever.
  • Mosquitos that attack people in their own yard are usually breeding close by on the property or on a adjacent properties.
  • Any water that stands for at least seven days can breed mosquitos.
  • There are 2,700 reported cases of West Nile Virus, a mosquito-born disease, in the United States in 2005.
  • Among those experiencing the pest, mosquitoes are least likely to be treated by a professional.
  • Male mosquitos do not bite humans, but rather live on plant juices and other natural liquids from plants and decomposing organic material.

Moths

  • The most common pest of stored product pests found in the home and in the grocery stores in the U. S. is the Indianmeal Moth.
  • Silk comes from the cocoons of the true Silk Moth. More than 25,000 cocoons must be unraveled to make a single pound of silk thread.
  • Male silk moths can detect female moths up to several miles away.
  • Mexican “Jumping” Beans jump because of a moth larva living inside each one.

Other Interesting Facts

  • To survive the cold winter months, many insects replace their body water with a chemical called glycerol, which acts as an “antifreeze” against the temperature.
  • Kissing bugs are not as romantic as their names implies. Rather, they bite and suck blood while their human or animal host is sleeping.
  • Caterpillars may have over 4000 separate muscles. Humans have only 792.
  • The kitchen is the area of most concern for pests among homeowners.
  • There are about 91,000 different species of insects in the United States. In the world, some 1.5 million different species have been named.
  • There are about 10,000 different species of grasshoppers.
  • More than 500,000 people seek emergency medical help each year as a result of insect stings.
  • More women than men say they are afraid of pests.
  • Insects have been present for about 350 million years, while humans have walked the earth for 130,000 years.

Spiders

  • One of the most dangerous spiders is the Sydney Funnel-Web spider indigenous to Australia. This spider’s bite is particularly nasty and can kill a person in 30 to 40 minutes.
  • One spider egg may contain over 1000 spiderlings.
  • No two spider webs are the same.
  • Spiders have 48 “knees”: 8 legs with joints on each.
  • The venom of a female black widow spider is more potent than that of a rattlesnake.
  • Spider silk from some House Spiders have been used to help stop bleeding from wounds, by placing a mat of silk over the wound.
  • The large “bird spider” tarantulas of South America have been know to live over 27 years.
  • Black widow spider bites can cause intense pain and stiffness, occasionally followed by muscle spasms, abdominal pain, chills, fever and breathing or swallowing.
  • Black Widow spider silk was used to making the cross hairs in bomb sites of World War II aircraft.
  • Spider silk is extremely strong and elastic. It can be stretched up to 25% if its own length.
  • Scorpion babies crawl on top of their mothers and lay there for the first week or two, feeding on scraps of her catches.
  • If food becomes scarce, scorpion mothers have been known to eat their offspring when they are old enough to venture out on their own.
  • Scorpions give birth to live babies, several dozen at a time.
  • A female tarantula found in South America weighed 1/3 of a pound, and had fangs 1 inch long.
  • Spiders don’t get caught in their own webs because they have self-oiling legs.
  • The largest spider in the world is a species of tarantula found in South America where one specimen had a leg span of over 11 inches.

Termites

  • Termites cause as much as $5 billion dollars damage each year. Formosan termites alone cause over  $1 billion in damage each year.
  • When forming a new colony, flying male and female “swarmer” termites break off their wings, enter wood through a crack or hole, mate and begin feeding.
  • Termites are the most likely of all pests to be treated by a professional.
  • A single colony of Formosan termites could eat the entire structure of a home within two years.
  • Subterranean termites spend winters undergrounds.
  • Termites are sometimes treated with bait traps, cylinders containing wood and slow-acting poison that are buried in the ground around the perimeter of a home.
  • Termites eat non-stop-24 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • The total weight of all of the termites in the world is greater than the weight of all humans in the world.
  • Formosan Termites are the most destructive termite in the world.
  • The queen of a certain termite species can lay up to 40,000 eggs per day.
  • Of some thirty or so insect orders, termites are the only one in which all species are categorized as highly social or “eusocial”.
  • Given enough time, termites will feed until nothing is left of the wood but a shell.
  • An estimated 15% of all new homes have serious structural defects and damages, which may include termite damage.
  • No one knows how long termite queens live, but many are known to live at least ten years and records of some long lived mounds suggest longevity of over 40 years.
  • Other insects have long lived immature stages but termites appear to have the longest lived adult reproductive lives.
  • Termite burrow into the wood to obtain food.
  • There are about 2,000 known species of termites in the world.

Ticks

  • The deer tick is smaller than a pinhead.
  • In addition to Lyme disease, ticks can also transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, relapsing fever and ehrlichiosis.
  • Tick paralysis is a tick-borne disease that is caused by the toxins in tick saliva and can occur when the tick remains continuously attached for 2-7 days.
  • With Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness, about 30-40% of victims get a pinkish bull’s-eye type rash but victims are more likely to feel they have the flu.
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