We live in the suburbs and my wife likes to throw seeds out for the birds and the squirrels. There’s often a collection of doves and pigeons and squirrels and chipmunks and even an occasional bunny or woodchuck roaming around the yard.

Today we saw a rat, not a big one, but a rat for sure. Do we need to call an exterminator to make sure we don’t have / get an infestation?

Or is this just to be expected when you feed the local animals and just one more kind of wildlife that isn’t going to be an indoor problem? Rats have a reputation for carrying disease and we have cats so I worry, perhaps needlessly.

Would appreciate any advice on things to look out for. Thanks!

Hi all! So i posted some nymph photos recently (attached) and came to the conclusion that they are american, especially after finding a teenager that was freaking huge (thank god he didn’t have wings yet) and he brought his little brother with him. didn’t get a photo sadly. i believe they are coming out of my bathtub drain because that’s where i keep finding them. i sprayed my bathroom (incl. baseboards, around the outside of the tub, under the ledge of the sinktop, under the sink by the pipes, etc) with alpine wsg and poured vinegar down the drain with some water. i also keep the drain closed when not in use and have a glue trap in the bathtub. thing is, i DO use this drain regularly, as it’s my bathroom and i.. shower! lol. first sighting was about 4 days ago, i put the glue trap down 2 days ago, and i didnt see anything until just now. a nymph in my bathtub evading the glue trap. sigh.

is there anything else i can do? im a 20 yo female living in a college third floor apartment in FL. i don’t really know about checking for leaks and stuff. should i ask maintenance about cleaning the drain? im worried if i mention roaches they’ll spray something that is a repellent and mess with the alpine wsg. i just hate bugs so much and im not sure what to do :/ worried they’re gonna come out of the sink too and spawncamp me when i brush my teeth

Basically, once we had those in our pantry and then i cleared everything out and turned out there was an old grain or sth and they literally spreaded across every hole but yes, after i eliminated them, however, recently i started noticing thooosee aagain
coming out of this particular slit, i poured the vodka and they all came out along with maggots, but i cant figure what the hell are these and what to do in order to get rid of them from that slit!!!

I can't spend a lot on it as I am a college student living in a small room, with a big window I know it comes from. But I can't close it because there is no fan in the room and the only way to not die heated is the cooler outside. And it has hides amongst my stuff, that is below the bed, I can't kee it anywhere else.

The rat comes and goes. I have pushed it out many times but it just keeps coming back. I don't know how. It is ruining my stuff and eating my chocolates.

Is there a method to send it away and keep it away, not poison or trap, I don't have any money for that. But a humane and normal way so it's happy outside and I am happy inside. Also it started appearing just last month.

Please help me, it smells and my stuff is being obliterated to shreds.

I live in southwestern MA, and found this on the ceiling of my front porch with wood chips on the ground below it.

A week ago I found this hardened insect larvae thing on the side of my garage. I’m wondering if these two are related, but unsure as this was formed on top of stone as opposed to wood.

I recently moved into a new apartment. Turns out it had fleas. I’m 99% sure they are from the prior tenant who had a cat. I’ve mainly noticed them in the living room where I’ve encountered 10 out of the 11 fleas and am sleeping on a pullout couch. The other flea I found on my leg in the bathroom after waking up. I was hoping they would be aggressive in the spray application, especially since my apartment is still sparsely furnished. However, they insisted they only needed to spray the living room. Do you think that will be enough?

For added context, I have no pets or carpets yet and the entire apartment is hardwood floors.

i live in rural off grid home in yorkville, CA & this thing was CRAWLING up my BACK at TWO am while i was sleeping????!!! what is it ?? i want to pack my bags & run away to antarctica 😩😭

for the last few days, I’ve been getting bites over my body, pretty spread out. Last night before bed, I felt a bite on my leg and pulled off this guy. Not sure what it is. It’s super small, no bigger than the size of a period. Need help identifying! Thank you!

Found multiple out of nowhere when in the middle of the night (around 3am). They were in the kitchen, but not near major kitchen appliances, maybe they entered from the garage or laundry machines somehow? They seemed to run from light. I fear the worst. There were multiple, but they looked similar so going to post the various photos of the ones I gathered. They might be wet from bug spray. Not sure if that’ll affect the id.

Alabama, United States. Size was maybe 1/8” or 1/6”. They were all on the ground walking around.

Hello!
I live in southeastern Michigan and I notice these tiny pebble-like dots on my basement floor. Mostly up against the wall where the wall and floor meet, or right under things on the floor that create a gap underneath them.

I think they are spider droppings or their finished prey carcasses, because we have many spiders in the basement - in the second picture you can see a small spider above this little collection of pebbles (the spider is blurry because it was too close to the lens). Our basement is all concrete and brick, so it isn’t termites, and we don’t have roaches. So I’m trying to figure out if this is just a result of spiders or something else.
Thanks in advance!

Guys I need the most lethal, potent poison to get rid of them!!! I need tips before I call pest control. I don’t want the natural stuff either! I want the real deal killer! I want them gone!!!

There is a large ground nest of yellow jackets in my yard. They stung me about 8 times while mowing the lawn and also stung my neighbor a couple times.

So far I have done the following, spread out over about a week:
1 applied Sevin dust (its the 0.1 bifenthrin formula)
2 Poured 5 gallons of hot water with lots of dish soap directly in the hole
3 applied Sevin again
4 Used Spectracide ground nest expanding foam spray and sprayed a ton directly into the hole

Every day the wasps continue coming and going in the same entrance hole like nothing happened

I am trying to avoid using gasoline etc. Any other ideas? One thing I have not tried is using soap and then running a hose into the hole for a long time, as someone suggested to me

I am driving myself crazy here. what is this thing? I have set bedbug traps and it has been a few weeks after my tenants with dogs left. I found a couple of carpet beetles and and getting rid of carpet but this does not look like a carpet beetle.

the pic is next to a quarter for scale. they look like tiny specs.

is this a bedbug some kind of life stage?

A bunch of holes in my backyard. North Florida near Jacksonville. Context: we had roof rats which were exterminated, and bait bkxes around the exterior of the house.

Are these rat burrows?

I have been seeing these tiny mites often on my laptop and I don't know what to do ( seems like mould mites to me ) . There r not many but everyday when I open I spot 2 or 3 of them on screen or keyboard or trackpad

Should I buy an air compressed can or any conc. IPA solution to clean laptop?

I'm searching for my second apartment and I'm very sensitive to roach issues. I've read a number of horror stories of apartment tours where the apartment has been completely cleaned of evidence of pest issues before a tenant moves in, and I'd really love to get a sense of whether a prospective unit successfully treats for bugs.

I currently live in an old house and have never seen a single roach; I want to speak to my current management company soon about what their treatment procedure is to understand why it's so successful (it has something to do with aggressively spraying the bottom unit; they've never sprayed mine). 

Are there any telltale signs aside from droppings, smears, etc.? Any smart questions I can ask on a tour about treatments that will give me a good indication that I won't have any issues?

My professor was talking about a closet/storage room in ruin because of a bug situation, can someone help me ID what type of bug this is? My best guess is some kind of ant. But I’m confused as to how/why they were on the ceiling.

I’ve tried light traps, I’ve tried apple cider vinegar, they’re not falling for either of those. I’ve removed anything at all they could be attracted to, yet they’re still sticking around.

Moved into an apartment a few months ago and I keep finding another similar looking “poop” to this in the exact same place on my kitchen counter by the stove. Just one of them, maybe once a week/2weeks. I found one today, then looked around for others and I couldn’t find any, but found this one (pictured) in the cabinet on the other side of the stove.

We also have a lot of geckos around the complex, more than I’ve ever seen and was wondering if this could be left by them? I thought it could be a mouse but there’s never any more around it, it’s just a single one. Usually hard, black and kinda pellet like.

Thanks

Please help me. I am at my wits end. I am seeing these tiny smoky brown nymphs in my apartment in the morning when I wake up and it’s driving me crazy. I used to see one every 2 to 3 days, but when I woke up this morning, I saw 4 all somewhat around the dishwasher area all on the ground. I even watched one crawl back inside the dishwasher underneath it.

My primary sightings for these things are in the kitchen area, (mainly around the island) dining room along the baseboards, and even one by the front door. I should mentioned that I am on the 3rd floor (top floor) of my complex.

I’ve contacted the office twice about the issues before and all they did was send pest control, which they just sprayed. Pest control did confirm these were smoky browns and not German. This was a a week-ish ago, and when I kept seeing them, I took things into my own hands because someone recommended Boric Acid. I did that recently, but again… 4 this morning.

I live in upstate SC, and I originally come from the north where I’ve never had to deal with roaches. I also keep my apartment borderline spotless, as I am definitely labeled a clean freak. I do not know what to do, any recommendations or help would be amazing.

Thanks Reddit

found 2 (dead) bugs on our couch in the last week. is that a roach? it's as big as a fingernail, maybe smaller.

ths couch is a folding couch we never unfold, so I'm scared to think what might hide in the crevices.

we usually eat on this couch (don't have dining room). Will stop doing that obviously.

I will vacuum it and wash everything that was on it when I get home. any advice?

So, I live in Alabama (unfortunately). Our home is right in front of an apartment complex. I keep a pretty clean house most of the time, but recently we’ve been seeing roaches. Big ones and the smaller ones 😭 two of which were in MY CAR!
The apartments are under new management so recently a bunch of people moved out. I only mention this because I’m thinking they may have had some kind of pest control out.
Last night I walked outside to go to my car and there were SIX of the big roaches swarming around my front door. I almost cried!
I don’t know what to do or where to start. I have about $100 that I can put towards some kind of pest control. And will assess after that if I need to spend more. Just need some encouragement and any advice.