Pest Identification Guide

What Do They Look Like?

Size: Varies, many are 3-10mm in length
Color: Varies, many are brownish-black

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Ants are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and a distinctive node-like structure that forms a slender waist. Different species have differing characteristics. You can identify an odorous house ant by crushing it – if it smells of coconuts it’s probably an odorous house ant.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 6-10mm in length/ eggs are up to2 mm in length
Color: Reddish-brown

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Adult bed bugs are brown, wingless insects with flattened bodies. Their size depends on the amount of blood consumed. When engorged, their bodies change from brown to a dull red color as they swell. They have piercing-sucking mouthparts.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/4 to 3/4 inch in length
Color: Various

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Beetles are characterized by the hard outer covering formed by their front wings that protects the back of the insect. Many species of beetle, in many colors, shapes and sizes invade structures.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/2 inch long
Color: Black with orange or red markings

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Adult Boxelder bugs are easily recognizable with black bodies and orange or red markings, including three stripes on the area below the head. Their wings are flat on their bodies and overlap to form an “x”. Nymphs are 1/16 inch long and are bright red.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1-2 cm in length
Color: Black or blackish

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Carpenter ants range in size, but are often large and black. They have a single spine, or node, on their waist and never have bumps humps or spines on their backs.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 3/4 inch in length
Color: Black and yellow

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Adult Carpenter Bees are large, black and yellow bees similar in appearance to Bumble Bees. Carpenter Bees have shiny black abdomens and often drill perfectly round holes (1/2 inch in diameter) into wood into which they lay eggs.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: Adults range from 1/2 to 3/4 inch in length. Young cockroaches may be much smaller.
Color: Tan, reddish-brown or brownish-black

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Cockroaches are medium-sized flattened insects. Wings, if present are leathery in appearance, and may not cover the entire abdomen. The most common cockroach, the German cockroach is mostly light brown or tan except for two dark lines behind the head.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/16 to 1/18 inches in length
Color: Dark-colored

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Adult fleas are small, dark-colored, wingless insects that are flattened from side to side. The most commonly encountered flea is the cat flea or Ctenocephalides felix. It has an incredibly tough body and it is difficult to kill a flea just by squeezing between the fingers.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/8 to 1/4 inches in length
Color: Gray to black

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

The head of the house fly has two velvety stripes that are silver colored above and gold colored below. There are four vertical black lines on the dull, gray thorax. The abdomen is usually dark brown.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 5/8 to 3/4 inches in length
Color: Mostly black with a white pattern on most of the face

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Baldfaced hornets are large insects that build spherical (egg-shaped) gray paper nests. These large nests may be found either close to the ground or very high in trees, overhangs, sheds, etc. The nests are used for one year and then abandoned.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/8 to 3/8 inches in length
Color: Dark brown

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

The body and legs are covered in fine scales. A long, straw-like proboscis is found on the head. The legs are very long and extend far past the abdomen.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: House mouse: 5 1/2 to 7 inches long; Rat: 13 to 16 inches long (including tail)
Color: Brown

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/4 to 1 inch in length
Color: Various

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Unlike insects, spiders always have four pairs of legs, two body parts, no wings and no antennae.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: Adults are approximately 5/8 inch long
Color: Mottled dark brown, with light and dark banding on the last two antennal segments and the exposed edges of the abdomen.

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Adult Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are shield shaped and can release an unpleasant odor from glands on its abdomen.

WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE?

Size: 8-10 mm in length
Color: Creamy white or brownish black

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Termite swarmers have four wings of equal size with two dark veins on the front edge. Their bodies are brownish black and they can fly. Termite soldiers are creamy-white, have soft bodies and large, symmetrically rectangular heads. Termite workers are creamy-white, soft bodied and do not have wings or any specialized structures.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 1/16 – 1/8 inches in length
Color: Reddish brown to brown

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Before feeding, the female is about 1/8” long, orangeish-brown in color (her body becomes darker when engorged), the region behind her head is dark reddish brown, and her legs are much darker than her body. The male is smaller, about 1/16”, long and has a reddish-brown body overall. Both sexes are flattened from top to bottom. Nymphs and larvae resemble adults, except they are much smaller (0.7mm-1.8mm). Larvae only have six legs.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 16-20 mm long
Color: Usually brown with either yellow or red markings, or yellow with black or brown markings

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Coloration in adult paper wasps is usually brown with either yellow or red markings, or yellow with black or brown markings. Their bodies are about 16-20mm long and elongated with a spindle shaped abdomen. The area behind the head is usually triangular, and they have very long legs in proportion to their bodies. Their middle legs have 2 pointed spurs about half way up their leg. They also have a very narrow waist in between their thorax and abdomen. Wings are long and narrow.

What Do They Look Like?

Size: 3/8 to 5/8 inch
Color: Yellow and black

What Are Its Identifying Characteristics?

Yellow jackets are mid-sized wasps with yellow and black abdomens. The abdomen does not taper at the waist, but is broad.

Regulations prohibit the disturbance of bat populations May through October when bats are breeding and the young cannot fly. During the other months, Home Paramount conducts bat removal and exclusion. We will conduct a thorough inspection, identify the entry points and design a professional and effective service plan.

Pigeons, starlings, grackles, sparrows and gulls are considered nuisance pests because of the health and safety concerns raised by their nests and droppings.

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The groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, is actually a rodent. It is part of a group of large ground squirrels known as marmots and measures between 18 and 26 inches long, weighing 5 to 10 pounds. Its fur has a frosted appearance and it has a short tail.

Moles are furry, with cylindrical bodies, pink appendages and small eyes. They are mostly blind but can probably detect light. Moles breed in the spring, usually around March or April and the young reach adult size in four to eight weeks.

The Virginia Opossum is the only Eastern North American marsupial. At its largest the opossum is the size of a cat, at its smallest it is the size of a mouse. They have grayish/black fur, black eyes and pink noses feet and tails.

The raccoon is a mammal native to North America. It ranges from 16 to 28 inches long and generally weighs between 8 to 20 pounds. Its distinctive facial mask and dexterous claws make it easily recognizable.

Home Paramount offers skunk extraction and exclusion services. We will conduct a thorough inspection, identify the animals and its entry points and design a professional and effective service plan.

Most of the snakes in the Home Paramount service area aren’t venomous. In Maryland, there are 27 common species of snakes, two of which are venomous — the Norther Copperhead and the Timber Rattlesnake. In Pennsylvania, there are 21 native snake species, 3 of which are venomous — the Northern Copperhead, Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake and Timber Rattlesnake.

Squirrels are rodents and are members of the Scuridae family that includes groundhogs and chipmunks. They’re prolific in our area and easily recognizable by their grayish fur and long, bushy tail.

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