Category: Extreme Bugs
Pest of the Month: Cockroaches
- Published on Tuesday, 05 September 2017 10:43
- Written by Good News Pest Solutions
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September is known for a lot of things – the start of the school year, the end of the harvest, even in 1752 for losing 11 days (when England and her colonies joined the rest of the world in switching from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar)!
And September now holds the distinction for having the cockroach as its Pest of the Month!
They’re Ancient
While cockroaches themselves only live about a year, cockroaches as a species are one of the oldest ones on the planet. Whether you believe in the theory of evolution or God’s divine creation, cockroaches have been here since the beginning. There are, depending on who you talk to, between 3500 and 4500 species of these adaptable suckers, although luckily only about 30 of them live near humans.
They’re the Ultimate Survivor
Thanks to some confusion in the wake of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the general public now believes that cockroaches will be the final survivors of a nuclear holocaust. That’s not entirely true. The fact is, they would not survive a nuclear explosion, but they can take a LOT more radiation than we can – up to 10x as much.
On top of that, cockroaches have many other remarkable survival skills – they can survive without food for a month, can hold their breath for 40 minutes, and can survive for a week without their heads.
Cockroaches will eat ANYthing. Even their own mates. Cockroaches prefer meats, starches, and sweets, including beer, but they will eat just about anything to survive, including other insects and other cockroaches. There are even fossil records that appear to prove cockroaches ate dinosaur poop back in the day.
They Come in All Sizes
A day old baby cockroach is about the size of a speck of dust – but can already run almost as fast as their elders. 3 miles an hour may not sound like much, but that’d be the equivalent of a human sprinting 200 miles an hour. Babies grow to adult size in a little over a month, but by then can have spread more than their share of allergens and diseases.
Average adult cockroaches range in size from ½ to 2-inches long. Here in Florida, we’re familiar with some of the larger versions of the classic German cockroach. But the largest cockroach is a species in South America, the Megaloblatta longipennis. It grows to 6 inches – with a wingspan of over a foot! That’s a little bigger than our Palmetto Bugs.
They’re Sometimes Cultivated for Medicine
Yes, believe it or not, in China, they farm and harvest cockroaches. According to university scientists there, American cockroaches can be cooked and consumed or ground into a powder that is utilized in burn creams and cosmetic facial masks.
Robotics scientists are also studying cockroaches’ exoskeletons and wings and their legs for prosthetic advancements. Of course, we’ve told you about several of these advancements and even the Robo-Roach.
We should also clarify at this point that the common names for many cockroach species are the result of nationalism – or rather anti-nationalism. Here in the states we have German cockroaches and in China and Africa they have American cockroaches. The names are sometimes thought to correspond with their point of origin, but more likely are examples of naming a bug they didn’t care for after the society they despised, or even the indigent population they’ve displaced.
How do I Get Rid of Them?
Although cockroaches, like all God’s creatures, do serve some purpose – they help cultivate the soil and do assist with certain aspects of natural recycling – none of us want them in our homes or businesses. So, since September is the beginning of the last third of the year, this is the perfect time to start our Go Green Plus 3 treatment. We’re known from Bradenton to Punta Gorda for our all-natural, safe, 100% organic pest control methods that keep the crawling bugs out of your house. Call us and one of our highly trained staff can get you started. You might also want to ask about Term Assure 365, which adds our exclusive termite prevention, for just a little more.
And if you want to buy a Robo-Roach, well, just google it.
Extreme Bugs: American Carrion Beetle
- Published on Wednesday, 23 August 2017 12:44
- Written by Good News Pest Solutions
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We’ve highlighted quite a few interesting extreme bugs over the years. It’s really incredible all the variety that God created in our world, and there are few scientific classes with more diversity than the insect world.
We think this month’s extreme bug is one of the most interesting. The American Carrion Beetle may seem like just a slightly larger than normal beetle, flying and crawling around, but these beetles actually help solve crimes!
What do they look like?
The Necrophila Americana are mostly found in the Eastern half of the United States (although there are other species in Asia). As we mentioned, they’re larger than most beetles – a half an inch long or bigger, and they have distinctive markings: a prominent yellow pronotum (kind of a cape that falls over their ‘shoulders’) with a black jagged spot in the center.
Sometimes they’re even mistaken for bumble bees when they’re flying around.
Carrion Beetles? That sounds a little disgusting.
It’s true, American Carrion Beetles get their name from their diet, from their earliest days as larvae through the end of their life, they devour decaying flesh. They will occasionally dine on rotting fruit, fungi and vegetation, but they much prefer the taste of carrion – human and other mammals.
After they feed, they leave some leftovers for the eggs that they lay on or near the decaying flesh. The eggs hatch larvae within a few days right next to their food supply.
It might be easier to think of them as the ultimate recyclers – repurposing nasty rotting meat to preserve life. Then there’s their crime fighting abilities.
Solve Crimes?
If you’ve watched any of those police shows on TV, whether its CSI, Bones or Law & Order, you’ve most likely seen at least one episode where they use entomology – the study of insects – to identify how long a body’s been dead.
Usually the first insects to show up on a dead body of any sort are flies – blowflies. But carrion beetles, once they find a food source, can be very aggressive about keeping other potential buffet sharers away.
The beetles will dig under their lunch, eventually covering it up with loose dirt, or working together to carry the corpse away. And because they’ve laid their eggs on the rotten flesh, they’ll often devour the fly larvae as they hatch to protect their young.
Because their life cycle is so distinct and specific, the guys and gals in the lab can analyze the age or generation of beetles they find on a dead body to accurately calculate the time of death – or at least dumping.
We should point out though, that these guys aren’t fun at parties, as the definitive example of the old adage, you are what you eat. To scare away predators, carrion beetles smell… just like their favorite meal.
We hope you don’t ever have a use for the American carrion beetle, but rest assured, if you run across some, you can make us your second call (after 911 or Animal Control). Our field agents are highly trained and know just how to handle just about any insect-related matter you’ll find. And we do it all naturally, with no harsh chemicals like a lot of other guys. And we cover a large range – from North Port to Sarasota and everywhere on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Extreme Bugs: The Mighty Hercules Beetle
- Published on Friday, 21 April 2017 12:34
- Written by Good News Pest Solutions
- 0 Comments
With Universal relaunching their classic monster movies, you can be sure that Tom Cruise will find himself facing off against millions of scarab beetles, a trademark of the Mummy movies. But while our featured Extreme bug this time out is in the scarab family, it takes its name from a different ancient mythology – the Hercules Beetle.
Dynastes Hercules draws its name from the Greek god Hercules because of the beetle’s immense strength. It is rumored to be able to lift 850-times its weight. For you or I, that would be about 65-tons, or essentially one man or woman lifting up one of the Space Shuttles. 😲
The Hercules Beetle is one of a class of beetles known as Rhinoceros beetles, because of the distinctive horn shape that emerges from the male beetles’ proboscis. Interestingly, the length and style of each individual horn is determined by the beetle’s diet. And this is a bug with a huge sweet tooth!
For the first two years of its life, the Hercules Beetle is in its larval stage and primarily eats the rotting wood that makes up its home. Once it emerges as a full-size beetle, its tastes turn more towards fruit – fresh and rotting. And we do mean ‘full-size!’
That’s a BIG Beetle…
The Hercules beetle is one of the largest beetles found in nature – up to 5 inches without the horn, and sometimes it practically doubles their size. But don’t worry, they aren’t prone to attack or injure you – unless you’re another male Hercules beetle! They tend to be a bit territorial about where they can find their female counterparts. Kind of like the bouncer of the beetle world.
In addition to the horns on the males, the coloration of the Hercules beetles vary widely from place to place, due to their diet, their family tree and even the humidity around them. They do sport wings, but they spend most of their time on the ground – foraging, avoiding their natural predators (bats & birds), and resting their wings. It takes a lot of effort to get that big body up and airborne. Not to mention keeping it up there!
They live mostly in the rain forests of Central and South America, and unfortunately for these gentle giants, the biggest threat to their existence is the loss of their natural habitat due to deforestation and contamination of their water supply from pollution.
If you’re worried about harsh pest control chemicals polluting your land or home in Bradenton, Sarasota and Punta Gorda, give us a call! Good News Pest Solutions is the leading, all natural, 100% organic pest control specialist – keeping you and your family safe from harsh chemicals and the damage from insects and rodents in an effective, environmentally safe way.
And be on the lookout for our next Extreme bug segment… It’s gonna be a doozy! 🐛 🐝 🐜
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