Creature Feature from Veseris

Fruit flies only need a moist film of fermenting material to breed. This often accumulates on the sides of floor drains and in cracks and crevices in floors and underneath equipment.

Although named the German cockroach, the most widespread cockroach pest in the world probably originated in Southeast Asia and expanded to urban areas through human travel and commerce.

The cigarette beetle belongs to the Anobiid family, which also contains wood-boring beetles. Anobiid beetles have yeasts in their digestive tracts that help them consume and survive on foods with poor nutritional quality. The cigarette beetle is the most serious pest of stored tobacco, but also feeds on a wide range of plant and animal-based stored products. It can bore through plastic and cardboard, even into wood, although the latter will always be associated with a stored product.

Like the Norway rat, the roof rat is an Old World rat native to Asia, specifically the forests of Southeast Asia. It also spread west through human migration, but it arrived in Europe and North America earlier than the Norway rat. Once the more aggressive Norway rat reached the United States, roof rats began to decline.

The spotted lanternfly is a planthopper, meaning it is a type of bug and not a fly. It is native to China along with its preferred host, tree of heaven, also called by its genus name, Ailanthus. In native habitats, spotted lanternfly populations are regulated by parasitic wasps. Both tree of heaven and the spotted lanternfly are considered invasive species in several states. They did not arrive together. Tree of heaven was purposely brought to the United States in 1784 as an ornamental plant. The spotted lanternfly was first noticed in Pennsylvania in 2014. Since then, it has spread to 13 surrounding states.

The European hornet was introduced to the United States in New York, between 1840 and 1860. Since then, it has spread to the other east coast states, across to the Mississippi River, and up into parts of North and South Dakota.

Bed bugs belong to a family of insects that are primarily human, bat and bird parasites. It is believed that the first bed bugs parasitized bats in ancient Mediterranean caves and began parasitizing humans as they inhabited caves along with bats. As cities were established and commerce between them followed, bed bug infestations became more permanent and spread to other areas.

Excluding the northeastern and upper midwestern states, scorpions are present across most of the US and just over the border into southwestern Canada. Although they can be found in a variety of habitats, many live in hot and arid deserts. Of the 90 or so species in the U.S., all but four naturally occur west of the Mississippi river with the highest concentration in the desert southwest. Most are terrestrial, living under objects on the ground or in burrows, but some are arboreal, meaning they live up in trees.

Two house mosquitoes (Culex spp.) are present in the United States: the northern house mosquito and the southern house mosquito. The northern house mosquito was introduced from North Africa and is present across the northern US; the southern house mosquito was introduced from Southeast Asia and is present across the southern US. There is a hybrid zone where these mosquitoes meet and are able to produce viable offspring, indicating they are probably subspecies instead of two separate species.

The Turkestan cockroach is native to much of the Middle East through Central Asia. It was most likely introduced to the United States in military equipment returning from the Middle East in the late 1970s. Since then, it has become common in southern California and across the southwestern states into Texas where it appears to be displacing the Oriental cockroach. It may occur in other states near military bases or due to its popularity as a live feeder insect for reptile pets. For more information on this and other pests goto veseris.com/creature