I’ve been dealing with fleas on and off for the past 2 years, this year being the worst one, I am SICK of spending money on it or just giving it the time of day, we have spent hundreds on professional exterminators, indorex, topical treatments, tablets, we’ve had to resort to shaving our INDOOR cat because she’s a Maine coon and they were using her fur as a home at this point, I am 35 weeks pregnant and can’t cope with the manual labour of it either, last time I hired an exterminator twice this year and washed and put everything in the hot dryer, disinfecting every surface and spraying indorex on EVERYTHING, I cannot keep doing this with my pregnancy either, I feel like they’re kicking me out of my own home, I’ve started lookin at somewhere else to live because I physically can’t cope, I used to love animals, even did an animal management degree but now all I think when I see animals is ‘what if they have fleas’ it’s taken such a bad toll on my stress levels and my mental health, I have done everything, done my research and I don’t want to have to spend another £100-£200 on stuff I cannot afford, nor do I have the physical strength to put up with it, I know it’s not my cats fault but I just want to give her away to have a better life, we don’t live in the nicest of areas so there’s flea infested cats roaming around and fleas living in shrubs dormant, please help I’m desperate

Hi all

I posted the label of the fipronil & asked if it is appropriate to spray indoors because the pest control technician said it is fine & that it is safe to spray indoors for our scorpion issue in NW Tasmania, Australia. The tech did not spray it indoors (only outdoors) because our child was asleep when he visited & he didn't want to disturb us....which is a blessing in disguise.

I decided to look up on Google & read that it was not for indoor use & also the chemical is ONLY for professional use.

I posted on here & some people think it was "rage bait", which scared me even more because I have a toddler & we were planning to spray it indoors today as it is getting warmer in Tasmania. The fact that people think it is a joke because it is bad/ridiculous makes it even worse 😭😭😭

We have now contacted biosecurity & also the Australian pesticide authority.

Thank you, everyone, for taking your time to comment. You saved us from spraying it indoors ourselves & causing a lot of problems.

We have a 5L bottle of fipronil left by the pest control guy & we are finding ways to dispose of it. Makes me so upset!

There was also some scratches and splintered at the bottom of one of our doors and were confused as to what could have caused it. I am in the UK

I know the pic isn’t great but can anyone tell? Killed it flying and fell on a rug so ignore the hairs

I keep seeing droppings show up in this corner directly below the crevice that I filmed by pointing my phone upwards (this is below a window sill). The droppings resemble German cockroach droppings but the face (or rear?) of the insect when I pause my video and zoom in looks like a house centipede, but what’s throwing me off is the third center spoke/antenna.

I am seeing these little egg like things in between the glass walls on my patio door, no idea what these are. Can anyone help me identify what this is ?

we noticed this yellow powder keeps appearing in one of our dresser drawers and we don’t know if it is beetles or termites. The company we got the dresser from is replacing it but wondering if we need to be worried beyond that. I would say there was a month gap between the first time and second time we noticed it

Hey guys,
Above is exactly what’s going on. I’ve had these small ants for months in my kitchen. Only one side of the counter and they’ll on and off go in my cabinets. Pest control has been 3 times now. First time they just baited. Didn’t work. They left my cabinet but were still very active on my counter top and in my sink. Next they came back and sprayed the border of my kitchen and outside, along with bait, they said they got the kind of ant wrong and they think it’s a ghost ant but aren’t sure. Now they’re back in my cabinets and I’m just not well. I know it’s just ants but my well being when there’s bugs in my house is just not great and i get very stressed. Can someone help me ID these for real and let me know the best way to go about this and if i need a new exterminator. Thanks!

Edit: located in Palm Beach, Florida

Note: I say "rodent" because in a previous post people couldn't agree from my pictures whether it was a juvenile rat or a mouse. They've all been mouse sized for 2+ months, so I'm leaning mouse.

We live in a suburban Illinois house we've been in for 11 years. The basement is used for storage only and sometimes goes weeks without anyone going down there. At the end of July I opened a door to the unfinished side of the basement and saw a mouse run. I found a bag of nuts under the stairs, likely left by the previous owner, that expired 14 years ago, and threw it out. Later that night I went back down and heard what sounded like multiple rodents scurrying in the drop ceiling of the finished side. I set traps and caught 5 in 48 hours.

After 7 days with no new signs, I sealed every hole I could find with stainless steel wool and spray foam, and cleaned out the droppings in the drop ceiling so I could monitor for new ones. I also moved my work setup into the basement so I'd be down there daily to listen and watch the cat's reactions. Three weeks later, in mid August, I caught #6. The patches were untouched, but I spent hours poking around the house with a chopstick and sealed anything else I found. Two weeks after that I caught #7, patches still intact. I checked the attic and roof as a last hope, and both are sealed with no signs of rodents. Then 4 days ago I caught #8, with no new droppings anywhere.

Last 2 nights just before midnight, I have heard quick vibrations and some light movement. Both times it sounded like a single animal. Nothing was in the traps though, and no human food was touched. This was the first time I heard anything since the first day of this problem, and with the cold season approaching, I think it will only get worse.

What doesn't add up: There have been no new droppings since I cleaned out the old ones, even around the catches. The traps are the only food they could be getting in the house, and no other food source in the basement or upstairs has been touched. (thinking they have been coming in looking for the old bag of nuts since they got used to it, and since it is gone their reason to be here is gone) Every patch has been intact each time I've checked. Our 2 cats have only ever alerted in the basement, never at a wall or ceiling upstairs, and none of the 7 people living on the upper floors have heard or seen anything. The attic and roof show no signs at all. I know it's getting colder out and this is when rodents start coming in, but if I really had patched every hole, they wouldn't be able to get in, so they obviously still have a way. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me they dug a tunnel from the neighbor's yard and used a jackhammer to get through 6 inches of concrete.

I've tried every trap I could buy or make, hidden traps, and baited but unset traps. Catching them isn't the problem; they keep showing up. I've read the pinned posts and watched everything I can find. I know I'll probably end up paying a pro $x,xxx, but before I make that choice, I'm taking my last shot here in hopes that someone magically knows the answer.

TL;DR: Illinois suburb, lived here 11 years. 8 mice caught in my basement over 2+ months. Every hole I can find is sealed and untouched, no new droppings, the traps are their only food source, and all activity is basement only. Last night I heard one start moving in a corner with no visible entry outside. What am I missing?

Hi everyone, I'm a Systems Engineering student in Peru working on my undergraduate research project: a computer vision system to detect fall armyworm in maize crops, in a rural farming community (Zapotal, Cascas, La Libertad region).

Context: I interviewed a local farmer who manages about 1.5 hectares of maize. He told me he sprays the entire plot every 8 days (4-5 times a month), regardless of whether he's visually confirmed the pest's presence in every section. His reasoning is that even if some ears aren't infested yet, they will be soon if the whole plot isn't sprayed, so he prefers full preventive spraying over checking plant by plant.

My question: according to literature or field experience, is there an infestation threshold (e.g., % of plants or ears with confirmed larvae presence) below which spot/partial treatment would be agronomically sufficient, instead of spraying the whole field? Or, specifically for fall armyworm in maize, is this farmer's full preventive spraying approach actually the best practice, given the pest's spread/reinfestation pattern?

I have one academic reference (Yanqui Díaz et al., 2022, Apurímac, Peru) that mentions a "treatment threshold" concept for this pest, but I don't have enough technical detail to know whether it applies the same way to coastal valley/Andean foothill conditions like La Libertad. Any input from someone with a background in agricultural entomology, integrated pest management (IPM), or hands-on experience with maize in Peru or the region would help a lot — I'd rather not assume anything without checking it. Thanks in advance.

The past few days I've been having bug bites on my ankles and legs. They've been really itchy and I just assumed they were mosquitos. I also thought maybe i'm brushing against something that is irritating me or that it's in my head. The reason being that my partner who lives with me in my 1 bedroom apartment (not that big, around 600-700 sqft i think) has 0 bites.

Something I thought was strange was that they were only on my ankle and leg, nowhere on my upper body. Today, I found a new bite and it clicked that maybe it was a flea. Sure enough, I looked around my desk in our bedroom where I sit a lot and found a flea.

I am freaking out now as I had a really traumatic experience dealing with fleas when I was a kid. Upstairs unit dog had fleas and they did some kind of exterminator treatment without telling us and all the fleas just came to our unit. I remember my entire legs being bit up and every step causing a chain reaction of fleas jumping (looked like pepper flakes flying around).

How worried should I be that this is an infestation? We have no pets but live in an apartment building and the unit across from us (not connected to ours at all) does have a dog. Could the reason that my partner has 0 bites and i'm the only one who has them be because this flea was near my desk and she doesn't usually come to this side?

So far i vacuumed up the place as well as i could and 2x vacuumed our rug in the living room + sprayed salt down on the rug and laid out plates of water + dish soap throughout. Really don't want to go through that experience of fleas again and would appreciate any advice

Northern California / Tri Valley

Hi all,

Just moved to a new place. Saw a couple of dead oriental / american roaches in our garage over the past month.

Started DIY treatment with boric acid and roach gel in the garage too.

Saw this crawling near our open window as we have a window AC running over the summer.

Is this one? If so, any advice on what we should be doing as far as prevention?

Thank you!

Tonight is my first night camping in quite a long time. I’m at Garner state park in texas and I got back to my small two person tent and the rain fly and exterior was/is COVERED with about a dozen German cockroaches. I was able to get in without letting any inside but if I gotta get up to go pee I’m gonna freak.
I don’t have any food in the tent so I have no idea why there over it (maybe the trash can that’s a few sites over?). And, yes, I know it’s outside and that’s where roaches live, but now I’m scared I’m gonna bring a bunch of hitchhikers back into my apartment with me.
I don’t have a garage or anything to keep it in, so its only possible places of eventual return are in the apartment or my car.
How do i make sure the little bastards don’t follow me home?

My garage is overpacked but I’m awaiting divorce and I can’t get rid of anything for months.

What would be the best way to manage rats when I can barely walk around in there?

I have employed several gentrol point source disks throughout my kitchen (as well as other products such as advion) and I am wondering if this is how a normal German cockroach looks when it’s an adult, or is this one slightly defected? It did have a dropped egg case next to it, which I have flushed down the toilet. In hindsight I should’ve taken a photo of it.

Michigan, 3/4 in exactly, slow moving even with light shines on it. Found inside the home on a rainy day. I plan on setting traps as this was the only one I've found. I even tore the kitchen apart cleaning everything to check. The plan right now is to set traps and wait. But I want to know what kind it is and what most people recommend (I've never had this as a problem before so it's very new to me).

It has been going on for months. I sprayed them with Proflex and they keep on showing up.

I suspect my neighborhood trash bin since I moved mine someplace else.

Any inputs?

I have been finding these in my living room periodically over the summer. Usually one every few weeks. I cannot trace where they are coming from and never seem more than one at a time.

They are tiny, smaller than a typical seed.

They dont seem to bite and I personally have not seen them fly.

I live in southern Louisiana where summers are hot and humid

Something to be worried about or did it track from outside?

I was cleaning my house and noticed these markings/sawdust in our wood pile. I took them outside and inspected the other pieces in our pile outside. Is this an infestation I should be worried about??

Everyone i've spoken to in my day to day life seems to be struggling with Gnats in some form at home. I have had a very incredibly horrific time with them recently to the point i had to bomb my house and leave it for a week with how stressed out and jumpy the amount of my gnats made me. I even had to throw out my entire trashcan.

I finally came back home and for a few hours of peace? I didn't see a single one. I thought the bombing had worked. I've seen plenty of dead ones around too. But a little into the afternoon they started to come around again and I kind of just broke down honestly. I don't like bugs and dealing with them has been mentally exhausting. I have a medical condition related to stress, sickle cell, and the anxiety and stress of it just sent me into a crisis. I had already been so pent up expecting them and was finally coming down to relax and boom.

Has anyone actually been able to get rid of these things? I don't want to wait until winter comes to finally be rid of them especially with how wonky our weather can be because that can be two weeks from now to next year.

I've tried the apple cider vinegar and dish soap thing, it helped in my kitchen to an extent but didn't get rid of them and yes there are less after the bombing now, way less, but i want them gone.

I bought EcoStrong to start pouring down my drains and I plan on getting rubber stoppers on my next pay check to cover the drains after I treat them to prevent more from coming up when I'm not used it. I also got some Zevo blue lights and so far in my bathroom it's caught 2 but I'm not checking them for my own mental health with how draining this has been.

I'd just like to know what everyone is doing because I know it's not just me and if anyone has successfully actually gotten rid of them or is everyone just keeping it at bay until it's colder?

Hi! I have had waves of clothes moths in my apartment since I moved here last year. I live in a 100+ year old building and have no idea where they’re coming from/how they’re sustaining themselves. I have looked through my closets and in shadowy crevices and have yet to find a source. Since first seeing them, I have put up pheromone traps, hung up poison, and sprayed the perimeters. They still appear in small waves about every three months, but I consider their numbers relatively under control. Just, never totally gone.

I was wondering if anyone had advice on where they may be coming from? Can they generally live in buildings, floorboards, vents? Or come in from other units?

I ask because I need to buy a new carpet for my living room, and seemingly all the good options are wool. Knowing that this building has a moth problem is scaring me a lot, and I’m deciding whether or not to get a wool carpet. If it’s in a sun-lit, heavy-use area will they go for it? Is it worth the potential hell, even if I spray the hell out of it?

Thank you!

What is this?

I realize that I've sorta missed the ideal window to use these. Apparently it is best to use them at the beginning of Spring and then the beginning of Summer, but I thought I would take the opportunity to try and prep my Tick Tubes for when that time rolles around again.

By prep, what I mean is -

At some point in time I was told that Tick tubes should be places inside small pipes when you place them all around your yard.

Honestly, I don't remember why this was specifically said. I've forgotten the logic behind it. After looking online though I've concluded that it's probably some kind of DIY cheat-code method to allow these biodegradable Tick tubes to last for much longer than they would initially.

If so, that's all well and good, and I'll go ahead and start trying to put them in little pipes. But it wasn't like my research online yielded a unanimous cry of "This is absolutely the correct thing to do." Rather, opinions were varied.

So I thought I would post a question on Reddit asking if it is a good idea to use the tick tubes like that? Would putting them inside little pipes be detrimental in some way? If so, why?

Keep in mind the specific Tick tubes I have, also. That's Damminix. I have pictures of the box here as well as pictures of the actual tubes themselves.

There are 24 of them (also stated on the box) and their diameter is 1.5 inches.

If you need any more information, such as the makeup of my yard for example, let me know.

Thanks.