Browse Ants, Termites, Lice and Other Pests Stories - Page 2

As the weather cools across the state, several fall insects will begin to take center stage around Georgia homes. Be on the lookout for these nuisance pests and make preparations to deter them from entering your home for the winter.

It officially turned summer this past weekend and the weather forecast seems to agree, with thunderstorms and warm nights in our future. These conditions are pretty typical for summer in Georgia — and excellent for mosquito development.

Border to border, the state of Georgia enjoys mild temperatures and more than adequate rainfall, which are perfect conditions for the growth of an abundance of insects, including subterranean termites.

University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Agent Jessica Warren is doing her part to knock down populations of invasive snails in Camden County.

One of the best things about living above the fall line in Georgia has always been the lack of gnat swarms, but that seems to have changed this spring.

In most colonies, ants work in service of a single reproductive queen, but that’s not always the way ant societies function.

Whether you have a well-manicured lawn or a wild preserve, almost every landscape in Georgia shares one feature: fire ants.

A tiny wasp — known as “Paratelenomus saccharalis” — is cutting down kudzu bug populations and Georgia soybean farmers’ need to treat for the pest, according to Michael Toews, a University of Georgia entomologist based on the UGA Tifton campus.

Bait treatment should be applied in southern and central Georgia in April and October to eliminate existing fire ant colonies and their mounds, but reinvasion can occur any time, according to University of Georgia entomologist Will Hudson. Four to six months later, the mounds will reappear, which means homeowners should treat for the pests twice a year, about six months apart.

Hundreds of people get sick each year from inappropriate pesticide use, but those who don’t deal with pesticides daily may not think about it very often. Of the 11 states participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pesticide safety program, workers reported 853 serious injuries from pesticides in 2011, according to the CDC.