When you have an infestation of bed bugs (Figure 1), bleach should not be used as a control method. Bleach can be harmful to people if not used carefully, and it will not work effectively to completely eradicate bed bugs from your ... READ MORE
Category: Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, Work & Life
Those little, squirming things in your birdbath are container-breeding mosquitoes (Figure 1). These mosquitoes are in their larval stage. Adult container-breeding mosquitoes lay eggs wherever water collects, which can be natural structures—like ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
Between April and November, you might notice spike-tailed green worms (Figure 1) feasting on your tomato plants’ leaves and fruit. These voracious creatures ravaging your garden are caterpillars called tobacco or tomato hornworms. The caterpillars ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
Actually, yes! They may not make honey like pollinating bees do, but we still need them. Even though you might tend to think of wasps as pesky stinging insects, they do provide ecological benefits. Similar to bees, some species are helpful ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, Work & Life
It may feel as though ants, no matter what you seem to do, will never leave your house. There are several reasons why ants continue to find their way inside your home. Doing dishes every day and keeping food properly sealed may not be enough ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension, Work & Life
You may have noticed branches covered in these strange structures (Figure 1) during the spring, typically in March. These are tents constructed by eastern tent caterpillars, the larval stage of a Lasiocampid moth—a hairy and golden-brown colored ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Natural Resources, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS
The ladybug (Figure 1), or ladybird, is the common name given to beetles in the Coccinellidae family. This is misleading because not all ladybugs are ladies; they can be either female or male. It is difficult to determine the sex of a ladybug, ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS, UF/IFAS Extension
We have a new article on Featured Creatures that will answer that question! Take a sneak peek with this excerpt from the article: Morpho peleides Kollar, the blue morpho butterfly, also known as the peleides blue morpho or common blue morpho, ... READ MORE
Category: 4-H & Youth, Recreation, UF/IFAS Extension, Work & Life
This leaf is not really a leaf at all. You are actually seeing an insect: a katydid (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) (Figure 1). On closer inspection, what you may have referred to as a grasshopper is, in fact, related to grasshoppers but is not ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS ExtensionThe pillbug, Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille), is an isopod, a type of non-insect arthropod also known as a terrestrial crustacean. It is sometimes called a roly-poly due to its ability to roll into ball when threatened or bothered. This defense ... READ MORE
Category: Agriculture, Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes, Pests & Disease, Pests & Disease, UF/IFAS Extension