Working out what an insect is from what you can actually see: colour, location, movement and look-alikes.
Chewed corners, pinholes through foil, webbing inside a bag. The packet that failed names the pest and tells you whether it arrived with the food or found it.
Damaged Food Packaging: Pest Signs in a Pantry Read More »
Groove width separates mouse from rat, and fresh gnawing is pale against a weathered surface. That colour difference dates the activity better than droppings.
Gnaw Marks: Reading Rodent Damage on Wood and Plastic Read More »
Paired parallel grooves are rodent incisors. This is the one finding on the site that is a fire risk, so the order of what you do next actually matters.
Chewed Wires: Which Pest and What to Do First Read More »
Edge notches, shot holes, skeletonised patches and slime trails are four different culprits. The damage shape names the animal better than searching does.
Holes in Leaves: Reading Garden Damage Read More »
Moths graze irregular patches and leave webbing; beetles cut cleaner scattered holes. Where in the garment the damage sits matters as much as its shape.
Holes in Clothes: Moth or Carpet Beetle Read More »
Texture decides it: shavings, pellets, powder or pulp. Each points at a different insect, a different urgency and a different thing to look at next.
Sawdust Piles Indoors: Four Things That Make Them Read More »
Diameter and shape narrow it to a family before anything else. Round, oval or slot, powder or none, and whether the hole is an entrance or an exit.
Small Holes in Wood: Identifying What Made Them Read More »
Talc-fine and it drifts, where termite pellets stay put. Whether the powder is fresh decides whether the infestation is active or finished decades ago.
Powderpost Beetle Frass: Fine Powder Under Furniture Read More »
Coarse shavings mixed with insect parts, not chewed pulp. Carpenter ants excavate wood rather than eating it, and that changes what the pile underneath means.
Carpenter Ant Frass vs Sawdust: How to Tell Read More »
Six-sided pellets poured from a kick-out hole mean drywood termites. Subterranean termites produce no frass at all, and that absence is the useful half.
Termite Frass: The Pellets That Mean Drywood Termites Read More »
