Working out what an insect is from what you can actually see: colour, location, movement and look-alikes.
A hard shell with a straight seam down the back means beetle, which rules out the things people fear. Where you found it sorts the six families.
Hard-Shelled Bugs in the House: Which Beetle Is It? Read More »
The impostor people actually meet is a drain fly. Wing count and where it chooses to sit separate it from the two moths that matter, indoors and out.
Bugs That Look Like Moths: Drain Flies and Four Others Read More »
Dust that appears to move usually is moving. Mould mites, carpet beetle larvae in lint and booklice explain most cases, and damp explains all three.
When Lint or Dust Turns Out to Be Alive Read More »
Warm motor, a tray of standing water, crumbs and nobody looking. It is the best pest habitat in a kitchen, and the first place worth checking.
Bugs Behind the Fridge: Why That Spot Specifically Read More »
A cupboard with a pipe in it is the wettest dark place in a kitchen. Five insects use it, and every one of them is reading the same slow leak.
Bugs Under the Kitchen Sink: What Lives There and Why Read More »
Specks are evidence, and each kind points at a different pest. How to tell droppings from frass, shed skins and ordinary dirt without a microscope.
Tiny Black Specks in the House: Reading the Evidence Read More »
Eight legs narrows it but does not finish it. Body segments, waist and antennae separate spiders from harvestmen, ticks, spider beetles and camel crickets.
Bugs That Look Like Spiders: Count the Legs First Read More »
One question settles most flea panics: is there an animal in the house. After that, the jump and the side-flattened body finish the identification.
Bugs That Look Like Fleas But Are Not Read More »
A ceiling sighting is a direction, not a species. Meal moth larvae, cluster flies, spiders and carpet beetles all end up there for different reasons.
Bugs Crawling on the Ceiling: What Gets Up There Read More »
A sunny south wall in autumn draws four insects doing the same thing. They are looking for a way in, which makes this a sealing job, not a spraying one.
Bugs Clustering on Outside Walls: What They Want Read More »
