Gerry Wegner Ph.D.

Since digger and sand wasps are beneficial and not aggressive, control should be implemented only when required by clients.

With the recent safety issues in the food industry, a question may arise regarding the affect of bird activity with regard to recalls and investigations related to the use of good manufacturing practices. Retailers are not exempt from the bird problems either. Many of us have been in a big box...more >>

Because they exhibit similar behaviors, there are several species that are easily mistaken for carpenter ants.

Beginning with anatomy and behavior, acrobat ants differ from most other structure-invading ants in North America.

The bat tick is a species of soft tick occasionally found associated with bats roosting in structures across the contiguous United States and into southern Canada. Soft ticks get their name from the flexible, granular texture of the exoskeleton, as opposed to hard ticks, which have a prominent...more >>

The European starling is yet another example of a failed attempt at releasing non-native species thought to be beneficial. One hundred European starlings were imported from England and released in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s, with hopes that this species would help control insect...more >>

The picture-winged flies of the Family Ulidiidæ (formerly Otitidæ) are represented by about 127 species in North America. The common name ascribed to the flies in this family refers to the black and yellow patterns on the otherwise transparent wings. Delphinia picta is...more >>

Why do some ant species become pests?

The three species of wood cockroaches most encountered by pest management professionals (PMPs) in the contiguous U.S., from the Great Plains eastward, are the Pennsylvania wood cockroach, Parcoblatta pennsylvanica; a look-alike cockroach, P. fulvescens; and the Virginia wood cockroach, P. virginica.

At first glance, the polybiine or long-waisted paper wasps of Genus Mischocyttarus (pronounced Mis-k-sit-ar-us) look just like their close relatives, the Polistes paper wasps. Both genera of wasps construct umbrella-like paper maché nests on sheltered or recessed surfaces of...more >>