Plumes: How Pheromones Travel
Pheromone plumes are an intriguing and complex part of nature. Knowing a bit more about them gives us a lot of respect for how amazing insect communication can be and it also helps us become better at setting up trap monitoring programs and providing integrated pest management.
Insects Limited's Free Webinar Series Continues: Museum Pest Management
Insects Limited's world-class education programs share the most recent, cutting-edge investigations into pest biology, pheromones, and trapping systems presented by researchers and field experts from around the globe.
The Top 5 Fabric and Museum Insects
Up to 54% of museums and historic homes have reported damage from insects. Textiles, animal hides, taxidermy, wood works, natural fibers (like wool and cotton), books, and paintings all contain material that insects can exploit and do irreversible damage to.
Watch: All About Indian Meal Moths
In this video, Tom Mueller, Vice President at Insects Limited, goes into detail about the Indian meal moth, including life cycle, damage, detection, monitoring tips and tricks, fun facts, and more.
April Showers Bring May Flowers… and Carpet Beetles
Carpet beetles are a member of diverse family of beetles called Dermestidae. There are over 1700 species of dermestid beetles worldwide (Háva & Herrnmann, 2021) with a variety of feeding habits and behaviors. However, feeding on dry plant (seeds, pollen) and animal (hair, skin) matter is common in this group.
Insect of the Month: Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella)
One insect is found more often than any other on stored food and grain in the United States. This is the dreaded Indian meal moth (IMM). Since they feed on any items containing grain or cereal products, the Indian meal moth alone is responsible for most of the insect problems associated with the food industry. This is one of the easiest stored food insects to identify because the adults have a colorful appearance and the larvae (which look like yellow worms) leave a silken webbing trail wherever they crawl.
Keratin: It’s Tough to Chew
This video, narrated by entomologist Patrick Kelley, will help you understand what makes keratin so difficult to break down and how the insects, including carpet beetles, do this.
Product of the Month: All Beetle AA Carpet Beetle Kit
This All Beetle AA Carpet Beetle Kit includes 10 or 100 (select your quantity) complete All Beetle traps, 10 or 100 dermestid attractant lures, 10 pheromone Bullet Lures™ for Varied Carpet Beetles (Anthrenus verbasci), and Black Carpet Beetle, (Attagenus unicolor), as well as a glue board specifically designed to fit the All Beetle trap removable tray.
Insect of the Month: Varied Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus verbasci)
Varied carpet beetles are commonly found in nests of bees, wasps, and birds, but can also attack, horn, wool, hair, silk, dead insects and are occasionally found in meal, spices, and biscuits. It is a common household pest.
The Top 5 Stored Product Insects
Stored product insects are insects that can infest whole grains, processed foods, and even tobacco. These insects can usually be found in grain silos, processing facilities, storage warehouses, retail stores, and even in our own pantries. Stored product insects cause billions of dollars’ worth of damage to (click to view…)
The Top 15 Clothes Moth Cities in the USA in 2021
This is the 5th year in a row that Insects Limited has released a ranking of the top 15 clothes moth cities in the U.S.
Insect of the Month: Webbing Clothes Moth (Tineola bisselliella)
Moths come in all different varieties but there is one type of moth that is a common enemy to most homes. Clothes moths are household pests that are drawn to fabrics throughout the home.
How to optimize trap capture of insects
Getting insects to enter monitoring traps can be challenging, but the right attractant lure and other factors can provide enough incentive for them to approach the trap, enter and ultimately be captured.
PCT Magazine: Pest Management is Proactive
A program cannot work if the pest management professional is always putting out fires or implementing Band-Aid solutions. Pest management starts with considerable preventative effort and is complemented by a thorough monitoring and inspection program.
PMP Magazine: Profitable Products Q&A with Colleen O’Rourke
As seen in Pest Management Professional Magazine, Profitable
Products, October 2021 Q&A with Insects Limited's Colleen O'Rourke
Arizona Arthropods
Arthropods are a phylum of invertebrate animals that contain an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired appendages.
Some of the most popular arthropods include scorpions, spiders, millipedes, centipedes, crustaceans, and insects.
Ethan Estabrook had the unique opportunity to see a wide variety of arthropods on his recent trip to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
Glue science: How we get insects to “stick” around in traps
One of the biggest issues, when monitoring for insects, is that the insects don’t really want to be caught. Go figure. Regardless of the trap style, whether it be a pitfall trap or a sticky blunder trap, the insects that approach them tend to, by and large, avoid hurtling headlong towards death. We do our best to design traps to outwit these crafty bugs and if you spend some time watching a trap, you’ll see what I mean.
Solve Customer Problems Faster with SightTrap
Originally, the SightTraps were placed with the intent of monitoring for Cigarette Beetles which it did very well. So much so that it alerted the customer to just how big of a problem the facility had. Click to view…
Monarch Butterfly Tagging
Insects Limited’s, Ethan Estabrook, participated in the Carmel Parks Department Monarch tagging event on September 4th.
