Common Spring Pests in Boston

Boston sees its fair share of city-living bugs, including:

• Ants: Carpenter ants, acrobat ants, and pavement ants are tiny pests that can cause big problems both inside and outdoors. They can infiltrate your food supply and damage your home. They live in colonies, so even if you see just one ant, there are many more. Follow the trail to find their home and see how they’re entering yours.
• Termites: Termites thrive in the spring and can wreak havoc on your home’s structure. Signs include mud tubes on the walls of your foundation. Winged termites known as swarmers will emerge in the spring. If you miss the swarm, you may see the small wings they drop on the ground or your floors.
• Mosquitos: Along with warm, wet weather, mosquitos love carbon dioxide, which is why humans tend to attract them. They prefer stagnant water sources, such as bird baths, kiddie pools, and puddles. Mosquitos cause itchy bites, but they can also carry serious diseases like West Nile Virus.
• Ticks: Ticks are small parasites that can embed themselves into the skin of humans and pets. Their tiny size—about the size of a poppy seed or apple seed—makes them hard to detect. They tend to latch onto their victims in thick woods or vegetation, so beware if you’re the hiking type.
• Rodents: Mice, rats, groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, moles—Boston has them all in spades. Some rodents like to enter attics or nest in your basement. Signs of a rodent resident include chewing, droppings, and collections of nesting materials like shredded paper or dried plants.
• Wasps: Flying, stinging insects are common in the Boston area in the spring. Some are harmless, but yellowjackets and hornets should be addressed as soon as possible. Their stings can be painful and their temperaments make them likely to attack anything that gets in their way. Nests are made of a papery-wood substance with comb-like holes. The nest will only get bigger if it’s not destroyed.
• Spiders: Boston is home to several species of spiders, most of which are harmless. Aside from seeing spiders in your home or yard, you can look for spider webs around your home and trees or egg sacs that might be tucked away on window sills or eaves.
• Silverfish: Silverfish are small, silver insects that love wet areas like basements and bathrooms. They don’t bite or sting, nor do they carry diseases. But they can damage your property thanks to their love of wood, paper, and sugary foods.
• Cockroaches: German cockroaches and brown-banded cockroaches are the most common type of roaches in Boston. They’re tough to kill and can multiply quickly. In addition to direct sightings, signs of cockroaches include coffee ground-like droppings, smear marks along baseboards, and discarded skin.
• Bed Bugs: We see a rise in bed bug cases in the spring for the simple fact that more people are traveling after their winter hibernation. Bed bugs can enter the home on luggage, coats, or clothing and quickly spread in their new surroundings. They’re also tiny, so you will need to look for additional signs of bed bugs like bite marks, itchy skin, dark spots or rust-like stains on your mattress, or pale yellow shedded skins.