There are small insects in almost any apartment, even the cleanest and most tidy. These "neighbors" are not always harmful and dangerous, sometimes they are so few that they are not visible at all, but practice shows that one or another representative of this entomofauna can be found in almost any residential area.
On a note
It is interesting to note that the smallest insects in an apartment can significantly exceed the same cockroaches in the number of individuals, but at the same time, due to their small size, do not attract attention.
However, the presence of any insects in an apartment is undesirable, since they either share food with a person, or feed on fabrics, paper, wood, and, moreover, can move from basements and garbage chutes to the house, spreading infections. And some of them are blood-sucking parasites that bite people and are capable of transmitting pathogens of dangerous diseases.
Therefore, if you regularly meet “incomprehensible” small insects in your apartment, you should not neglect this fact. At least ask yourself: what do they eat, where do they hide, how fast do they reproduce...
Below are photos of some types of small insects that can be found in an apartment and whose size does not exceed 10 mm:
- A flea is a dangerous parasite of animals and humans (few people seriously think about the potential danger of flea bites, although many people know that it was rat fleas that carried the plague in the Middle Ages).
- Grinder beetle. Its larvae can even feed on paper.
- Springtail. In apartments, it is usually found in flower pots.
- The whitefly is a pest of domestic plants. These small white insects in the apartment can often appear with a new flower.
- Butterfly is a small fly, in its ecology associated with sewers.
- Ants, known to almost everyone, but which are one of the most difficult small insects in the house.
- Linen lice, rare today, but quite dangerous with their bites.
- Worms that harm indoor flowers.
- Silverfish are fairly common insects in apartments that are not loved simply because of their appearance.
At the same time, the same ants are recognizable by everyone, and it makes no sense to help the reader separately in identifying them. Therefore, we will focus on those small insects that not everyone knows.
Silverfish: harmless extras
Some scientists consider silverfish to be the most ancient insects that exist today on the planet. They have changed little over many millions of years of evolution and very much resemble the ancestors of all modern insects.
In the photo - sugar silverfish:
And here is home thermobia:
Silverfish feed on various organic residues that are found in dust and crevices; they can eat paper, bread and sugar crumbs. They do not cause harm, and to get rid of them, it is enough to destroy the individuals seen on the walls.
small beetle species
Small domestic beetles include kozheedy, grinders, hrushchaks. They damage various products, can eat paper and spoil books. Kozheedy also damage fur coats and woolen clothes.
In the photo - a bread grinder, one of the smallest insects in the apartment:
This beetle reaches 1.5 mm in length and does not feed as an adult, although it makes moves in many products, damaging them. But its larva feeds on almost everything, including paper and fibers of semi-synthetic clothing.
Important!
Bread damaged by grinder larvae becomes poisonous to humans. You can't eat it!
The photo below shows a small flour beetle that specializes in cereals and flour. It is also good to eat bran:
Very small insects, also often found in an apartment, are leather beetles that can make holes in fur coats and furs, “cut” carpets and eat the bindings of old books:
All of the above small beetles can be quite difficult to get out of the apartment. If their larvae are wound up in products, all stocks must be thrown away, and bedside tables and shelves should be treated with insecticidal agents. In cabinets and on bookshelves, things and objects are treated with aerosol insecticides, and then it is useful to place moth sections here, which are quite effective against beetles.
Fleas
Fleas are small jumping insects in the apartment that suck the blood of people and pets.
The photo shows a rat flea, a potential carrier of plague:
There are also human, cat and dog fleas.All of them are very similar to each other, and it will be problematic for a non-specialist to distinguish one species from another.
With abundant reproduction, fleas can cause serious allergic reactions in humans with their bites.
Fleas are brought out separately, first on animals, and then in the apartment itself. In the first case, special flea drops on the withers, anti-flea shampoos and sprays are used, in the second, powerful insect repellents in aerosol form or in the form of concentrates for dilution and subsequent spraying in the form of a spray.
book louse
The book louse is a very small brownish insect that lives in book bindings and feeds on paste.
The photo below shows an adult book louse (book louse):
These insects rarely form large colonies. Even a small group of them makes distinctly audible ticking sounds, thereby betraying their presence.
Fight book lice by hanging fumigants near shelves with books and zoological or botanical collections.
Springtails - enemies of house plants
The springtail is a small white insect that settles in the ground in flower pots in an apartment and feeds on organic matter. With mass reproduction springtails can severely damage the roots of plants.
Review
“I don’t understand what kind of attack this is in flower pots. Some insects are white, tiny, but there are so many of them that the ground is not visible. I transplanted violets and found that they are in all pots.Tell me, what kind of insects are they dangerous?
Tamara, Moscow
The photo shows a springtail at high magnification:
And below is a clod of earth taken out of a pot, infected with springtails:
These insects can be poisoned with the usual means against garden pests - Aktara or Karbofos. You can also lay out pieces of potatoes on the surface of the earth and collect insects on it every few days.
whiteflies
Whiteflies are also plant pests, which, unlike springtails, infect leaves and stems. These insects are easily recognized by their light wings.
In the photo - tobacco whitefly:
And here is the cabbage whitefly:
If these small insects appeared in the apartment, the plants should immediately be treated with alcohol infusion of calendula.
Whiteflies reproduce very quickly and suck plant sap at all stages of development. A large number of them can cause the death of the bush. In case of mass infection, they should be poisoned with Karbofos or Aktara.
Butterflies
These small insects with transparent wings in the apartment usually appear in the bathroom or toilet. Butterflies are small flies with dark fringed wings. They are well recognizable due to the special shape of the wings.
The photo shows an ordinary butterfly (Psychodidae):
Butterfly larvae develop in garbage, in basements and sewers, and adult flies can scatter throughout apartments, laying eggs in bins and dust in closets.
But lice - head, pubic and clothes - rarely appear in the apartment. They are constantly present only on the head or body of a person, and on the bed or floor are completely accidental.Having found them, it is necessary to immediately check the hair of all family members and, in case of infection, remove parasites as soon as possible.
Sometimes in the apartment you can see very small insects, remotely similar to cockroaches or bedbugs. These may be their early larvae (nymphs), sometimes with a translucent chitinous cover.
The photo shows a recently molted red cockroach, which looks almost white immediately after molting:
This is what a bed bug larva looks like:
Such larvae can penetrate from neighboring apartments through ventilation ducts or through doors, settling or running away from persecution. If such insects are found in single copies, it is enough to simply destroy them. In case of mass infection of the premises, they are found as often as adult insects, in which case a thorough disinsection of the entire premises should be carried out.
A good example of how small insects in an apartment can seriously ruin life
How to choose a pest control service
Good information.
And what is the development of the book louse, its size? Can it live in human skin? We have yellowish-white capsules coming out of the pores of the skin with a red spiral coiled inside the worm. And there is one with a hollow tube, from which microscopic transparent worms crawl out, which crawl back into the skin and, in the course of crawling, lay eggs, which turn into these capsules ... I placed one under the glass, after a while a microscopic insect hatched up to 1 mm in size, similar to book louse. This capsule is also stuck into the skin by means of this transparent worm, which climbs out through this hollow tube, which is half sticking out of the capsule.
Bedbugs ... This is a disaster. We got rid of, called the service 4 times. In addition, the husband sprayed three times. We lifted all the plinths (we live on the second floor), poured foam. They poured “Clean House” powder, threw out the sofa. The chairs were bought new. From time to time we spray Clean House, and powder of this brand. Vinegar when cleaning always. That's the only way to get rid of it!
You can get rid of bedbugs very simply with the help of rosemary: pick a rosemary and spread it around the house in all book places, in sofas, cabinets, in corners, behind cabinets, etc.
I couldn’t read anything properly, I was scared by the pictures with these insects.
Don't know. Like normal pictures...
Horror, such things scare me to shiver, after the meeting I still can’t come to my senses.
Help, what is this? Today I noticed that something was crawling up my arm, and I could barely see it.This little bug is smaller than a grain of sugar.
Maybe a subcutaneous tick?
I noticed small insects in the house, quite nimble, gray in color, and some individuals shimmer from gray to white. I can't get rid of. After the lime was applied to the walls, it became less, but a few months later they reappeared, and a lot. This is a nightmare, it's already getting on your nerves, how to get rid of it? In the photo it looks like a silverfish.
Poisoned with dichlorvos 2 times, with a break of a month - it seems to have disappeared. Then they found it again, fell from the ceiling. Apparently, individuals remained in the space above the ceiling, and now we will spray there as well.
A beetle that looks like a skin beetle, but on the window frame - who is this?
Now some small bug was crawling on the touch screen of the phone. But, as they say, small, but tenacious - squeezing him, the bastard, did nothing. Then I pressed it with my fingernail and it crunched, I never found the rest. In general, all these insects are a terrible thing ...
Tin, I have the same thing, some small, no more than a millimeter, also crawled across the screen. At first I threw it off, then I remembered the microscope. And after a couple of days I saw how it was crawling along my arm, squeezed it lightly between two glasses from a microscope, looked - some kind of vile, but so far I have not found a photo of the same. Like some kind of tick, xs.
I also notice on the screen or on a piece of paper. Red, less than a millimeter. I can't find what it is on the internet.
And I can't find the bug...
It looks like a hay eater, they are less than 1 mm.
One to one just the situation was. I immediately rushed to search the internet for information about who it was.From this article, it most closely resembles a bed bug larva, but I had a rounder one. Have you figured out what kind of insect it is?
The same thing, at first I noticed this mini-bug on the six, now it's crawling along the eight. Already 2 crushed! I found information that it could be a flour beetle.
Lord, small bugs appeared at home, they are black with yellow spots. We can't get rid of. Beetles bite. They are very, very small. Very scary!
And I’m looking for the same creature, I don’t understand what kind of bugs ...
Hello, today I noticed small brown bugs when I was cleaning the apartment. I started moving the sofa, and there they crawl! What is it?!
Why is no one answering? I'm also wondering about those who crawl across the screen, the same situation. And in the bathroom closet. I noticed that there are more of them where the wood is.
In the sofa on which we sleep, on the back I saw a tiny, barely visible bug or an insect, transparent, yellowish in color ... What is it? Is it harmful? How to get rid of and find out if there are many of them? And where they came from, I didn’t notice before ...
Bug
And we have some very small ones, with a point. Bite, infection, everywhere. The bite itches terribly. Blushes with a tubercle in a centimeter. It is difficult to consider them, such small black dots. What's this?
Did you find out what these beetles are? How did you get rid of them?!
And I saw a beetle on the phone screen, no more than 0.5 mm, black. I crushed him, and there was blood inside. So he bit someone from the household. Now it's scary to go to bed.
On the screen of the phone, twice crushed white small vile insects that looked like bedbugs.And I saw a couple of times on the floor - there were a lot of them, crawling to the plinth. The apartment is newly renovated. Who knows what it is?