Elephant beetles are one of the largest beetles in the Americas. Would it be a thrill or a terror to have one on your shoulder?
Last week we visited pseudoscorpions, one of the tiniest arachnids in Belize, measuring roughly 8 mm in length. This week we flip the hero of the story and meet an insect almost 150 times larger than the pseudoscorpion, the gigantic elephant beetle. These titans are not encountered on a regular basis, but good fortune smiled on our Belizean crew when we erected a broad white cloth on a large stanchion and illuminated the cloth with powerful lights after dark. The attraction of night-flying insects to light is legendary and within hours of sunset hundreds of rainforest insects found their way to the lighted cloth and the surrounding vegetation.
After colliding with a student while on its way to rendezvous with an illuminated cloth, this giant elephant beetle landed on a lawn. While delivering a gentle touch to this marvelous scarab, the beetle displayed an interesting behavior of dipping its body toward the ground and seemingly rotating its impressive horn in the direction of an offending finger. Perhaps this tilting behavior is designed to protect the beetle’s delicate underbelly while the impressive horn parries the attacker away. Caught someplace between terror and joy, bold students couldn’t resist wearing and holding one of the largest insects on earth. The chance to see and hold this marvelous creature is a memory not to be forgotten.
While one student stood marveling at the panoply of six-legged wonders, she was pelted by an enormous rhinoceros beetle nearly the size of a softball that collided with her back. Rhinoceros beetles are members of the scarab beetle clan, and are renowned for their remarkable size and the large horns that adorn the males. Her visitor was an elephant beetle, one of the five largest beetles in Central and South America. Males use their horns in fierce battles with other males for access to mates and food. Some say the large central horn of the rhinoceros beetle resembles the trunk of an elephant, hence its name.
Female elephant beetles lack horns and can be much smaller (left) than enormous horned male beetles (right).
Adult beetles dine on fallen fruit and exudates from trees, and their offspring dine on decomposing vegetation like the remains of fallen trees. Beetle larvae are shaped like the letter “C” a characteristic common throughout the scarab clan. Three years may pass before they reach maturity, while the adults live only three or four months. An encounter with this goliath of the insect world is memorable. Tips of its powerful legs bear sharp claws which embed in clothing and flesh, making the removal of the beetle from a human an awkward and uncomfortable challenge. Placing a finger aside the giant causes it to tilt toward the groun,d apparently to prevent the offending finger from poking beneath its body. Perhaps this behavior has evolved to thwart lateral attacks by predators to the less protected belly of the beetle.
Imagine how big elephant beetle larvae will be when fully developed. These two are only about halfway grown.
Our oversized visitor eventually arrived on the top of the white cloth near the bright light where it rested beyond the late hour that students and faculty retired for the night. By dawn the next morning, the elephant beetle and other visitors to the lights had departed to continue their assignments in the rainforest. The chance to see and hold this marvelous creature remains a memory not to be forgotten.
On the steps of a pyramid at Caracol, students from the University of Maryland explore the wonders of tropical rainforests and Mayan civilizations. Image: Luis Godoy
Acknowledgements
Bug of the Week thanks the adventurous students and faculty of BSCI 339M, Belize: Tropical Biology and Mayan Culture, for providing the inspiration for this episode. Special thanks to Adèle and Erron Murphy for allowing me to record and share their encounters with this remarkable beetle. Special thanks to the staff of the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society for allowing us to learn about insects in their rainforest reserve.
Large, impressive pinchers of the pseudoscorpion immobilize and dismember small arthropods that are prey for these tiny, fierce predators. Some species may be found in homes in temperate regions, where they pose no threat to humans or pets.
This week we continue our adventure in Belize where we previously met tasty termites, pretty peacock butterflies, and stinging scorpions. On the bark of an ancient sapodilla tree, we spotted a busy colony of tiny scorpion-like creatures milling about on the surface of the trunk. These tiny arachnids had impressive pinchers known as pedipalps that closely resembled those of their distant cousins, scorpions. Pedipalps of many pseudoscorpions contain venom used to paralyze prey prior to being dismembered and consumed. They secrete proteolytic enzymes designed to predigest their victims before slurping up the liquified tissues of their prey. I’m glad they are not as big as wolves.
On the bark of an ancient rainforest tree a colony of adult pseudoscorpions with dark pinchers and bodies mingled with their lightly colored offspring. Lacking stingers like their cousins, true scorpions, pseudoscorpions rely on venomous pinchers to subdue and dismember prey.
Beyond the much smaller size of pseudoscorpions compared to their true scorpion kin (most pseudoscorpions are less than 8 mm long), the most striking difference is the absence of the elongated tail and painful stinger of the true scorpion. The abdomen of the pseudoscorpion is slightly rounded. Some species are known to travel about by hitching a ride attached to the body of another insect like a fly or a beetle in a behavior known as phoresy. In addition to the rainforests of Belize, pseudoscorpions can be found in homes right here in the DMV where they hunt booklice, carpet beetle larvae, mites, and other minute arthropods found in and around homes. While these curious creatures pose no threats to humans or pets, they are fierce and interesting members of a miniature world in the tropical rainforest.
On the steps of a pyramid at Caracol, students from the University of Maryland explore the wonders of tropical rainforests and Mayan civilizations. Image: Luis Godoy
Acknowledgements
The interesting articles “Pseudoscorpions” by Jeffrey Hahn and “Pseudoscorpions of the World” by M. S. Harvey were used as references for this episode. We thank the hearty crew of BSCI 339M, Belize: Tropical Biology and Mayan Culture and our fearless guide Luis Godoy for providing the inspiration for this episode.
Food premises are designed to store, prepare, and serve food efficiently. The conditions established for those purposes can make them highly attractive to pests. Restaurants, commercial kitchens, retail food stores, and food processing facilities face unique pest pressures that go beyond what most other commercial spaces experience.
Understanding why pests are attracted to food businesses, how infestations develop, and what risks they pose is essential for protecting food safety, maintaining compliance, and preventing small issues from becoming serious operational problems. Many food businesses rely on Integrated Pest Management strategies to reduce pest risk proactively while supporting food safety and compliance.
Understanding Pest Attraction in Food Premises
Food premises include any environment where food is prepared, handled, stored, or sold. This category extends beyond restaurants to include grocery stores, bakeries, food production facilities, cafeterias, and commercial kitchens of all sizes.
These environments naturally attract pests because they provide consistent access to food, moisture, warmth, and shelter. These are the same elements pests need to survive. Importantly, pest attraction does not automatically indicate poor management or unclean conditions. Even well run food premises can experience pest pressure simply due to the nature of their operations.
Because pests pose direct risks to food safety and public health, their presence is also closely tied to inspections and regulatory compliance. For food businesses, pest control is not just about removal. It is a critical component of risk management and prevention.
Why Food Premises Are High Risk Environments for Pests
Food premises present a combination of environmental and operational conditions that make them higher risk than most other commercial spaces. Food is present daily, equipment generates heat, water is used frequently, and staff movement creates regular access points throughout the building.
Moisture from sinks, drains, dishwashing areas, and cleaning processes provides hydration for pests. Warmth from cooking equipment and refrigeration motors creates ideal harboring spaces. Storage rooms, delivery areas, and waste zones further increase exposure if they are not carefully managed.
These risks exist even in facilities with strong sanitation practices. High volume operations, tight schedules, and constant activity can make it difficult to eliminate every opportunity for pest access. This is why pest management is often a key focus during food safety inspections and audits.
Key Reasons Pests Infest Food Premises
Improper food storage and waste handling: Food that is not sealed properly or waste that accumulates during busy service hours can quickly attract insects and rodents. End of day cleanup delays or overflowing bins create short windows of opportunity that pests can exploit.
Structural access points such as doors, vents, and drains: Frequent deliveries, open doors, and utility penetrations are part of daily operations. Over time, these access points allow pests to enter unnoticed, especially when buildings are in constant use.
Sanitation gaps tied to cleaning schedules and peak hours: High traffic periods can push deep cleaning tasks later in the day. These gaps are usually related to timing and workload, not neglect, but they still increase pest exposure.
Supplier deliveries and packaging transitions: Cardboard boxes, pallets, and shipments can unintentionally introduce pests into food premises. Storage and unpacking areas are common entry points when materials are moved quickly.
Pest Risks in Food Establishments and Decision Making
Pests in food establishments create risks that extend beyond inconvenience. From a health perspective, pests can contaminate food and surfaces, increasing the potential for foodborne illnesses. From a business standpoint, even a single sighting can damage reputation and customer trust.
Regulatory compliance is another critical factor. Pest activity is often flagged during inspections, and repeated issues may result in citations, corrective actions, and even operational disruptions. Certain seasons, particularly colder months, can increase indoor pest pressure as insects and rodents seek warmth and food.
For food business owners and managers, pest sightings should be viewed as early warning signals rather than isolated incidents. Addressing activity promptly allows businesses to correct underlying conditions before they escalate.
The Value of Identifying Pest Attraction Early
Identifying pest attraction early offers clear advantages for food businesses. Addressing conditions that support pest activity can reduce the severity and spread of infestations, lowering long-term remediation costs and minimizing disruption to daily operations.
Early intervention also supports stronger food safety outcomes. Clean, organized environments make it easier to detect changes, monitor trends, and respond before pests impact compliance or the customer experience. In many cases, proactive action prevents the need for more intensive treatments later.
How Food Businesses Can Reduce Pest Attraction
Reducing pest attraction in food premises starts with prevention, consistency, and awareness. Sanitation remains the foundation, but it works best when combined with structural attention, staff involvement, and ongoing monitoring.
Well-maintained facilities focus on sealing entry points, managing moisture, and implementing clear food storage practices. Staff training plays an important role by helping teams recognize the early signs of pest activity and understand how daily habits influence risk. Monitoring tools provides additional visibility, allowing businesses to track activity and respond strategically rather than reactively.
Catseye Pest Control works with food businesses to support pest resistant environments through prevention focused services and targeted solutions. By addressing pest attraction at its source and aligning pest management with operational realities, food premises can maintain safer, cleaner, and more compliant spaces year round. When expert guidance is part of the process, prevention becomes more effective and easier to sustain. Contact our team to take the necessary steps for pest prevention in your food business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do some food premises experience pest issues, despite regular cleaning?
Even with regular cleaning, food premises can experience pest issues because pests are attracted to more than areas of visible cleanliness. Food environments consistently provide warmth, moisture, and access points through daily operational practices, such as deliveries, waste removal, and equipment use. Small sanitation gaps during peak hours, structural openings, and overnight conditions can create opportunities for pests, even in well-maintained facilities.
What are the most overlooked pest entry points in food establishments?
The most commonly overlooked pest entry points include gaps around doors, damaged door sweeps, floor drains, vents, utility penetrations, and loading dock areas. Delivery doors that open frequently, and drains connected to moisture sources are especially vulnerable. These access points often develop gradually and can go unnoticed without routine inspection.
Are certain types of food businesses more attractive to pests than others?
Yes, some types of food businesses tend to attract pests more than others due to volume, layout, and operating hours. Restaurants with extended hours, high food turnover, and frequent deliveries may face higher pest pressure. Food processing facilities and grocery stores can also attract pests because of long-term food storage and packaging materials. However, any food premises can experience pest activity if conditions allow.
How do pest risks in food establishments change seasonally?
Pest risks in food establishments often increase during colder months when insects and rodents move indoors seeking warmth and food. Warmer seasons can also bring increased insect activity, particularly flies and cockroaches. Seasonal changes affect pest behavior, which is why consistent monitoring and prevention are important year round rather than only during peak seasons.
What misconceptions do food business owners have about pest attraction?
A common misconception is that pest activity only occurs in poorly maintained or unclean facilities. In reality, pest attraction is often tied to operational factors such as food handling volume, building structure, and delivery schedules. Another misconception is that cold weather eliminates pest risks, when winter often increases indoor pest activity in food establishments.
A scorpion is revealed amongst leaves on the rainforest floor as it fluoresces bluish-green when illuminated by rays of a blacklight.
In previous episodes we visited tasty termites and beautiful butterflies during the daylight hours in the rainforest of Belize. This week we go dark on a nocturnal foray into the heart of a tropical rainforest. This escapade can produce memorable encounters. During one such foray we were amazed to see a beautiful brown scorpion turn a gorgeous blue-green when a trail guide moved a fallen leaf and cast the beam of a blacklight on the scorpion. Being a youth of the 60’s, I was instinctively struck to understand what my blacklight posters shared with this stinging eight-legged rainforest predator. It turns out that blacklight posters contain compounds, phosphors, capable of capturing the high energy photons of UV light and releasing their energy in longer and less energetic forms of visible light, producing dazzling, glowing hues. Scorpion glow results when UV light is captured by two compounds, beta-carboline and 4-methyl-7-hydroxycoumarin, found in the scorpion’s exoskeleton. Once captured, UV’s energy is released in the form of eerie blue-green florescence.
Scorpions are not insects. They belong to another part of the arthropod clan called arachnids and are relatives of spiders and ticks. The scary pinchers on the front end of the scorpion are its pedipalps. They are used for grasping and dismembering insects and spiders that comprise most of the scorpion’s meals.
In a series of clever studies, Dr. Douglas Gaffin and his colleagues discovered that the scorpion’s entire body may act as a photoreceptor or universal “eye” used to detect different levels of light. Light in the UV range directed at scorpions produced bouts of rapid movement. These researchers suggested that the scorpion’s whole-body “eye” might help it move to places where light no longer illuminates its body, such as locations beneath vegetation where the searching eyes of larger predators were less likely to spot it. Whole-body photoreceptors might also be used by scorpions to detect the waning light levels of twilight, the signal to exit hideouts and start their nocturnal hunt for prey.
A failed attempt to capture a rather large scorpion on the rainforest floor provided a memorable sting to my right thumb. A second successful attempt with my left hand let us get up close and personal with this powerful nocturnal predator. Its sharp stinger delivers a witch’s brew of neurotoxins and other pain-enhancing compounds. Under the glare of white and red flashlights the scorpion’s color was a chocolate brown. But under the beams of a UV-black light, the scorpion fluoresces an eerie blue-green. UV light receptors on the scorpion’s body may help it detect sunlight and initiate movement to dark hiding places during daylight hours, or they may help the scorpion detect the absence of sunlight, signaling the safe time to emerge from cover to hunt prey during the cloak of night. Video credits: M. J. Raupp and Asmita Brahme
The business end of the scorpion is the sting, an enlarged segment at the end of the scorpion’s tail that contains a venom gland and a needle-like poker to deliver the poison. The sting is used to immobilize and kill prey and as a means of defense against larger animals. For some inexplicable reason, I was moved to pick up a scorpion we discovered on a rainforest trail while searching for reptiles. My first attempt to grab the scorpion by its tail was a miss that resulted in a painful and memorable sting to my right thumb. The pain was similar to that of a large wasp or honeybee. It lingered for several minutes then dulled to a mild nuisance for a few hours. A novel element of this misadventure was notable swelling to my thumb which lasted through the next day. As seen in the video, my second attempt to capture the scorpion using my left hand was a success. Holding this largish rascal was a bit scary but pretty good fun. I learned that scorpions move surprisingly fast, but the venom of this Centruroids scorpion is not generally life threatening. However, some relatives of Centruroids, including those in the genus Tityus, are very dangerous and their venom can be fatal to humans. This is not an endorsement for anyone to hold a scorpion as reactions to any foreign protein, including scorpion venom, can be serious and sometimes life-threatening.
If this sting gets you, you will be sending out an SOS to the world.
On another tropical adventure in the rainforests of Belize I had the good fortune to encounter scorpions in a somewhat different context. After a long day of feeding mosquitoes and avoiding crocodiles with a group of students on a study abroad, the prospect of enjoying a little shut eye in the bunkhouse was most appealing. Unfortunately, one student climbed into her lower bunk bed and was surprised to see a rather impressive scorpion beneath the mattress of the upper bed just a few inches above her head. She tested the potency of the scorpion’s sting when she grabbed the one lurking over her bunk and was stung. She summarily hurled said scorpion out the door of her cabin. Her assessment of the experience: “It only hurt a little and that thing was really annoying me”. You go girl!
On the steps of a pyramid at Caracol, students from the University of Maryland explore the wonders of tropical rainforests and Mayan civilizations. Image: Luis Godoy
Acknowledgements
We thank the hearty crew of BSCI 339M, Belize: Tropical Biology and Mayan Culture, for providing the inspiration for this episode. Thanks to our guide Ren for discovering a scorpion on the rainforest floor. Special thanks to Asmita for sharing the video of a bug geek nervously capturing a rather large scorpion. Luis Godoy graciously provided the image of the students at Caracol. Many thanks to Dr. Jeff Shultz for an enlightening discussion about scorpion glow. The fascinating article “Scorpion fluorescence and reaction to light” by Douglas D. Gaffin, Lloyd A. Bumm, Matthew S. Taylor, Nataliya V. Popokina, and Shivani Manna provided much background information for this episode.
Contrasting colors of dorsal wing bars make the banded peacock one of the most beautiful butterflies in the rainforest.
Following a week where Old Man Winter socked-it-to much of North America with bone chilling temperatures and mountains of snow, let’s return to the warm embrace of the rainforests of Belize where we last visited tasty conehead termites. Last week we met squirty termites in the dark rainforest. This week we move to a sunlit meadow to meet members of the brush-footed butterfly clan known as peacocks. Our first guest, the beautiful white peacock butterfly, Anartia jatrophae, is a resident not only of Central America, but also much of South America and as far north as Florida and Texas in the United States. The banded peacock, Anartia fatima, is also a resident of Central America and wanders into the United States, where it sometimes visits Texas and has been found occasionally as far north as Kansas.
Glorious banded peacock butterflies and pretty white peacock butterflies with spots on their wings use a rather small menu of tropical plants as food plants for their larvae. Males spar to defend patches of these host plants to court potential mates seeking food for their young. While I was unable to record these fast-moving battles, I hope that watching these tropical beauties might bring some cheer to you on these chilly and dreary winter days.
Throughout much of their range, peacocks can be found almost year-round in disturbed open meadows and swampy areas where food plants for the larvae are found. Food plants for caterpillars of the white and banded peacocks include water hyssop, blechum, frogfruit, and wild petunia. Tropical rainforests are among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems on our planet, housing an astounding array of plant species. The Nature Conservancy estimates roughly 1500 species of flowering plants exist in a four-square mile area of tropical rainforest. The fidelity of female peacock butterflies to a relatively small number of plants on which she places her eggs has resulted in an interesting strategy employed by male peacock butterflies to secure a mate.
When not seeking mates or larval food plants, white peacocks tank up on carbohydrate-rich tropical flowers like lantana.
In a fascinating series of studies, Robert Lederhouse and his colleagues observed male white peacock butterflies patrolling roughly circular zones of vegetation in swampy areas in the Florida everglades. When other male peacocks, or any flying insects for that matter, entered the 15-meter diameter no-fly zone of a male, the interloper was summarily harassed and chased from the area. On closer examination, the scientists discovered water hyssop, the food plant needed for larval development, in each of the defended no-fly zones. A similar behavior of chasing away interloping males was also observed in the banded peacock butterfly. If you are a male peacock butterfly, it appears that one way to get a mate is to hang around the plant where the female must come to find requisite food for her babes. Sounds a little like an episode of Seinfeld, doesn’t it? Remember the one called “The Bookstore” where Jerry provides dating advice to George? “GEORGE: I read somewhere that this Brentano’s is the place to meet girls in New York. JERRY: First it was the health club, then the supermarket, now the bookstore.” Why does it often seem that insects figure these things out before we do?
On the steps of the high pyramid of Caracol students from the University of Maryland explore the wonders of tropical rainforests and Mayan civilizations. Image credit: Luis Godoy
Acknowledgements
We thank the hearty crew of BSCI 339M, Belize: Tropical Biology and Mayan Culture, for providing the inspiration for this episode. Thanks to Luis Godoy for sharing a picture of the adventurous students. Special thanks to the staff of the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society for allowing us to learn about insects in their rainforest reserve. The interesting article “Host plant-based territoriality in the white peacock butterfly, Anartia jatrophae (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)” by Robert C. Lederhouse and colleagues, and “Caterpillars of Eastern North America” by David L. Wagner were used as a references.
The holidays bring people together, fill homes with activity, and often disrupt normal routines. Once the celebrations end, many homeowners notice that their space feels cluttered, disorganized, or harder to keep clean than usual. A post-holiday cleaning checklist helps restore balance by addressing overlooked areas and the extra mess that naturally comes with hosting, decorating, and winter living.
Unlike routine weekly cleaning, post-holiday cleaning focuses on deeper resets and prevention. Increased food preparation, guests entering and exiting and moving through the home, stored decorations, and cold weather all create conditions that require more attention to detail. Taking the time to clean thoroughly after the holidays can improve indoor hygiene, reduce pest attraction, and make winter home maintenance far more manageable.
Why Post-Holiday Cleaning Matters
During the holiday season, messes tend to build up in ways that aren’t immediately visible. Extra meals and diners lead to more crumbs and spills. Hosting guests also means higher traffic through rooms that may not usually see daily use. Decorations, boxes, and gift wrap are often stored quickly, sometimes without much organization.
Winter makes these issues more significant. As temperatures drop, pests look for warmth and reliable food sources indoors. Even small amounts of debris or clutter can create inviting conditions. Kitchens, storage areas, guest rooms, and garages are especially vulnerable during this time.
A thorough post-holiday cleaning helps homeowners catch these problems early. Addressing hidden messes now reduces the likelihood of pest issues later in the winter and helps keep the home healthier overall.
Post-Holiday Cleaning Checklist: Room by Room
Approaching post-holiday cleaning room by room makes the process more effective and less overwhelming. The following checklist highlights the areas that require the most attention after the holidays.
Kitchen and Food Storage Areas
Clear out leftovers and expired items and wipe down refrigerator shelves, drawers, door seals, and pantry shelves.
Reseal dry goods, clean up crumbs and spills, and sweep and mop floors, including under appliances.
Empty, clean, and deodorize trash and recycling bins to remove food residue and odors.
Holiday cooking increases the chances of crumbs and spills collecting in hidden areas. Addressing the kitchen early helps eliminate one of the most common sources of winter pest attraction.
Living Room & Common Spaces
Vacuum carpets, rugs, and upholstered furniture and dust baseboards, shelves, and electronics.
Wash or shake out throw blankets, pillows, and other fabric décor before storing.
Pack holiday decorations into clean, sealed containers rather than loose boxes.
These shared spaces often see the most activity during the holidays. Fabric items and stored decorations can easily trap debris if not cleaned properly before being put away.
Guest Bedrooms & Luggage Storage
Wash guest bedding, blankets, and mattress covers and vacuum floors and mattresses.
Check closets, luggage storage areas, and under beds for forgotten items or debris.
Remove temporary clutter and return the room to regular use or proper winter storage conditions.
Guest rooms may not be used often during the rest of the year, which makes it especially important to clean them thoroughly before closing them off for winter.
Trash, Recycling, & Storage Areas
Break down and remove cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, and excess packaging.
Clean trash cans and recycling containers to eliminate residue and odors.
Organize garages, basements, and storage rooms using sealed bins instead of loose boxes.
Reducing these materials significantly lowers the risk of pests settling in during colder months.
Seasonal Considerations After the Holidays
Winter changes how homes function. People spend more time indoors, storage areas fill up quickly, and ventilation is often limited. All of these factors make cleanliness and organization more important than usual.
The period immediately following the holidays is a common time for homeowners to notice pest activity indoors. Prioritizing cleaning food-related areas, disposing of waste properly, and organizing storage spaces can make a noticeable difference.
Benefits of a Thorough After-Holiday Home Reset
Completing a post-holiday cleaning checklist does more than improve how your home looks. During winter, when homes are closed up and pests are more likely to move indoors, a thorough reset helps support a healthier and more manageable living environment.
By removing food residue, excess moisture, and clutter, homeowners reduce the conditions that attract insects and rodents. Clean, organized spaces also make it easier to spot early signs of pest activity, such as droppings, damaged packaging, and small gaps along walls and baseboards. Addressing these details early can help prevent minor issues from becoming larger problems later in the season.
A thoughtful after-holiday reset also simplifies winter home maintenance. When key areas are clean and organized, it’s easier to stay ahead of potential concerns and avoid the need for more extensive intervention down the line.
Supporting a Pest-Resistant Home After the Holidays
Post-holiday cleaning is an important first step in protecting your home during winter, but pest activity can still occur as insects and rodents look for warmth and shelter this time of year. Even well-maintained homes can experience pest pressure as insects and rodents seek warmth, food, and shelter after the holidays.
Professional pest inspections can help identify activity that may not be obvious during routine cleaning, particularly in kitchens, storage areas, basements, and common entry points. Addressing concerns early helps prevent small issues from turning into larger infestations.
Catseye Pest Control works with homeowners to support clean, pest-resistant homes by providing prevention-focused services and targeted solutions. If post-holiday cleaning reveals concerns or raises questions, having an experienced team to guide your next steps can make winter home care simpler and more effective.
Frequently Asked Questions
What areas of the home are most often overlooked during post-holiday cleaning?
During post-holiday cleaning, homeowners often overlook areas that don’t experience daily use. These zones commonly include guest bedrooms, closets used for coats or luggage, storage rooms, basements, garages, and spaces behind or under furniture and appliances. Trash and recycling bins, pantry shelves, and decoration storage containers are also frequently missed, even though they can hold food residue or moisture that attracts pests.
How does post-holiday clutter increase the risk of winter pests?
Post-holiday clutter provides shelter, warmth, and hiding places for pests during winter. Cardboard boxes, stored decorations, excess packaging, and disorganized storage areas can create ideal nesting conditions for rodents and insects. When combined with leftover food crumbs or moisture, clutter makes it easier for pests to remain undetected and establish activity indoors while homes are closed up for colder weather.
Is a post-holiday cleaning checklist different for homes with frequent guests?
Yes, homes with frequent holiday guests typically require a more thorough post-holiday cleaning. Guest bedrooms, bathrooms, entryways, and common areas experience higher traffic and are more likely to accumulate debris, moisture, and clutter. These homes benefit from extra attention to bedding, carpets, luggage storage areas, and closets to reduce sanitation issues and lower the risk of pest activity after guests leave.
What misconceptions do homeowners have about cleaning after the holidays?
A common misconception is that routine weekly cleaning is enough after the holidays. In reality, holiday activities create deeper messes in storage areas, kitchens, and less-used rooms that regular cleaning may not address. Another misconception is that cold weather eliminates pest concerns. In fact, winter often increases indoor pest activity as insects and rodents seek warmth and food.
How can post-holiday cleaning routines be adapted for busy households?
Busy households can adapt post-holiday cleaning by breaking tasks into manageable sections and focusing on high-risk areas first. Prioritizing kitchens, food storage, trash areas, and cluttered spaces helps reduce pest risks, even if the full cleaning is done gradually. Using simplified checklists, setting short time blocks, and maintaining organized storage throughout winter can make post-holiday cleaning more realistic and effective for families with limited time.
Soldiers of different termite species have unique adaptations for repelling enemies. Depending on the species of termite, soldiers are armed with jaws that stab, cut, snap or whack an enemy. Termite soldiers in this nest are chemical warriors known as nasutes. These highly evolved termites have dark brown heads with a long, tubular snout, called a nasus. From this nasus, they squirt sticky defensive secretions that can entangle, irritate, and repel invading enemies such as ants.
As the wicked winter tightens its grip on much of North America, let’s take another trip to somewhere warm. We recently visited pretty orchid bees, hungry leaf beetles, and squirty froghoppers in the cloud forest of Costa Rica. This week we travel some 800 miles north to the rainforest at Toucan Ridge, Belize. In this lush green paradise warm temperatures and abundant rainfall make this one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet. Rapidly growing trees and shrubs provide a bounty of food for legions of plant-eating insects, reptiles, birds, and mammals. However, these vegetarians alone cannot devour the enormous quantity of plant material produced. Plant debris would soon bury the jungle were it not for work of another group of plant eaters, the termites. Termites are remarkable creatures that consume both living and dead plant material in the tropics. To utilize the nutrients tied up in plants, termites rely on a hearty gut microbiome of symbiotic bacteria and, in some primitive species, protozoa, to help digest the refractory plant material called cellulose.
Dark trails of soil, wood particles, and feces mark the corridors used by sunlight-fearing termites to reach food sources in the canopies of trees.
Termites have an unusual and rather crude way of passing these vital microbes from one termite to the next through a process known as proctodeal trophallaxis. One termite excretes a droplet of microbe-packed fluid from its anus. This packet of goodies is consumed by another termite waiting at the rear end. Yum! The transfer of liquids from one termite to the next is also a way of disseminating chemical messages called pheromones that regulate the development and behavior of termites within the colony.
Strange, large, coffee-brown objects adorning trees in the rainforest are aerial nests of termites.
While adventuring along a slippery mountain trail with 18 adventurous students, we happened upon a large nest of conehead termites. Our local Belizean trail guide shared lore of the importance of termites to the ancient Mayan people. Mayans used termites as bait for fish in a way known only to them. Mayans crushed and smeared termites on their skin as a natural repellent for biting flies like mosquitoes. Mayans also consumed termites as a source of nutrients. Our Belizean guide invited us to sample termites to learn why so many insects, birds, and mammals seek a termite buffet.
Along a rainforest trail we encountered a large aerial termite nest. Our Belizean guide opened the nest and invited us to sample termites to learn why so many insects, birds, and mammals seek a termite buffet. By holding his hand against the hole in the nest, he collected several nozzle-headed soldiers that had issued forth to defend their colony. After our guide dined on a few, several bold students and one professor sampled the tiny defenders. After plucking a few workers from the colony and savoring each morsel, I found the delicate flavor reminiscent of carrots. Little wonder the Mayans enjoyed them. Others in our group did not share my assessment. Some quipped that termites tasted, well, like bugs.
To demonstrate this point, our guide made a platter-sized rent in the termite nest. By holding his hand against the hole in the nest, he collected several nozzle-headed soldiers that had issued forth to defend the nest. After our guide dined on a few, several bold students and one professor sampled the tiny defenders. After plucking a few workers from the colony and savoring each morsel, I found the delicate flavor reminiscent of carrots. Little wonder the Mayans enjoyed them. Others in our group did not share my assessment. Some quipped that termites tasted, well, like bugs.
Scores of termite solders scramble to protect the colony when the outer protective shell has been breached.
Termites are part of an elite group of social insects that include the ants and several wasps and bees. Social insects such as termites and ants have a distinct division of labor with a caste system that includes specialized workers, soldiers, and reproductives. Termite reproductives are called kings and queens. These long-lived queens produce thousands and thousands of eggs during the course of their lives, which can span several decades. Termite queens are the longest lived of all insect species. Termite kings live only long enough to mate and they die soon thereafter. While Tom Petty lyricized that it was good to be king, from the longevity standpoint it’s better to be queen in the termite realm.
Atop the high pyramid of Caracol, students from the University of Maryland explore the wonders of tropical rainforests and Mayan civilizations. Image: Tarique Domingo
Acknowledgements
Bug of the Week thanks the adventurous students and faculty of BSCI 339M, Belize: Tropical Biology and Mayan Culture, for providing the inspiration for this episode. We thank our guides Will and Tarique for teaching us the ways of the Mayans. Special thanks to the staff of the Toucan Ridge Ecology and Education Society for allowing us to learn about insects in their rainforest reserve. Two great books, “The Insect Societies” by E.O. Wilson and “For Love of Insects” by T. Eisner, were used as references for this Bug of the Week.
Orchid bees use their remarkably long proboscis, often called a tongue, to collect nectar from blossoms.
This week we return to the mystical cloud forest of Monteverde Costa Rica where, in the last two episodes, we met beautiful golden frog hoppers and rolled-leaf hispine beetles that make beautiful heliconia plants their meal and home. In a stylish landscape along a high mountain road, we saw some large busy bees visiting beautiful purple porterweed. At first glance these appeared to be busy bumblebees, but with a little help from iNaturalist, we learned that these were large orchid bees in the genus Eulaema. In addition to pollinating porterweed, large orchid bees, including Eulaema, are important pollinators of a wide variety of orchids including one of my favorites, the second most expensive flavoring in the world, vanilla. While female orchid bees collect massive loads of pollen to feed their young, male orchid bees have evolved remarkable morphological structures and equally clever behaviors to woo their mates. On a section of their hide leg called the tibia, males evolved a greatly expanded hollow pouch. This hollow pouch has an opening to the air to release fragrances called perfumes. Let’s see what this is all about.
Here’s a little backstory. In the dating game of humans, odors make a difference. Does anyone really want a stinky partner? Apparently not. For centuries humans have used fragrances to grab the attention of a potential mate. The global perfume industry is valued at more than 50 billion dollars annually. Guess what, male orchid bees have also figured out that the right odor can make you a winner in the mating game.
Even in flight Eulaema has its proboscis ready for action.
Male orchid bees visit sources of volatile scents in a wide variety of places including flowers, tree sap, resin, fungi, and other places to collect several different fragrances. How do they collect these perfumes? Male bees secrete droplets of lipid compounds from their mouthparts onto the surface of a flower or other source of odors. Various scented compounds are absorbed into the lipid droplets. These droplets are then collected and stored in the hollow chamber of the expanded tibial pouch of the hind leg. During courtship the male orchid bee fans its wings, causing the fragrances stored in the hind leg to become airborne. The unique blend of the male’s perfumes attracts potential mates, enabling female orchid bees to recognize males of her species and to choose that special someone to be the father of her offspring. I must wonder if orchid bees have a lesson here for us.
In the cloud forest of Monteverde, large bees visit purple porterweed. Although resembling bumble bees, these beauties are orchid bees in the genus Eulaema. In addition to pollinating porterweed, Eulaema pollinate a wide variety of orchids including one of my favorites, vanilla. They sip nectar through a remarkably long proboscis, also called a tongue. While female orchid bees collect massive loads of pollen to feed their young, male orchid bees collect fragrances from many sources and store them in perfume pouches on their hind legs. To attract a mate, the male bee fans its wings, releasing his perfume into the air. Female orchid bees use these odors to recognize males and choose just the right mate to father their offspring.
Acknowledgements
We thank Paula Shrewsbury for sharing her pretty images of Eulaema foraging on porterweed in the cloud forest. Two fantastic articles “Evolution of Acquired Perfumes and Endogenous Lipid Secretions in Orchid Bees” by Thomas Eltz, Tobias Mende, and Santiago Ramírez, and “Non-floral scent sources of orchid bees: observations and significance” by Jonas Henske, Bart P. E. De Dijn, and Thomas Eltz were sources of information for this article.
Unrolling an unexpanded Heliconia leaf reveals a lovely rolled-leaf hispine leaf beetle.
Last week we visited beautiful Heliconia plants where we met some very pretty Golden Froghoppers as they sipped sap from leaves of Heliconia. This week we return to the lovely Heliconia plant to explore strange patterns of herbivore feeding on their leaves. These marks were created by some unseen herbivores that scraped away leaf tissue from the surface of the tender green leaves. These interesting patterns included small linear rows of missing tissue and larger isolated jelly-bean shaped translucent scars on the leaves. These marks were the handiwork of a curious group of leaf beetles, Chrysomelidae, known as rolled-leaf hispine beetles.
What caused these unusual holes and marks on the Heliconia leaf?
In tropical regions of the Americas more than 180 species of rolled-leaf hispine beetles have been described. In addition to Heliconia plants, several other members of the ginger family serve as hosts for rolled-leaf hispines. While the star of this week’s episode feeds on the unfurled leaves of Heliconia, other members of the clan eat tissues of flower bracts and leaf petioles. For Cephaloleia spp. we visit this week, life begins in a tubular leaf-scroll where female beetles deposit eggs between the rolled layers of an unfurled Heliconia leaf. These eggs hatch into extraordinarily flattened larvae with a perfect body shape for life between the appressed layers of a rolled leaf. Their mandibles scrape soft, nutritious tissue from between the veins of Heliconia leaves. Their feeding behavior, termed “strip-mining”, is responsible for the linear feeding patterns seen on unfurled leaves.
For strange rolled-leaf hispine larvae it is difficult to tell the head from the tail.
Beetle larvae glide across the surface of the leaf on unseen legs beneath their body. Larval locomotion is strangely reminiscent of the movement of a slug or snail. Larvae of Cephaloleia pupate in a nook or cranny of the Heliconia plant before emerging as adults that return to the safety of a rolled leaf to feed. Adults create larger feeding marks on the leaf surface, as do fully developed larvae.
This week we return to the beautiful Heliconia plant to unravel the mystery of some strange feeding marks on its leaves. With no one home on the surface of an expanded leaf, unfurling a rolled-up leaf revealed a hungry rolled-leaf hispine leaf beetle and its feeding wounds on the leaf margin. On the inside of a more mature leaf-roll, a young beetle larvae glides over its older cousin on six tiny legs hidden beneath its body. Partially unrolling the scroll-like Heliconia leaf sent this leaf beetle scampering for the cover of a furled section of the leaf. Mystery of strange feeding marks on Heliconia solved.
In Costa Rica, some species of Heliconia are home and tucker to several species of rolled-leaf hispine beetles. In addition, the number of hispine beetle species increases with the geographic range of their ginger-family host plants, physical size of the plant species on which they feed, and abundance of plant hosts in an area. For Costa Rican Cephaloleia, life is on a roll in a roll.
Different species of rolled-leaf hispine beetles have unique feeding sites leaving distinct feeding marks on plants.
Acknowledgements
The wonderful articles “Rolled-Leaf Hispine Beetles (Chrysomelidae) and their Zingiberales Host Plants in Middle America” by Donald R. Strong, Jr. and “Notes on the ecology of rolled-leaf hispines (Chrysomelidae, Cassidinae) at La Gamba (Costa Rica)” by Michael Schmitt and Meike Frank served as references for this episode.
It’s easy to see why this pretty insect is called the Golden Froghopper.
As the holiday season draws to an end and the chilly grip of old man winter settles into the DMV, it’s time for Bug of the Week to head to warmer realms to visit insects and their kin in tropical places. Over the next several weeks, we will meet relatives of our native Maryland insects that enjoy warm weather somewhere else on planet earth. Our first stop will be the cloud forests of Costa Rica. Here we will meet some of the fascinating insects that make their home on the beautiful Heliconia plants found throughout tropical regions. Our first delight is the Golden Froghopper.
Beautiful Heliconia plants are home to many insects, including the Golden Froghopper.
Froghoppers are a large family of insects technically known as Cercopidae.
Beautiful Heliconia plants are home to many insects in the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica. Gorgeous Golden Froghoppers can frequently be seen strolling across Heliconia leaves and dining on their nutritious sap. Excess fluid discharged from their rear-end is called honeydew, and it rains down on plants and slow-moving people below. Maybe this is yet another reason it rains in the rainforest.
Immature stages of froghoppers produce a bubbly concoction called spittle. Unsurprisingly, they are called spittlebugs. Spittle is a fairly innocuous mix of excess plant fluid voided by froghopper nymphs. Proteinaceous glandular secretions and air bubbles introduced by clever contortions cover the body of the nymph. The spittle serves to keep the developing nymph moist and insulated from extreme temperatures. It also may serve as a deterrent from attack by stinging parasitoids and hungry predators. Would self-respecting birds really wade through a glob of spittle in search of a buggy meal? I think not.
What’s this? It looks like spittle.
After molting several times within their bubble home, nymphs turn into winged adults. Adults suck plant sap to obtain nutrients and excrete excess sap in the form of honeydew, as do other sap-suckers including aphids, scale insects, and lanternflies.
A cute spittlebug nymph wonders what happened to its bubbles.
Many adult froghoppers like those found in the DMV sport rather drab colors of gray or brown or cryptic shades of green and are not often seen during casual excursions to the garden. However, in the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica froghoppers can be stunning, like the gorgeous Golden Froghopper. Most spittlebugs and froghoppers cause no economic damage. While you may not have a chance to visit beautiful froghoppers in the tropics, next spring when you walk in the meadow, fear not the spittle and take a moment to brush back the bubbles and enjoy these curious sap-suckers.
Our native froghoppers like this one are often relatively drab.
