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Pest sightings at work can point to bigger sanitation and safety problems than most business owners realize. OSHA does not overlook unsanitary conditions caused by pests. Here’s how pest activity can trigger workplace safety concerns, the warning signs to watch for, and what to do before it becomes a violation.

Pest Problems Are Not Just a Nuisance for Businesses

A warehouse employee finds mouse droppings near stored inventory. A restaurant worker spots cockroaches in the breakroom. Office staff complain about flies around the trash bins. Someone notices nesting material near an electrical panel.

At first glance, it looks like a pest problem. For commercial properties, it can quickly become something bigger: a sanitation, safety, and compliance problem.

OSHA does not care whether pests are normal for the season. If employees are exposed to unsanitary or unsafe working conditions, a business may be dealing with more than an infestation.

Can Pest Issues Really Lead to OSHA Violations?

Yes. OSHA expects workplaces to be maintained in a way that prevents the entrance and buildup of rodents, insects, and other pests. When pest activity is found, employers are expected to address it in an ongoing, effective way rather than treating it as a one-time fix.

This does not mean every ant trail is a violation waiting to happen. It does mean employers cannot ignore pest activity that puts employee health or safety at risk. Calling pest control once and hoping the problem disappears is not a workplace safety plan.

Pest Issues That Can Trigger Workplace Safety Concerns

Some pest problems are more than a nuisance. They point to sanitation gaps, structural issues, or safety risks that employers are expected to address.

Rodent Droppings, Urine, and Nesting Materials

Rodents are one of the biggest red flags in commercial spaces. Mice and rats leave droppings, urine, and nesting material behind walls, under shelving, and near food storage areas and equipment. Left alone, they can also gnaw through wiring and insulation, creating fire and equipment risks alongside the contamination concern. This activity shows up most often in warehouses, restaurants, grocery stores, manufacturing facilities, schools, and healthcare properties.

Cockroach Activity in Breakrooms, Kitchens, or Food Storage Areas

Cockroaches are a serious sanitation concern anywhere employees prepare, eat, or store food. Employee kitchens, dishwashing stations, floor drains, and shared breakrooms are common problem areas. Roach activity is a clear sign that sanitation, exclusion, or moisture control has broken down somewhere in the building.

Stinging Insects Near Entrances, Loading Docks, or Outdoor Work Areas

Wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets create immediate safety risks for employees, delivery drivers, vendors, and customers. Loading docks, dumpsters, rooflines, and outdoor work areas are common hot spots. For employees with allergies, a sting is not just painful. It can become a medical emergency.

Pest Problems Caused by Poor Waste Management

Overflowing dumpsters, unsealed trash bins, and dirty compactor areas are pest magnets, and flies are usually the first sign something is wrong. Drain flies, fruit flies, and house flies point to dirty drains, standing water, or food residue that has gone unaddressed. If the waste system is broken, pest control will always be playing defense.

Warning Signs Employers Should Not Ignore

A few consistent warning signs tend to show up before a pest issue turns into a bigger safety concern:

• Droppings near walls, shelving, desks, or food areas
• Gnaw marks on packaging, wiring, or structural materials
• Roaches or insects seen during business hours
• Flies around drains, trash, or food waste
• Employee complaints about bites, odors, or sightings
• Recurring pest activity after a one-time treatment

Industries Where Pest Issues Can Create Bigger Compliance Problems

Pest risk looks different depending on the industry, but the underlying concern is the same: protecting employees and staying ahead of sanitation issues before they become violations.

Restaurants and Food Service

Pests near food prep, storage, drains, or dining areas create immediate sanitation concerns that can affect both employees and customers. Restaurants face some of the highest scrutiny when pest activity is found on site.

Health Care and Senior Living Facilities

Pest issues in healthcare environments raise added concerns around sanitation and vulnerable populations. The Health Care Industry requires a higher standard of prevention given the populations these facilities serve.

Offices and Retail Stores

Even when food is not the core business, breakrooms, storage rooms, and shared spaces can still attract pests. Retail Stores and office environments are not exempt from the same warning signs seen in food service settings.

Warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and schools face similar risks and benefit from the same prevention approach.

Why One-Time Pest Treatments Are Not Enough for Commercial Safety

A one-time treatment may knock down visible activity, but it does not fix why pests entered the building in the first place. Businesses need an ongoing process rather than a panic call after employees start complaining.

That process should include inspection, monitoring, exclusion work, sanitation recommendations, treatment, and follow-up. Each step builds on the last, and skipping any of them tends to bring the same pest activity back within a few months.

How Commercial Pest Control Helps Reduce OSHA and Workplace Safety Risks

Commercial Pest Control is built to catch problems before they become violations. A commercial pest control program can help businesses:

• Identify pest entry points before they lead to bigger issues
• Treat active infestations quickly and thoroughly
• Recommend sanitation or structural corrections
• Monitor for recurring activity over time
• Support documentation for property managers and facility teams

What to Do If Employees Report Pest Activity

When an employee flags a pest sighting, having a clear process in place makes the difference between a quick fix and a recurring problem:

• Document the location, date, and type of pest activity
• Avoid disturbing droppings, nests, or contaminated materials without proper precautions
• Check nearby sanitation, food, waste, or moisture issues that may be contributing
• Contact a commercial pest control provider
• Keep records of inspections, treatments, and corrective actions

Protect Your Workplace Before Pest Problems Become Violations

Pest problems do not fix themselves. They spread, they get noticed, and they create risk for the people working inside a building every day.

The goal is not just to remove pests after someone spots them. It is to prevent pest activity from becoming a workplace safety issue in the first place.

Schedule a commercial pest inspection with Catseye Pest Control to identify pest risks, protect your employees, and keep your facility cleaner, safer, and better prepared.

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Here in the DMV, butterfly season is off and running at full force. A visit to a pollinator garden or meadow is rewarded with an array of several beautiful butterflies whose dominant wing coloration is based on the theme of a black background with series of patches and spots in shades of white, orange, and blue. Butterflies participating in this cabal include the dark form of the eastern tiger swallowtail, the pretty red-spotted purple, the eastern black swallowtail – eater of parsley and dill, and the clever spice bush swallowtail whose larvae mimic serpents. Why have these beauties converged on a rather common color scheme? 

Caterpillars of the butterfly that we meet today, the pipevine swallowtail, dine on members of the birthwort family, Aristolochiaceae, plants that include vines commonly known as pipevines. Members of this family produce a class of compounds known as aristolochic acids which are known to be mutagenic, carcinogenic, and toxic to kidneys of mammals. As they consume pipevine leaves, these swallowtail caterpillars store aristolochic toxins in their tissues, and then retain them as they pupate into adult butterflies, which then pass them along to their eggs. Aristolochic acids sequestered by caterpillars may help protect them from attack by parasitic wasps. Adult butterflies are rendered distasteful to vertebrate predators such as birds by virtue of these noxious compounds. It is believed that birds attempting to eat butterflies whose larvae consumed pipevines have a nasty experience that teaches them not to mess with darkly colored butterflies.

Other species of butterflies capitalize on the lesson taught by the pipevine swallowtail and have evolved color patterns to mimic their appearance, thereby gaining protection from visually astute predators. This type of mimicry in which warning colors of a distasteful species like pipevine swallowtails act as a model copied by other palatable butterflies is called Batesian mimicry. The great English naturalist Henry Bates first described this form of mimicry while studying butterflies in Brazilian rainforests. We met other species of Batesian mimics such as harmless flower flies that mimic stinging bees and wasps.

This gorgeous resting pipevine swallowtail will soon seek pipevines on which to deposit brightly colored orange eggs that hatch into tiny caterpillars. As these very hungry caterpillars feed and grow, they accumulate noxious compounds and take on a startling visage complete with fleshy dangling appendages and orange bumps advertising their distastefulness. Other darkly colored butterflies, including the dark female form of the eastern tiger swallowtail, the spice bush swallowtail, the eastern black swallowtail, and the pretty, red-spotted purple are believed to mimic the color pattern of the pipevine swallowtail to gain protection from hungry predators.

Adult butterflies are not the only creatures that mimic pipevine swallowtails. Recall that the caterpillars are also laced with aristolochid acids. Scientists believe that a cyanide producing millipede with deep red coloration mimics the color and pattern of the pipevine caterpillar, thereby gaining protection from predators. We have seen this mimicry before with several orange and black insects that eat milkweed including monarch caterpillars, milkweed bugs, and milkweed tussock moth caterpillars.  This convergence on a similar, easily recognizable color pattern by two or more nasty-tasting insects is called Müllerian mimicry, named for the famous German naturalist Fritz Müller. As this spectacular butterfly season rolls along, try to grab a glimpse of one of these dark winged beauties and ponder the question – model or mimic?

Acknowledgements

Bug of the Week thanks observant Dr. Shrewsbury for spotting adults and larvae of the pipevine swallowtail and providing images featured in this episode. “Secret Weapons” by Thomas Eisner, Maria Eisner, and Melody Siegler, and “Featured Creature Common name: pipevine swallowtail, blue swallowtail scientific name: Battus philenor (Linnaeus 1771) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Papilionidae: Papilioninae: Troidini)” and “Common name: Polydamas swallowtail, gold rim swallowtail, tailless swallowtail scientific name: Battus polydamas lucayus (Rothschild & Jordan) (Insecta: Lepidoptera: Papilionidae: Papilioninae: Troidini)” by Donald Hall provided valuable insights into the clever ways of this week’s star.

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Recent press releases cautioned travelers to take precautions to avoid bringing bed bugs home from trips abroad, and earlier this spring bed bug “surges” were reported across several southern states. During a visit to a senior housing facility last month, several residents expressed concern about reports of bed bugs in their community. So, this week we return to an episode from a few years ago when stories swirled about concerning bed bugs in the DMV. 

“Over the past decade we heard stories of bed bugs appearing in places without beds including office buildings, movie theaters, schools, and retail stores. How do bed bugs work and what is behind this recent upswing in bed bug detections, especially in our major cities? Like many obligate parasites, bed bugs lead an interesting, albeit codependent life. They must have a blood meal in all stages of development, except eggs, to survive. By inserting tiny sucking mouthparts and pumping in saliva laced with anticoagulants, bed bugs can take in several times their weight in blood in a feeding bout lasting from 3 – 10 minutes. They will bite any part of the body including the face, neck, shoulders, arms, and legs. When temperatures are warm, it takes less than a month to complete a generation and when cooler it may take 4 months to complete the life cycle. Like other true bugs, these have scent glands that give them a distinctive odor, and a sweet smell sometimes accompanies a heavy infestation.

Bed bugs are tough. Nymphs can live several months without a meal and at certain temperatures adults are reported to survive more than a year without food. Females lay 200 to 500 eggs during their lifetime. The eggs are roughly the size of a period at the end of a sentence. The immature stages, the nymphs, are reddish brown when full of blood and tan when empty. Adults are about the size of a peppercorn and brown to chestnut colored when empty or full of blood, respectively. During the day, bed bugs usually hide in bedclothes, mattress seams, box springs, spaces in the bed frame, behind the headboard, baseboards, picture frames, chests of drawers, posters, loose wallpaper, and almost every nook and cranny in the bedroom. I have heard many tales of couches and living room furniture harboring these rascals, as well as seats in theaters. In offices, reports abound of infested work cubicles, where clutter and file cabinets provide small spaces in which bed bugs can hide. Bed bugs likely arrive in businesses and schools as hitchhikers from infested homes, traveling on clothing, book bags, backpacks, or briefcases. 

Not much to say about this video. Enjoy the music and watch as a bed bug gains up to seven times its body weight as it tanks up on my blood at three times actual speed.

Several hypotheses explain the marked increase in reports of bedbugs in dwellings, schools, college dormitories, hotels, hospitals, and elder care facilities. Prior to the Second World War, bed bugs were commonplace in detached homes and multifamily dwellings in the US. The advent of insecticides such as DDT after the Second World War greatly reduced the incidence of bed bugs in this country and abroad. Indoor pests including cockroaches and ants were targets of liberal applications of potent residual insecticides. These practices also probably knocked down populations of bed bugs. A shift away from broadcast applications of DDT to targeted approaches using traps and baits for indoor pests may have opened the door for bed bugs to reappear as major pests. Moreover, one class of insecticides called synthetic pyrethroids became a mainstay for controlling indoor pests, including bed bugs. Studies revealed widespread resistance of bed bugs to some synthetic pyrethroids, rendering this class of insecticides far less effective in killing bed bugs than when these products first came into use. Another piece of the bed bug puzzle lies with an increase in international travel to regions of the world where bed bugs are common. International travel provides opportunity for these clever stowaways to enter this country. Bed bugs readily hide in concealed places such as luggage, and due to their small size and cryptic habits they travel right along with globetrotters. We have not yet found a wall tiny enough to keep bed bugs out of our nation. A third factor identified with the uptick in bed bug infestations is the exchange of secondhand furniture. Used sofas, bedding, chests of drawers, and other furniture provide great opportunity for bed bugs to move from one home to another. 

There is some good news in this story. First, DC has done a good job in licking the bed-bug-in-school problem and students should soon be back to their regular classrooms. The second piece of good news is that bed bugs are not known to be carriers of human disease. However, following a bed bug bite, the human body reacts to proteins injected into the skin by the bug as it feeds. The reaction to the bite is highly variable and ranges from nothing to large itchy red welts. My reaction appears within a day but for others, welts can appear weeks after an encounter. According to a study by Michael Potter and his colleagues at the University of Kentucky, for many people, the reaction to the bite is minimal. Factors such as gender and ethnicity do not seem to affect the strength of one’s reaction to a bite. Age, however, apparently does. The elderly are less likely to react to bed bug bites than younger folks. This is not good news because bed bug bites are often a harbinger of an incipient infestation. More importantly, these findings underscore the need for a high level of bed bug awareness and vigilance in facilities providing care and housing for seniors who may not know that they are being bitten. 

How can you avoid bed bug infestations? When you travel be aware of your surroundings. If you stay in a hotel, inspect your bed. Look for the bugs or their telltale signs such as shed skins or dark excrement spots on the mattress, especially along the tacking. Use a small flashlight to look on the bed frame and behind the headboard. To reduce the risk of little stowaways entering your luggage and coming home with you, elevate your suitcase, place it on a luggage stand. Keep soiled and clean clothes in sealed plastic bags. Do not toss worn items on the floor. After returning home, vacuum out all luggage and toss your clothes into the dryer. By exposing clothing, bedding, backpacks, and other items to dry heat of 120°F or better for 20 to 30 minutes, all life stages of bed bugs will be killed. Portable heating boxes are available to heat items that might be damaged or are too large for dryer. Avoid creating an infestation in your home with used furnishings. Beware of secondhand furniture, especially bedroom items. Be sure to inspect thoroughly any used mattresses, box springs, bed frames, nightstands, and mirrors. College students returning to campus should resist the urge to go dumpster diving for dorm-room or apartment furnishings! This is a good way to move infested furniture into your room. Experts recommend the use of bed bug – proof encasements for mattresses and box springs. Bed bugs love to hide in these places and encasements force them into the open where they are more easily detected. Small entrapment devices can also be placed under the legs of the beds or sofas. Bed bugs climb in but cannot climb out. This makes detection easier even when populations are low. 

Bed bugs, tiny vampires of the night, scatter when exposed to bright light or cling to each other in a roiling ball of bugs large and small.

Unusual bites may be your first sign of an infestation. If you suspect an infestation, confirm that the cause of the bites are human bed bugs and not another arthropod or closely related bug associated with bats or birds that have entered your home. To do this you will need to capture one of these rascals and have it identified by an expert. Bat bugs and bird bugs are common and often mistaken for bed bugs. If bird or bat bugs invade, then the solution is to eliminate the nest (birds) and exclude birds and bats from the house with screening and repair of structures. If you confirm a bed bug infestation, you may not want to go it alone. A professional pest control operator will have tools, techniques, and an integrated pest management (IPM) plan to detect and deal with the problem. Some commercial firms employ bed bug sniffing dogs to detect infestations. Unlike their handlers, these canines work for kibble. They are extraordinarily adept in finding bed bugs. Once an infestation is confirmed, the solution will involve more than one visit. Professionals may use a variety of management approaches involving treatments of heat or cold, the application of EPA registered insecticides, and a variety of other methods to exclude and thwart these bloodsuckers. Some things that you can do to help these professionals is to reduce clutter in the bedroom and around the home, vacuum floors and baseboards thoroughly and repeatedly, wash all bedclothes in hot water, and discard or encase infested mattress and box springs. Ridding a school, home, apartment, office, business, theater, hotel, health care facility, or any structure infested with bed bugs involves a serious ongoing commitment of time and resources by all parties involved – administrators, parents, renters, occupants, owners, property managers and pest management professionals. As bed bugs become more widespread and commonplace, early detection, rational discussion, and carefully designed and executed management programs will help us deal with these disagreeable characters.”  

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my colleagues for providing bed bugs videotaped and photographed for this episode. Stimulating discussions with Reg Coler, Larry Pinto, and Rich Cooper provided much of the insight for this story. The fascinating articles “[Bed Bugs] The Sensitivity Spectrum: Human Reactions to Bed Bug Bites” by Michael F. Potter, Kenneth F. Haynes, Kevin Connelly, Michael Deutsch, Erich Hardebeck, Don Partin, and Ron Harrison, and “Insecticide Resistance in the Bed Bug: A Factor in the Pest’s Sudden Resurgence?” by Alvaro Romero, Michael Potter, Daniel Potter, and Kenneth Haynes were used as references for this episode.

For more information on bed bugs, please visit the following websites: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSoFu6zXx8A  

https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs 

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7454.html 

https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/ENTO/ENTO-31/ENTO-31.html

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Businesses used to think of pest problems as seasonal. Ants in spring. Mosquitoes in summer. Rodents in fall. That calendar is not gone, but it is less reliable.

Warmer winters, longer warm seasons, heavier rain events, and sudden temperature swings are changing pest behavior in ways that directly affect commercial properties. For businesses, that shift creates more pressure on sanitation, customer experience, employee safety, compliance, and reputation. The CDC has noted that longer summers, milder winters, and extreme weather are helping mosquitoes, ticks, and rodents expand into new areas, and that the pathogens they carry are following.

Pest control can no longer be treated as a reaction after something shows up, which is why at Catseye the goal is to get in front of the issue. Climate shifts are making prevention more important, and businesses that ignore that reality are taking on more risk than they realize.

Why Climate Shifts Matter for Commercial Pest Control

Warmer Winters Help More Pests Survive

Hard freezes naturally reduce pest populations. When winters are milder, more insects and rodents survive into spring and do so with a head start. Businesses tend to see more overwintering pests, earlier spring activity, larger breeding populations, and more frequent sightings from employees and customers.

A mild winter may feel like a break for your heating bill. It can also be a head start for pests.

Longer Warm Seasons Create Longer Pest Seasons

Warmer average temperatures extend the active season for mosquitoes, ticks, flies, ants, cockroaches, and stored-product pests. Outdoor dining areas face longer mosquito and fly pressure. Warehouses and food facilities deal with more insect activity later into the year. Hotels and multifamily properties field more complaints. The EPA has tied warmer conditions specifically to longer seasons for disease vectors including mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas, pests that are now showing up in areas where they were historically rare.

The Biggest Climate-Driven Pest Pressures Businesses Are Facing

Rodents Moving Indoors After Weather Extremes

Heavy rain, flooding, drought, and sudden cold snaps can push rodents out of their normal nesting areas and toward commercial buildings. Restaurants, grocery stores, food processing facilities, warehouses, hospitals, schools, and multifamily properties are all at elevated risk. Rodents follow food, warmth, water, and shelter. Dumpster areas, loading docks, wall voids, and utility penetrations are common entry points, and small gaps become big liabilities fast.

A restaurant does not need a full-scale rodent infestation to lose customer trust. One mouse sighting near a dining area can turn into photos, reviews, and health department attention.

Mosquitoes Expanding Their Season and Range

Changing rainfall patterns create more standing water and more breeding opportunities. Outdoor seating becomes less comfortable. Employees working outside face more exposure. Hospitality, recreation, golf, property management, and event venues may see more complaints. Drainage inspections, stormwater management, and proactive monitoring around outdoor guest areas are all becoming more important, not just in summer, but across a longer window of the year.

Beyond Rodents and Mosquitoes

Climate-driven pressure is not limited to the obvious pests. Ticks have expanded well beyond wooded residential areas into landscaped commercial campuses, school grounds, golf courses, and healthcare properties. Cockroaches and flies thrive in heat and humidity, and for food facilities and restaurants, they are not just a nuisance but a direct threat to inspections, food safety, and trust. Shifts in rainfall patterns also drive moisture pests like ants, silverfish, centipedes, and earwigs indoors, particularly after heavy storms or extended drought. The common thread is unpredictability: pest activity is becoming harder to anticipate using old seasonal assumptions.

Why Reactive Pest Control Is No Longer Enough

Reactive pest control means waiting until the problem is visible. Climate-driven pressure makes that approach risky.

By the time pests are seen, they may already be established. A single sighting can damage customer confidence. Commercial properties have more entry points than homes, and constant foot traffic, deliveries, landscaping, and food sources create ongoing pressure. For regulated industries such as restaurants, food processing, healthcare, senior living, and schools, inspections and documentation matter as much as treatment, and in some cases disinfection services may be warranted before a facility can return to normal operations. Health and safety exposure, reputation damage, compliance violations, and operational disruptions are all downstream consequences of a pest plan that starts after something is spotted.

If your pest plan starts after someone sees a pest, your business is already behind.

What Businesses Should Do Differently Now

Start with an honest review of your property’s pest vulnerabilities under current conditions, not old assumptions. Entry points, moisture issues, drainage, landscaping edges, dumpster zones, loading docks, and storage areas should all be on that list.

Tighten Exclusion and Environmental Controls

Exclusion is one of the most important commercial prevention steps. Sealing gaps and cracks, installing door sweeps and dock seals, screening vents, and addressing roofline openings all reduce the opportunities pests have to get inside. Moisture control matters just as much. Fix leaks, improve drainage, clean gutters, address standing water, and watch condensation in food and storage areas. Climate shifts often mean more intense rain events followed by drought stress, and both conditions push pests toward buildings.

Build a Year-Round Commercial Pest Management Plan

Sanitation and pest management are not separate functions. Dumpster cleaning, trash pickup frequency, food debris control, spill response, and storage rotation all directly affect pest pressure. Pair strong sanitation with regular inspections, seasonal risk planning, monitoring devices, trend reporting, and fast response when activity is detected. The Global Food Safety Initiative has noted that rising temperatures and longer seasons create more favorable conditions for pests in food processing and storage, and that documentation and prevention planning are the appropriate response.

The Bottom Line

Climate shifts are not creating a brand-new pest problem. They are making the existing problem harder to predict, easier to miss, and more expensive to ignore. Businesses that treat pest control as a seasonal checklist will fall behind. Those that inspect, exclude, monitor, and plan year-round will be better protected.

If your property is seeing more pest activity, more customer complaints, or more pressure around your building, it may be time to rethink your approach. Catseye’s commercial pest control programs are built for exactly this kind of ongoing, prevention-first protection. Reach out to schedule a facility inspection and build a plan before pests become a public problem.

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Inertia is a property whereby objects in motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest. One of the finest examples of inertia is the inexorable annual disappearance of evergreens down the gullets of bagworms. Bagworms are objects in motion. Sometimes, as I witnessed recently, property owners are too often objects at rest. Here’s why. Last week I stopped by my favorite coffee shop and as I sipped, I noticed a peculiar aberration in a lovely planting of arborvitaes lining the parking lot. Smack in the middle of the row of emerald beauties was one decidedly ugly brown rogue. Victim of too much mulch, too little water, or girdling plastic around the root ball, perhaps? Nah, a closer examination revealed hundreds of tiny bagworm caterpillars whose busy jaws were shredding foliage, transforming the evergreen to ever brown.  

Populations of bagworms seem to be on the rise again in the DMV. Whether it’s favorable weather, a dearth of natural enemies, climate change, or just bad luck, bagworms have returned in force to many places in our region. Bagworms have been reported to feed on more than 100 species of plants in our area. They are most damaging to evergreens such as juniper, spruce, arborvitae, pine, and Leyland cypress; however, they will consume a wide variety of deciduous trees and shrubs with equal gusto. Complete defoliation of an evergreen such as pine, arborvitae, or spruce can kill the tree in a single season. Deciduous trees such as sycamore or maple are much more tolerant of this abuse, as they may be able to produce new leaves if defoliation has not occurred too late in the season. If you have bagworms on your plants, especially evergreens, you may be in deep trouble as you read this story. But if your conifers are not yet knocking on heaven’s door, this is a good time to save them for years to come. 

Oh no, what’s up with this brown arborvitae? Hundreds of tiny bagworm caterpillars, that’s what. Some are dining on foliage, others are adding silk to their bag from silk glands on their mouth, others are relocating their shelter, and some are just hiding from the camera. In another month or so, tiny caterpillars will be more than an inch long, performing aerial acrobatics as they move about. Left unchecked, this is what bagworms will do to an evergreen tree, sorrow and death may await these evergreens.

The bagworm is named for its curious habit of carrying about its refuge, a bag woven of silk and plant parts. Back in May, eggs of bagworms completed their development inside overwintered bags dangling on trees. Tiny caterpillars hatched and emerged from the bottom of the bag. Some stayed put on their natal plant while others ballooned on silken threads to other plants nearby. Caterpillars construct and enlarge their bags as they grow. People sometimes confuse the bagworm’s bag with a plant part such as a pinecone. This makes detection a problem. However, a closer look at the bag, especially on a warm summer’s day, often reveals the head and legs of the caterpillar as it moves about eating leaves or needles. By late summer, larvae complete their development, securely attach their bags to twigs with silken threads, and pupate within the bags.

After a few weeks, the male bagworm, a black moth with clear wings, emerges from his bag and flies to find a mate. The female, a maggot-like wingless sack of eggs, releases a pheromone, a sex attractant, to lure the male to her bag. After attracting her mate, the female bagworm does not emerge to greet him. Instead, she remains in her bag, hidden from her mate during the conjugal visit. After mating, she lays from several hundred to more than 1,000 eggs in the bag, and then, like a tragic Greek heroine, she dies, leaving her eggs behind to hatch next spring.  

If bagworms are no longer actively feeding or moving, the damage is done and applying insect sprays is useless. So, don’t do that. However, if large bagworms are still active, it is not too late to nip next year’s incipient bagworm explosion in the bud. Removing bags by hand can be very effective in halting an outbreak, so put on a pair of gloves, grab a garbage bag, and start pickin’. As you remove the bagworms, be sure to collect them in a container or bag, seal it tightly, and dispose of them. Do not simply toss bagworms on the ground or in the driveway. Displaced bagworms are relentless and they will return, crawl up your tree, and resume their feast. If offending bagworms have completed development in late summer or early autumn, you can dramatically reduce the population next year by removing the egg-laden bags now. 

Returning to the present, what can be done now to reduce the carnage? Large numbers of tiny bagworms may be too numerous to be picked by hand. If the caterpillars are small, you may be able to control them with a thorough application of an insecticide such as biologically based, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Some formulations of Bt are listed by the Organic Material Research Institute (OMRI) as safe to use in the production of organic foods you purchase in the market. Bt works well on small caterpillars. If caterpillars are larger, an insecticide containing the OMRI listed, reduced risk active ingredient called spinosad works well to control bagworms. 

Remember, as we approach the middle through the end of August in the DMV, bagworms will have completed their development and sprays on foliage will not kill pupae, adults, or eggs. Physical removal is your best alternative from late summer until May of next year. Sometimes natural enemies including birds, wasps, and voracious predatory bugs kill enough bagworms to quell an outbreak, but I would not count on it. Take stock of your bagworm situation, make a plan, and snap to it! 

Acknowledgements 

Information for this Bug of the Week came from “Managing Insects and Mites on Woody Landscape Plants: An IPM Approach” by J. A. Davidson and M. J. Raupp. For more information on bagworms check out the following website: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/bagworms-trees-and-shrubs/

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Commercial property owners are used to thinking about insurance in terms of storms, fires, water backup, or equipment failure. Pest damage is different. It can build quietly for months, stay hidden inside walls and ceiling voids, and surface at the worst possible time — during a sale, an inspection, or an active claim. When it does, it rarely arrives alone. Pest activity overlaps with moisture intrusion, structural deterioration, insulation loss, contaminated inventory, and electrical hazards, and that overlap is exactly what makes pest damage so difficult to resolve during the claims process.

This post is not legal or insurance advice. It is a practical look at why pest-related damage complicates commercial insurance claims and what property owners and managers can do to stay ahead of it.

Why Pest Damage Creates Problems During Insurance Claims

Most commercial property policies are built around sudden, accidental losses. Pest damage rarely fits that model. Termites work inside wall cavities for years before anyone notices. Rodents nest above ceiling tiles through an entire winter. Birds establish colonies in rooflines and HVAC equipment across multiple seasons. By the time damage is visible, the timeline is hard to establish, the cause of loss is hard to isolate, and the maintenance history becomes part of the conversation.

This creates three problems that adjusters and property owners regularly run into:

The damage is gradual, not sudden. Many commercial policies treat long-term deterioration differently from sudden accidental loss. Pest activity that developed over time may raise questions about whether the damage was preventable.

The cause is hard to isolate. Pest damage frequently overlaps with other issues. Carpenter ants excavate galleries in wood that has already been softened by moisture. Rodents enter through gaps created by settling or storm damage. Raccoons exploit rooflines that were already compromised. Separating pest damage from water intrusion, mold, or structural deterioration can require multiple inspections and competing assessments.

The maintenance record becomes relevant. Visible signs of long-term pest activity — droppings, rub marks, nesting material, gnaw marks, insect frass, recurring moisture — can raise questions about whether the property was maintained appropriately before the damage occurred.

Common Types of Pest Damage in Commercial Properties

Rodent Damage

Mice and rats gnaw through wiring, insulation, pipes, and stored materials. Droppings and urine contaminate food inventory and storage areas, and odors from nesting inside wall voids can affect health inspections and tenant relationships. For restaurants, warehouses, multifamily buildings, and healthcare facilities, rodent activity can trigger temporary closures well beyond what physical repairs alone require. Properties with active rodent pressure should disinfect surfaces as part of any remediation plan.

Termite and Wood-Destroying Insect Damage

Termite damage is often concealed until it is severe. Subterranean termites can damage structural framing and support members over years without visible surface signs, making the timeline of infestation difficult to prove after the fact — a direct problem during claims.

Carpenter Ant Damage

Carpenter ants do not consume wood like termites, but they excavate galleries in wood softened by moisture. In commercial buildings with roof leaks, plumbing issues, or condensation problems, carpenter ant activity can compound structural damage and complicate efforts to determine which problem came first.

Bird, Bat, and Wildlife Damage

Bird and bat droppings cause façade staining, vent blockages, slip hazards, and contamination. Squirrels and raccoons damage rooflines, soffits, and attic insulation, and create entry holes that allow water intrusion. What starts as a nuisance wildlife problem can quickly become expensive repairs if entry points go uncorrected.

How Pest Damage Affects the Claims Process

Beyond the physical damage itself, pest activity creates friction at each stage of a commercial insurance claim.

Adjusters may need more time and documentation when damage involves hidden pest activity. Walls, attics, crawl spaces, mechanical rooms, and rooflines may require additional inspection before the scope of loss is clear, which delays assessment and extends the timeline.

Policy language varies, and many commercial property policies treat pest, vermin, insect, and maintenance-related damage differently from sudden accidental losses. Property owners should speak with their insurance professional about how their specific policy handles these situations — this post does not offer legal or coverage advice.

For restaurants, food processors, hospitality properties, healthcare facilities, and multifamily buildings, pest activity can affect operations even when physical damage appears limited. Temporary closures, discarded inventory, failed inspections, tenant complaints, and sanitation work can all factor into business interruption considerations.

Insurance carriers may also request pest inspection reports, service history, maintenance records, photos, repair invoices, moisture assessments, and proof that corrective action was taken.

Warning Signs Commercial Properties Should Document

Catching pest activity early — and documenting it — matters both for remediation and for claims readiness. Property managers should record:

• Gnaw marks on wiring, pipes, framing, or stored goods
• Droppings in storage rooms, utility spaces, kitchens, or ceiling voids
• Damaged insulation or nesting material
• Insect frass, wings, sawdust-like material, or mud tubes
• Soft, hollow-sounding, or blistered wood
• Grease marks along walls or baseboards
• Damaged roof vents, soffits, fascia, or exterior penetrations
• Bird nesting near HVAC units, loading docks, signage, or roof edges
• Unexplained odors
• Recurring moisture, leaks, or standing water

Early documentation helps establish when activity was first observed, separates new damage from pre-existing conditions, and demonstrates that the property owner responded responsibly.

What Commercial Property Owners Can Do Now

When pest-related damage is discovered, the immediate priorities are documentation, notification, and professional assessment. Photograph and video the damage before any cleanup or repairs begin. Notify your insurance carrier or broker promptly. Schedule a professional pest inspection to identify the pest, likely entry points, and extent of activity. Keep all reports, invoices, and service records in a claim-ready file.

Longer term, prevention is best. Routine pest inspections create a documented timeline of activity and corrective action. Exclusion work — sealing or correcting access points — reduces repeat entry for rodents, wildlife, and birds. Paired with sanitation improvements, moisture correction, and structural repairs, ongoing pest management gives commercial property owners a defensible record that the building was actively maintained.

How Catseye Supports Commercial Properties

Catseye provides commercial pest inspections, rodent control and exclusion, wildlife exclusion, bird pressure assessments, termite and wood-destroying insect inspections, disinfection services, and ongoing pest management programs for commercial properties across New England.

Professional inspection and documentation will not guarantee claim approval, but they give property owners a clearer picture of the damage, documented corrective action, and better records before a claim ever becomes necessary.

Concerned about pest activity at your commercial property? Schedule a Catseye commercial pest inspection to identify activity, entry points, and prevention steps before small problems become expensive claims.

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Every now and then, for reasons known or unknown, some of our native insects go wild and reach astounding numbers, creating some concerns and damage. Earlier this year we met an outbreak of native caterpillars defoliating hundreds of acres of native hardwood trees in Western Maryland. In June of 2021, you may recall a report of thousands of periodical cicadas that appeared on the beaches of the Chesapeake Bay. Well, earlier this month an avid beach comber reported “billions” of robust tiny beetles lining the western shore of the Chesapeake for more than a mile near Calvert Cliffs, MD. Some were dead but many were alive, clinging to beach wrack and each other along the shoreline. These waterlogged insects were Yellow Poplar Weevils (YPW), a native insect that reached outbreak levels in 2025 in nurseries and landscapes here in the DMV. To learn a bit more about this strange event, we spoke to Professor Paula Shrewsbury of the University of Maryland, an expert in the management of pests of ornamental plants. Her comments are excerpts from weekly reports prepared for the Green Industries of the Mid-Atlantic region in 2025 and 2026.

“These types of “wash ups” are often related to winds and water currents, and the weevil’s (YPW) ability to float. Environmental conditions came together this week that resulted in so many weevils on the shoreline. In looking into this, there have been other reports of similar wash up phenomena of YPW in MD and VA over the years.”

Piles of small black beetles are composed of thousands of Yellow Poplar Weevils that washed up on the shores of Chesapeake Bay in June. Tiny jaws on the snout of the beetle damage leaves on several kinds of ornamental plants. Watch as one of these tiny terrors moves along stems and leaves of a yellow poplar, a.k.a. tulip tree, and a closeup of the small beetle on a magnolia leaf. Recently, it has been raising havoc in commercial nurseries and landscapes in the DMV. Images by Katherine Nelson, Michael Raupp, and Paula Shrewsbury, video by Marie Rojas and Michael Raupp.

“Monday, June 9th, [2025] I was contacted by two nurseries in Frederick County, MD describing extremely high numbers of native yellow poplar weevil (YPW) adults, Odontopus calceatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), on magnolias and they were causing significant damage to the newer foliage. This is a new pest to me and as I searched for information, I found reports of YPW in recent days from VA, DC, and OH. This weevil is known to sporadically outbreak. In an article from Penn State Extension on YPW published in 2015, they reported extremely high densities of YPW in PA and the mid-Atlantic and stated that the level of outbreak then had not been seen since 1968.

Host plants of YPW include magnolias, sassafras, tulip tree (yellow poplar) and sweet bay.  YPW’s life cycle consists of one generation per year and YPW activity is reported to occur from mid-late May through mid-July. YPW overwinter as adult weevils in the leaf litter under their host plants. In the spring / early summer as the weather warms, adult weevils emerge and feed on the buds and newer foliage of their hosts with their chewing mouthparts, mate, and lay eggs in the mid-vein on the lower leaf surface. Newly hatched larvae chew into the leaf tissue and feed as leaf miners. Multiple leaf miners can be found in a single leaf. Larvae pupate within the leaf mine.

Adults emerge and use their chewing mouthparts on the end of their long “snout” to feed on leaves (usually newer, tender leaf tissue), stems, and flowers resulting in crescent-shaped (more or less) brown etching in the tissue. Feeding results in leaf curling and distortion, and premature leaf drop. YPW are reported to cause the most damage during this time. Around mid-July or so YPW adults enter a period of aestivation (summer inactivity) and enter the leaf litter, where they overwinter. Areas that are under drought conditions seem to suffer from YPW more.

What else do we know? As of now, I have only seen and had reports of adult weevils being active and causing damage, and only on Magnolia in two nurseries. There are high populations of adults, and they are causing lots of damage, and the damage happens quickly. Monitor hosts of YPW now! Magnolia species / cultivars appear to vary in the amount of YPW adult activity and damage they are receiving. It appears that varieties that still have tender newer foliage are getting hit worse than those with foliage more hardened off. Weevil adults are being seen on non-plant structures (ex. plant poles / signs) and other plants (ex. dogwoods near the magnolias – but I did not see damage on the dogwoods as of Monday).”

Scientists report that following years of outbreaks, YPW populations decline dramatically. Upticks of predators and several species of parasitic wasps and late spring frosts are implicated in these population collapses.

Of the many comments that have appeared in response to the appearance of YPW, people have wondered if YPW is “the lesser of two weevils” and noted that these weevils are now “all washed up.”

Acknowledgements

Sincere thanks to Dr. Shrewsbury for allowing us to reprint information from her reports and for sharing images of the YPW. Thanks also to Marie Rojas for contributing her images and videos of the weevil. Thanks to Katherine Nelson for providing the inspiration for this episode and sharing wonderful images of waterlogged weevils she spotted on the shores of the Chesapeake.

For more information about the Yellow Poplar Weevil life cycle, ecology, damage, and management, please click the following links:

https://www.psu.edu/news/agricultural-sciences/story/yellow-poplar-weevil-makes-presence-known-pennsylvania-mid-atlantic

https://bygl.osu.edu/node/2486

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/yellow-poplar-weevil

https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/landscape/publications-resources/insect-mite-guide/odontopus-calceatus  

https://www.fs.usda.gov/foresthealth/docs/fidls/FIDL-125-YellowPoplarWeevil.pdf

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Last week while tidying up a basement walkout, a colleague discovered a gorgeous and very pregnant black widow spider attempting to escape her broom. Fortunately, my colleague did not freak out and punish the spider. After glamming for the camera for a while, the widow casually strolled into a capture jar held by the dauntless homeowner. This beauty, named Lola, enjoyed a photo shoot and will soon be joining her cousins as a full-fledged member of the Insect Petting Zoo at the University of Maryland. Another name for these creepily beautiful arachnids is ‘hourglass spiders’ due to the bright red hourglass-shaped mark on the underside of the abdomen of some species.

What a surprise! A gorgeous female black widow spider making a basement walkout her home. After glamming for the camera for a few moments, she readily investigated a capture jar held in the steady hands of stout-hearted Dr. Shrewsbury. This beautiful spider, now christened Lola, will join more than a hundred of her arthropod kin in the insect petting zoo at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The black widow is arguably one of the most interesting characters in Marvel Comics pantheon of heroes and one of the most dangerous groups of spiders in the United States. The widow’s venom contains a very potent neurotoxin, alpha-latrotoxin. A measure of the toxicity of alpha-latrotoxin, an LD50 of 20 – 40 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, puts it right up with some very deadly snakes. Fortunately, widows do not always inject venom when they bite and even if they do, the quantity is exceedingly tiny. There are five species of widows in the United States, three native species and two non-native species, and they are found in every state except Alaska, but mostly in southern and western states. Widows spin loose webs in protected places such as under logs, stones, or boards, and in angles of windows and shutters. They are commonly found in dumps and in rural areas such as farms and plant nurseries where they frequent barns, sheds, outhouses, and equipment storage areas.

Like most spiders, the fangs of the black widow are used to capture prey and the venom injected through the fangs helps subdue the victim. Also like most spiders, black widows are not aggressive and bite humans only when harassed or accidentally pinched or grabbed. The bite of the widow is usually painless or felt as a pinprick. The more serious symptoms of the bite first appear within 30 minutes to two hours after the bite. These include back pain and muscle cramps that can be severe, rigid muscles in the abdomen, nausea, vomiting, sweating, restlessness and, in some cases, elevated blood pressure. These symptoms are most severe after 3 hours but may persist for many days.

A previous member of the Insect Petting Zoo at the University of Maryland, a gorgeous black widow named Scarlett, glides back to protect her unhatched brood in the egg case after carefully inspecting her gossamer web.

Black widows do not discriminate among their human victims, and envenomation can occur in people of any age. In the U.S., between 2,000 and 2,500 bites are reported each year with the greatest number of bites in children. Lethal bites are exceedingly rare and only three deaths have been reported worldwide in medical literature. Complications associated with black widow bites are greatest for the very young, the very old, and people with cardiovascular disease. The death rate from documented bites occurs in far less than 1% of reported cases. Rapid treatment with antivenin and other medications can greatly reduce the severity and duration of symptoms associated with a black widow bite. Unlike other spider bites, such as those from the brown recluse, there is no terrifying necrotic skin lesion at the site of the bite.

To avoid bites of black widows and other spiders, wear gloves and long-sleeved shirts when you work in areas that might house spiders. Try to reduce clutter such as brush piles, vegetation, trash, and rubbish where spiders might hide outdoors. Do the same for furniture, sports equipment, and clothes indoors. Carefully inspect these items before moving them and store them in containers or sealed bags whenever possible. If you are bitten by a spider, try to collect the spider whether alive and intact or dead and pulverized. This will help a trained arachnologist identify the offending arthropod and help direct the course of therapy. If you or your child is bitten by a black widow spider, seek medical attention immediately. Finally, despite its name, the black widow does not always eat her mate. In fact, in some species of widows the male brings food to his mate. What a guy!

References

Special thanks to courageous Dr. Shrewsbury who discovered and captured Lola, the gorgeous black widow spider featured in this episode. The great spider books ‘Biology of Spiders’ by Rainer Foelix, “Black widow spider” by Steve Jacobs, and the fact filled article “The Treatment of Black Widow Spider Envenomation with Antivenin Latrodectus mactans: A Case Series” by Steven R. Offerman, G. Patrick Daubert, and Richard F. Clark served as references for this episode.

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The arrival of scorching temperatures in the DMV provides an excellent reason to head for the hills for a cool hike. Forays to the Appalachian Trail and Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland provide the perfect locations to escape summer’s heat and provide an opportunity to visit some of Mother Nature’s most interesting recyclers of organic compounds. Millipedes are detritivores, creatures that consume organic matter including mosses, algae, and decaying vegetation carpeting the forest floor. Millipedes belong to the subphylum of the arthropods called Myriapoda, those with “many feet”.

 Do they really have a thousand feet? Nah, they don’t really have feet, but they do have legs and the record number of legs for a millipede is somewhere around 750. However, most millipedes have fewer than 400 legs. Young millipedes have only a few body segments, each of which bears a single pair of legs. As millipedes molt and grow, body segments with two pairs of legs each are added. Millipedes live two to seven years and can produce hundreds of offspring during their lifetime. Millipedes do not bite or sting, but several species secrete noxious chemicals from glands lining the margins of their body.

On a stony forest trail, we happened upon two remarkable members of the millipede clan. The first was Narceus americanus-annularis, one of the true giants of the millipede world in North America. Its otherwise dull brown body was accented with beet-red legs and red bands encircling the body at each segment. These colors might serve as a warning of noxious defenses ready to be unleashed by the millipede. Unable to resist handling Narceus earned me an acrid reward of benzoquinones, foul smelling droplets of the millipede’s chemical defense.

The many legs of the millipede work in a wavelike fashion to propel these timid grazers as they search for organic matter to eat. Watch as it munches moss on the surface of a boulder. Nearby, another millipede dashes across a forest trail. Bright contrasting colors may warn predators not to mess with these chemically defended detritivores. Defensive compounds released by this millipede smell like almond extract. You might not want to handle this one.

 A bit further down a trail, we encountered one of the flat-backed millipedes, perhaps Apheloria virginiensis. Blending in with the forest floor was clearly not this creature’s game as it sported lemon-yellow legs, alternating bands of yellow and black along the back, and pink-hewed margins. When plucked from ground, the smell of almonds filled the air and brought me back to my days of organic chemistry when benzaldehyde was the unknown compound on the lab practical. Benzaldehyde is the compound found in bitter almonds and is used as a flavoring in almond extract. Ah, but benzaldehyde is not the only compound found in Apheloria’s defensive secretion. The other more lethal moiety released by the millipede is hydrogen cyanide. Glad no one sniffed this millipede too deeply.

 Millipedes, important recyclers of organic matter, are well-protected by potent toxins and irritants that could make a bird, lizard, or toad think twice about messing around with these denizens of the forest floor. As temperatures soar into the 90s, consider taking a hike on one of the beautiful shady forests in the DMV and be on the lookout for busy millipedes, recyclers of organic materials. 

 Acknowledgements

 We thank the intrepid hikers of Maryland’s highlands, Erin, Ellie, Abby, Maggie, Jo, Paula, Laurie, and Kevin for providing inspiration for this episode. Thomas Eisner’s books “The Love of Insects” and “Secret Weapons” were used as resources for this story.

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On a recent visit to one of my favorite relatives, while enjoying the fragrances and beauty of roses in their garden, I noticed some unnerving injury to the foliage of several plants. The injury took the form of a type of herbivore mischief known as etching. Etching results when small insects use their jaws to remove soft tissues between the vascular bundles that crisscross leaves, leaving behind veins and a layer of epidermal tissue. This produces a windowpane, or skeletonized, effect, and these withered leaves often appear like someone took a blowtorch to them. A wide variety of beetles and caterpillars are the usual suspects when skeletonization is afoot. However, in this bed of roses, sawflies larvae were the culprits.

 Sawflies are unusual insects, an ancient branch of the bee and wasp clan. Unlike the larvae of bees and wasps that make their living consuming nectar and pollen or the flesh and blood of insects, the larvae of most sawflies are plant feeders. At first glance, sawfly larvae look like small caterpillars with slender bodies and distinct heads. Upon microscopic inspection, you can see that the posterior segments of the sawfly’s body bear small sucker-like appendages called prolegs. Prolegs adorn the abdominal segments of plant-eating moth and butterfly larvae as well. But moth and butterfly caterpillars never bear more than five pairs of prolegs. Most sawfly larvae have six or more pairs. Another difference between these look-alikes is the presence or absence of small fishhook-like structures called crochets on the prolegs. Caterpillars have them, sawfly larvae do not. Crochets help caterpillars hold onto the smooth surface of a plant leaf.

Dappled in sunshine, a pair of roseslug sawfly larvae strip nutritious tissue from a leaf blade, leaving only veins and a thin layer of epidermis behind. Through the lens of the microscope, you can get up close and personal with a bristly roselug as it gobbles leaf tissue. As leaves desiccate later in summer, they crinkle and turn brown as if toasted by a blowtorch.

 After spending the winter as juveniles in the soil beneath rose plants, in spring when foliage returns the roseslug sawfly completes its development, and small wasp-like adults fly to leaves where they deposit eggs with an egg-laying appendage called an ovipositor. The ovipositor has teeth like a saw’s blade, hence the name sawfly. Eggs hatch and the larvae proceed to pillage rose leaves through May and June. Fortunately, only one generation of these scalawags occurs each year, but in some years, they may be abundant enough that by the end of June they can make roses look like they have been assaulted by a flame thrower.

 In addition to skeletonization, several leaves had large chunks of leaf tissue missing from the edges of the blade. This defoliation was the handiwork of the curled rose sawfly, an insidious leaf-munching machine that is beautifully camouflaged. When not actively feeding along the margin of a rose leaf, it is curled on the underside of a leaf or on a bud where it blends in cryptically with plant. After several days of hide-and-go-eat, the entire leaf may be reduced to nothing but a mid-vein. When its development is complete, the larva bores into the twig, where it pupates. Later a small wasp will emerge, mate, lay eggs and initiate a second seasonal generation.

 In May and June, I regularly inspect my roses for the telltale signs of skeletonization and defoliation. If sawflies are common enough to create problems for my roses, I simply squish the little buggers between my fingers or pluck them off and toss them in the lawn to become a feast for the ground beetles or lightning bug larvae lurking in the thatch. Several environmentally friendly insecticides listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) with active ingredients including insecticidal soap and spinosad work well against these sawflies. OMRI listed products are used for production of fruits and vegetables marketed as organic, and when insecticide applications are necessary, I try to select from the OMRI list whenever possible. As with all insecticides, always read the label carefully and follow precautions, including those safeguarding bees and other pollinators that might be on your roses. Strong directed streams of water are also reported to dislodge sawfly larvae from plants. If you have roses, be on the lookout for these rose-eating rascals. 

 References

 We thank Carole for providing the roses and sawflies that served as the inspiration for this episode. Two marvelous references, “Insects that feed on trees and shrubs” by W. T. Johnson and H. H. Lyon, and “Managing insects and mites on woody plants: An IPM approach” by J.A. Davidson and M. J. Raupp were consulted to prepare this episode.

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