Common Pests

roztech favicon

Check Out common Texas pests in waco:

COCKROACHES

There are more than 4,000 species of cockroaches worldwide, including 30 species that like to live in our homes. Cockroaches hide in dark, moist places such as food pantries as they eat any food. They are extremely hard to kill without professional care- certain roach species can stay alive without air for 45 minutes and remain active for a month without any food.

 

Disease is another reason to practice preventive pest control methods for cockroaches. Cockroaches can carry 33 kinds of bacteria, six different types of parasitic worms, and seven known pathogens. They are also known for how quickly they reproduce- a single breeding pair can produce 400,000 offspring annually. 

 

Call Roz-Tech Pest Management in Waco, TX, to take care of all your cockroach removal and extermination needs.

A Cockroach- A Common Texas Pest
tick

FLEAS AND TICKS

Commonly, flea and tick issues rise when the Texas summer heat comes. You can spot a flea from its red-brown body, about 1/8 inch long, with a narrow body and long claws on all six long legs. Fleas can be dangerous in the house because they transmit serious diseases like typhus and tapeworms. There are two types of itching associated with fleas. The first is mild itching associated with the creepy crawly feeling of a bug on your skin. The second is a much more intense itch, which occurs when an allergy develops to the proteins in a flea’s saliva.

 

Though ticks can’t fly, they are great jumpers that hang out in shrubs and tall grasses, where they can hop onto passing mammalian hosts. Ticks have four life stages: egg, larva (infant), nymph (immature), and adult (mature). All stages except the egg must feed on a host, or the tick will die. At each stage, most ticks die before they can find a host. Ticks are infamous carriers of numerous serious diseases, with almost 900 different species. Many species can transmit diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Alpha-gal. Ticks may appear as small dark specks on your pet’s fur, so make sure to provide your pet with prescription flea and tick prevention.

Call Roz-Tech Pest Management in Waco, TX, to take care of all your flea and tick removal and prevention needs.

HOUSE FLIES

Surprisingly, the common housefly can be one of the most dangerous insects in your home. They are known to transfer over 100 pathogens resulting in ailments including typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera, and dysentery. House flies are usually gray in appearance and display four black stripes on their thorax. They have slightly hairy bodies, a single pair of wings, and compound red eyes, which contain thousands of individual lenses that allow them to have wider vision. Adult house flies are about 1/8-1/4” (4 to 7.5 mm) long.

Known for how rapidly they populate, a female housefly lays 120 eggs at a time on average. They can lay their eggs in dumpsters and garbage cans and go indoors to search for their meal. House flies have sponge-like mouthparts, which are good for soaking up liquefied substances but not for eating solid foods. They are attracted to rotting or fermented scents, drain pans under refrigerators, garbage cans, unrinsed recyclable cans, and other unpleasant substances.

 

Roz-Tech Pest Management in Waco, TX is ready to tackle your house fly infestation- give us a call today.

house fly
ant

ANTS

When the warmer season comes- fire ants are busily building their mounds, and homeowners are just as busy trying to get rid of them. There are thousands of ant species worldwide, and over 200 species can be found in Texas. Three types of adult ants live in the colony: the queen, female ants, and male ants. With a life expectancy of 30 years, a queen ant is easy to spot based on their much larger body size and wings.

 

If you spot large numbers of ants trailing to or from food sources in your home, you may have an infestation in or outside of your home. Once established, an infestation can grow rapidly. While some ants contaminate food with their bodily waste and various pathogens, others can destroy wood and other building materials.

 

Roz-Tech Pest Management in Waco, TX, is equipped and excited to fight your ant infestation- connect with us today.

MICE AND RATS

The moment you realize you are dealing with mice or rat infestation- stop what you’re doing and give us a call to tackle the problem before it gets out of hand. The most common way to spot the difference between a mouse and a rat is sizing. The typical house mouse is anywhere from two to four inches long, as opposed to the common and much larger, Norway Rat, which measures seven to nine inches.

Mice will contaminate food, damage homes, and spread disease- so it’s extremely important to begin treatment immediately. One of the first indicators of the presence of rats and mice is their droppings. Mice and rats are nocturnal, meaning they like to sleep during the day. This is why they can be heard playing or foraging during the night. Rats also have mites and fleas that can readily jump to domesticated pets, and in some cases, onto people.

 

Call Roz-Tech Pest Management in Waco, TX, to handle your rodent infestation.

rat
A termite that would be treated in termite control

TERMITES

Study shows termites have damaged more than millions of homes in the United States alone, and each homeowner spends thousands of dollars each year for repairs. A termite problem can cause significant stress and expense, but with the help of Roz-Tech Pest Management, it can also be entirely curable and preventable. Termites never sleep, so they build their colonies 24 hours a day until they die. Queen termites from the Termitidae family can produce 10 million eggs per year- some can lay 15 to 25 eggs per minute and over 40,000 per day.

Termites are the longest-living insect with a lifespan of 50-100 years by the queen termite, but in captivity, the longest-living queen was 25 years. You can spot a termite by looking for its thick waste, pale white-yellow coloring, straight antenna, and short legs.

Some signs to look for when dealing with a termite infestation include

  • hollowed/damaged wood
  • dry wood droppings
  • evidence of swarms (i.e., discarded termite wings).

Call today to see why we are Waco’s best termite exterminator!

SPIDERS

Texas is home to many spider species, including grass spiders, crab spiders, orb weavers, and more. Two of the most venomous spiders to look out for are the black widow spider and the brown recluse spider. Black Widow Spiders can be identified by a colored, hourglass-shaped mark on their abdomens. They’ll be taken seriously because of the strong venom (15 times greater than a rattlesnake’s). The violin-shaped markings identify the brown recluse on the top of their cephalothorax (fused head and thorax). Brown recluses also often hide in dark, dusty places, like under wood piles or even inside homes.


Spider eggs are laid into a silken sac with an average of about 100 eggs in each sac. The sac may be fixed to a surface, hidden in the web, or carried by the female. Signs of the sacs fixed indoors indicate that more spiders will soon be around. Seeing a spider infestation can be a result of another pest problem, as they typically look for quiet places with easy-to-catch insects for meals. Part of our home inspection process includes determining if your home has a spider infestation with contributing factors.

 

Give a call today to speak with an expert exterminator to talk about your pest problems.

spider
bedbug

BED BUGS

Bed bugs are small, brownish, flattened insects that feed on the blood of humans and animals. It only takes a little for your home to become infested by bed bugs, and an increased bed bug population comes with warmer weather. You should look for traces of the insects in the folds of your mattresses, box springs, and other places where they are likely to hide. Some signs to look out for if you think you are dealing with a bed bug problem include:

  • Red, itchy bites or a rash that appears on bare-skinned areas
  • Reddish, rusty stains from crushing the bugs in your sleep
  • A strong, unpleasant, musty odor
  • White, sticky eggshells or empty eggshells
  • Dark/black, bloody stains from bug feces
  • Light brownish-yellow empty exoskeletons

Under normal conditions, bed bugs can live for over 300 days, and the female bed bug lays up to 5 eggs daily.

 

If you’ve noticed signs of these annoying, biting pests- keep them out of your forever home by contacting Roz-Tech Pest Management in Waco, TX, today for quick and guaranteed bed bug removal service!