Other Pests

Ticks are small, wingless, bloodsucking arthropods. They burrow their heads into their host and can change drastically in shape, color and size when they become engorged with blood. Ticks have extremely small mouths that usually go unnoticed when they bite.

Silverfish are wingless insects. Their tapered body and fast wriggling movement, along with their silvery scales gives them some “fish-like” features.

Feral rabbits can be found in many different habitats across Australia, ranging from deserts to coastal plains — wherever there is suitable soil for digging warrens. They are scarce in areas with clay soils and abundant where soils are deep and sandy, such as in the north-east of South Australia.

Although there are a number of difference species which vary in colour and size, they all have a similar appearance – a small armoured bug (not an insect), grey / brown in colour with 7 body segments and 7 pairs of legs. Young slaters look very similar to adult slaters on hatching from the eggs, except they only have 6 body segments / 6 pairs of legs

Paper wasps have a small head, with medium sized eyes and medium length antennae. The body is slender, with a very narrow waist. There are two pairs of brown-tinted wings, with the first pair larger. The abdomen has some yellow/orange bands, but is mainly black. Recently, the introduced Asian Paper Wasp (Polistes chinensis) has been reported from several inner city suburbs of Sydney.

Millipedes, vary in size and colour (depending on species).  The portuguese variety is black and up to 45 mm long. May vary in the number of body segments, but they always have 2 pairs of legs per segment (centipedes have one pair of legs per segment). Young millipedes look just like the adults (only smaller).

Adult litter beetles are dark brown and 6-7 mm long, beetle larva are light brown-yellow in colour.

Adult house crickets are light yellowish brown in colour with three dark crossbands on their head. They are about 3/4 – 7/8 inch in length and have a threadlike antenna that is often longer than its body, and wings that lie flat on its back. Nymphs are wingless but otherwise look similar to adults.

Europen wasps are a stout wasp with a bright yellow and black banded abdomen, and a pair of black spots on each yellow band. They have two pairs of wings with the first pair larger than the second. They have black antennae and fly with their legs held close to the body.

Earwigs have an elongated and flattened or cylindrical body. They can be winged or wingless, and they have chewing mouthparts. The abdomen is long, flexible and telescopic (segments of the abdomen may be drawn into one another like a telescope). The two forcep-like cerci on the end of the abdomen are heavily sclerotised (hardened) and vary in shape and size between species.

There are actually two main species of clothes moth, the webbing clothes moth and the case-making clothes moth. The adult Webbing moth is light, gold coloured less than 1 cm long.

Fleas are small, wingless insects and species range in size from 1 – 10 millimetres. They are easily recognised by the majority of the world’s population, especially those who own cats or dogs.