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I found a tick on my dog. It is very large and green with a yellow kind of V shape on its back. Can you identify it?
The tick you describe is a fully engorged female tick -- probably Dermacentor variabilis. When ticks engorge on blood, tiny folds inside their bodies are extended and they 'inflate' to the size of a raisin or bigger. Once they are fully engorged, they drop off of the host and produce a large batch of eggs. Above is a photo of an engorged tick.
Richard Houseman
Assistant Professor of Entomology
State Urban Entomology Extension Specialist
How do ticks breathe?
Ticks breathe through tiny openings on the underside of their bodies and near their hind legs. These openings are called spiracles. Ticks can close these spiracles for several hours without any difficulty. In fact, since ticks are very susceptible to drying out, they regularly close their spiracles to reduce water loss during hot periods of the day.
Because ticks can close their spiracles for hours, using petroleum jelly or other materials to "suffocate" the ticks and cause them to back out of the skin on their own, are not usually effective. Even if they do back out, it takes several hours. The best way to remove a tick is to use a pair of strong forceps and firmly grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and apply a slow, steady pressure until the tick comes out of the skin.
Richard Houseman
Assistant Professor of Entomology
State Urban Entomology Extension Specialist
Is there anything natural that can be used to eliminate or discourage ants from coming indoors? Is insecticide the only choice for ridding a house of them? I think the ants may be living in the walls of the mobile home that I just moved onto a piece of property. It is an older mobile home, and a nest was found in the doorjam when we replaced the door
The most effective natural deterrent to ants entering homes is to eliminate available food resources indoors through good sanitation practices. Ants will come indoors seeking food and will continue to enter if they find morsels, crumbs, greases, sweet liquids, etc. Very small amounts of these food items are sufficient to encourage ant activity. Check for these things under stoves and refrigerators, as well as in cracks and crevices or around garbage cans.
Insecticide baits and/or drenches can be an important part of ant management as well. To use them effectively, however, control must be directed toward killing the queen. Control that only kills workers is temporary, since the queen will produce more workers to replace any that die.
To direct control measures at the queen, you must know the feeding, nesting and reproductive habits of the invading ants. There are several species of ants that will invade homes and the first step in control is to identify which of these species is invading. Once the species is identified, you know what the feeding, nesting, and reproductive habits are and you can design an effective management strategy that combines sanitation, baiting, or drenching.
You can collect worker ants and send them to the MU Extension Plant Diagnostic Clinic for identification. Please send samples in a leak-proof container with alcohol. There is a fee.
Richard Houseman
Assistant Professor of Entomology
State Urban Entomology Extension Specialist
My brother is moving from a rental home that has termites. He is storing several boxes from the basement of that house in my basement. I checked the boxes and they don't appear to have anything alive in them. Is it possible for my house to become infested with termites from these boxes?
It is unlikely that you will get a termite infestation from these boxes. Although boxes and papers are edible, termites must have a continuous source of moisture. If termites invaded the boxes in the former home, they maintained a link to the moist soil environment outside via mud tubes. Once you move the boxes, that link is broken and the termites will dry out and die relatively soon. The chances of transferring a termite infestation via infested boxes is next to nothing.
Richard Houseman
Assistant Professor of Entomology
State Urban Entomology Extension Specialist
I have a mail order business in Vermont and there is a stink bug here in my office. He is alive and well, for the moment, at least. If I put him outside, he will die. What can I give him to eat? I have several plants but I'm not sure he will find them tasty. Today I gave him a dish of sugar water and a piece of sweet potato. He matches the picture on your Web site exactly. He flies around and is quite friendly and has become a sort of "pet."
I've successfully reared stink bugs on fresh green beans. This is natural host (food and water source) for stink bugs. You should probably wash the beans first before providing them to your stink bug 'pet'.
Michael L. Boyd
Assistant Professor of Entomology
State Extension Entomology Specialist
Updated 5/19/08