Common Pests And Insects That Affect Arizona

When looking into Arizona pest control services it is best to have some limited knowledge about the various pests, insects, and other nuisances that trouble people.  The more you know about your enemy, the easier it will be to defeat it.  There is no doubt that ants, spiders, roaches, mice, rats, scorpions, bats, skunks, and squirrels are the enemy of many Arizona households.  By taking some time to understand the basic distinctions, behaviors, and life cycles of the many annoying creatures that you may wish to remove from you home, you will have a leg up in the process of eliminating the Arizona pests.

First thing is first. Here are the basics in understanding over ninety percent of all the animal kingdom.  That large section is made up by arthropods.  Arthropods are different from other animals by having a skeleton on the outside of their bodies.  Their bodies are segmented into clearly defined sections like that of an armored knight.  Each leg and all other appendages have a joint to allow movement.  The other unique feature is what is known as bilateral symmetry, where each side of their body is an exact copy of the other. With phylum of arthropods exist many classes, which are distinct from one another such as Insects, Arachnids, Crustaceans, Chilopods, and Diplopods.  These five distinctive classes make up over one million different species of pests, bugs, and otherwise creepy crawly creatures.

Most people are familiar with the class called Insects.  These should be common to all Arizona residents as there are over one million different species of insects throughout the world.  Insects are made up of grasshoppers, butterflies, ants, flies, cockroaches, beetles, termites, and others.  The unique features of insects are there bodies, which have three regions: a head, thorax, and abdomen.  The thorax contains six legs, which each have 3 individual segments.  Some adults can have up to two pairs of wings attached to the thorax, and some have no wings.  All insects to posses two antennae, and also have two lateral compound eyes.

The next class will probably account for the greatest amount of fears and late night screams by Arizona residents then any other on the list. This terrifying class makes up the Arachnids, which have the well-known cast consisting of: spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, and others.  Arachnids here make up more than sixty five thousand known species worldwide.  Arachnids are made up with two distinct body regions: a cephalothorax, and an abdomen section.  Each arachnid can be found with eight legs, and no antennae.  They have unique mouth parts, which act as appendages.  In spiders these appendages are found as fangs.

Now are the familiar Crustaceans.  Immediately one will think out loud that crustaceans live in the ocean and living in Arizona most are rather far from the sea.  While this class includes crabs, shrimps, lobsters, barnacles, isopods, and others, it also includes pill bugs, or sow bugs.  And pill bugs are found in Arizona and throughout the southwest.  Crustaceans are made up of only two body regions, two pair of antennae, and each have more then five pairs of legs.  Add this classification to your trivia list as most crustaceans are aquatic, yet there are a few lesser know terrestrial species included as well.  However most would be surprised with you tell them that Arizona has land dwelling crustaceans.

Next is the class of Chilopods where there are over three thousand species of centipedes.  Each chilopod has a very well defined head with one pair of antennae.  They are capable of injecting their pray with venom by using their first pair of legs to deliver the toxic poison to its victims.  Chilopods are completely flat on their top side, as well as their bottom side.  The other unique feature that makes them interesting is there body sections each have one pair of legs per segment.  Many people think that all centipedes have one hundred legs; this is a myth, as most common centipedes do not even have one hundred legs.

The last class to be described are the Diplopods.  Here are over ten thousand worldwide species of millipedes.  Millipedes may look like centipedes, but these creatures are actually better know for having higher numbers of legs as each of their body segments contain two pairs of legs.  The first four body segments only have one pair of legs.  So now your trivia list should contain at least three new facts about these creepy crawly creatures.  Diplopods all have only one pair of antennae, a well-defined head, and are almost always cylindrical in shape.  Unlike the centipedes these many-legged creatures are very slow moving, and are most often not poisonous.

Now that you have the basic phylum and class information of the pests, bugs, and creepy crawlers that are found in Arizona here are the most common cast of characters:

Flies- which are insects that live in garbage and anywhere animal feces are present.  Flies are attracted to dead animals within a matter of moments after a death occurs.  The adult flies will eat any sugar-based food, which includes rotting fruit.  The larvae will be found eating feces, and decaying animal flesh.

Cockroach- another common Arizona insect may take the part of the very best known of all pest species.  The most well know species are the American cockroach and the German cockroaches.  These creatures may be the most hardy of all living insects on Earth.

Spider- These are natural predators that eat other insects.  They will commonly devour flies, bees, crickets, moths, and others making them a very useful part of the environment as they eat so many different kinds of Arizona insects.  Spider can inflict a painful bite that can seriously affect humans.

Ants- The most common of all insects on Earth.  Ants form large colonies, where wingless workers collectively work together to build a great colony for their queen.  Ants are very intelligent, have a complex form of communication, and can solve problems as a group.  Ants are capable of delivering a very painful bite.

Scorpion- These nocturnal creatures come out of rocks and woodpiles at night to feed.  They each possess poisonous venom that is used when hunting prey.  Most scorpions are not harmful to humans, however a bite from Arizona’s bark scorpion will leave a very memorable mark and can kill an infant, or any person allergic to its venom.