Little Bank

[KC]

Yep hosman...those ladybugs love to nest inside the walls for winter and start coming out when it warms.  Had that happen at our home here and found out the 2nd story stairwell windows were properly sealed.  Took 4 years to get rid of them coming back - we would carry bowls full outside to the plants.

I gotta admit...i look at moths differently now!  :[

[waywardangler]

We do not have ladybugs but we have thousands of Asian beetles that look like ladybugs every fall.  I now mix a spray to spray the outside of the house siding with and they all die within a day.  Asian beetles were imported by soybean farmers to control insects such as aphids on their plants. They also have a sharp bite because when they land on your skin they take a nip to see if you are edible.  And they have a distinctive smell when you smash them.  We also get swarms of boxelder bugs but they are harmless and more of a nuisance.  The spray also kills them.  We are not talking just a few Asian beetles or boxelder bugs but thousands in the air, on the siding, and all are trying to get in the house before freezeup.

[Oceans64]

I'm not afraid of bugs either but this:

hundreds and hundreds of moths....going up my night shirt, pants legs, the kids were screaming with the same thing in their rooms.

Would land me in counseling for several years.... 

[hosman321]

Here's a few pics of one of the little buggers that came crawling out a minute ago. This is super extreme magnification and he was running, so it was the best I could get.

[waywardangler]

Hard to tell from the fuzzy pic but it resembles booklice.

[hosman321]

I looked up book lice and they don't look like those. I think they may be springtails (collembola) but I don't know. They look different than those, too.

[waywardangler]

Size is important and how they act.  Booklice are about 1mm-10mm long and run fast.  Springtails are about 1mm to 6mm and spring when disturbed.  They feed on decaying stuff and need damp conditions to survive.  Booklice feed on mold and fungi and also need damp conditions to live.  I would suck whatever is in the bank out through the coin slot with a vacuum, spray the inside with bug spray, and bag it in a ziplock bag for a few days.

[hosman321]

You're right, they do look like book lice. These little guys do a tiny little jump when disturbed but don't look like the springtails. I'll put it in a little bag and take care of the little pests, thanks wayward.

[hosman321]

Well, it turns out that this little bank did not bring the bugs into my house, they were already here. My aviary room is completely infested. 
I couldn't believe my eyes when I went in there this afternoon. I won't even get into details but it is bad. I have never once seen them in there before today, partly because they are just so tiny and they hide in cracks. You'd never be able to see just 1 on a wall. But in the thousands, you definitely do. The high humidity (from all the live plants) and the constant 76 degree temperature is perfect for them. Not to mention, all that bird seed and newspapers in the bottom of the cage. I have some crazy extreme cleaning to do tomorrow. Oh, and I was really pissed when I picked up my 50 million year old knightia fossil and they were munching away! Thankfully, this website says that they don't don't really cause damage like a bookworm does. Hopefully I can eradicate them quickly with lots of cleaning and poison!
http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/booklice

[talesofthesevenseas]

Oh Nooooooo!!  Good luck Hosman, I don't envy you m'dear!  Be careful not to expose your birds to anything toxic!

[hosman321]

I've eliminated most of them by just cleaning and throwing out a bag of poultry feed (for the button quail) that was completely filled with them. Of course, they probably laid eggs so I have to keep up the sweeping and the mopping for the next few weeks. I think that bag of food was the main source of the problem. I only sprayed pesticides around the outside of the door and along the carpet outside the door. Oh, what a big hassle! Here's to hoping I eliminate them all. Very quickly!

[talesofthesevenseas]

Yeah seems more likely they came in on feed than on a bank!

[waywardangler]

I had a bag of bird seed for wild birds out in the garage, unopened, and when it came time to use it, weevils had turned all the safflower seed to dust and were crawling all over inside the bag. They did not touch the black sunflower, corn, or other seed in the mix.  I put the seed in tight lidded metal containers and waited until it froze real good before using it again.  I figured any weevil bodies in there, the birds could eat.