Extension & Outreach
Dealing with pests in your home
The first step in helping you solve your pest problem in your home is to get an accurate identification of the insect involved. Intact and well-preserved specimens will provide us the best chance for accurate identification. Also, we ask that you kill any insects prior to mailing them to us. For larger insects, you can place them in a sealed container (i.e. a used pill bottle), and place them in a freezer overnight to kill them. For smaller and soft bodied insects, you can also place them in rubbing alcohol or white vinegar in a sealed container. Do not place insects in water, as this will not preserve specimens.
In addition to insect samples, we also encourage sending us photos of specimens in advance. The majority of the time, we can get enough detail from an image to make an identification. When sending photos, please use a ruler or reference item, so we can determine the size of the organism.
What you can do:
- You can email us a copy of the photo.
- You can mail us specimens, by printing and attaching this address label.
The LSU AgCenter maintains a list of experienced professionals in the area that specialize
in bee and/or wasp removal. Unfortunately, the LSU Department of Entomology does not
do swarm capture at this time.
Fun and educational insect activities in Louisiana
While Louisiana in itself has a lot of fascinating insect diversity and habitats, there are also local places in the area you can learn more about insects. Here are a few recommendations:
Claudia Husseneder, LSU Department of Entomology, is an amateur photographer, as well as an entomologist. In the Bug Shots pages, she has put together fun and informative facts on common insects in Louisiana.
The LSU Department of Entomology has numerous resources to assist K-12 schools with lesson plans, guest lectures, and other materials. Our graduate students (as well as faculty and staff) frequently visit elementary and middle schools throughout the year to provide presentations on insects. This includes our traveling insect zoo, live honey bee displays, live cockroaches, mosquitoes, scope on a rope, insects as sources of food, and other material. Our annual AgMagic display is built around the concept of touching, smelling, hearing, tasting, and seeing insects up close. We also frequently have schools and small groups visit our insect museum to see various displays of preserved insects up close.
If you are having trouble locating specific information, you can contact us directly.
Insect Specific Information
Ants are a common pest in both urban and agricultural areas. Many of the biggest
concerns regarding ants in Louisiana are the fire ant, the tawny crazy ant, and pest
ants in homes. Click on the links below for more information on various ants.
While most people often confuse assassin bugs and kissing bugs, the assassin bug is actually a beneficial insect that is a predator of other insect pests. You can find more information on assassin bugs by clicking the link below.
The thought of bed bugs can easily cause much stress and concern. Bed bugs are excellent
at hiding in cracks and crevices, and coming out at night for a blood meal when people
are sleeping. For more information on these pests, click the links below.
Bees are important insects that benefit the environment through pollination. While most bees are beneficial to the environment, some can be considered pests. Click the links below to learn more. (Note that specific information on honey bees is included in its own separate tab below).
There are several beetles that are used as biological control agents. Click the links below to learn more about these interesting beneficial insects.
There are many important insects that are beneficial in the environment. In particular, many of these insects are commonly used as biological control agents, since they target very specific pests. Click the links below to find out more.
Cicadas are an incredibly noisy group of insects. They are the loudest group of insects, with some species reaching over 120 decibels. For more information on this group of insects, click the link below.
Dragonflies and damselflies are beautiful and graceful insects that are incredibly agile fliers. The immature stages are all aquatic. All stages are predaceous and feed off of other organisms. The immature are called nymphs and have a prehensile labium capable of extending out to catch unsuspecting hosts. The immature can be cannibalistic and feed on other nymphs as well as other insects and small fish or minnows. The adults are excellent flyers and can dart about very quickly to catch food on the wing. Occasionally beekeepers who have hives near bodies of water have to move them to reduce the predation from the larger dragonflies on the hives.
Forensic entomology is the use of insects to help solve crimes. Several important insect groups include maggots, adult flies, and beetles. LSU Entomology offers courses in Forensic Entomology.
Researchers at the LSU Department of Entomology can help answer questions regarding insect pests of fruit. Click the links below for more information.
Giant salvinia is an invasive plant to local ponds. The plant develop so rapidly, it quickly spreads across an entire aquatic area. Researchers in the LSU department of entomology, are studying the Giant Salvinia weevil as a means of helping to control the spread of this invasive plant species. Click the links below for more information.
Horse fly and deer fly adults obtain blood by cutting into the skin and licking up the pooling blood. This unique feeding behavior, along with high numbers around animals, they can become quite a large pest. For more information, click the links below.
Kissing bugs get their name from the behavior to bite close to the mouth while people are sleeping. The biggest concern with kissing bugs is their potential to transmit Chagas disease. While we have the vector insects, Chagas disease is much more common in central and south America, due to the behavior of these insects, along with improved housing and infrastructure. You can learn more by clicking the link below.
Thanks to proper hygiene, body lice (and epidemic typhus) are far much less of a concern than they were 100 years ago. However, head lice are still important today, and can cause pain and grief in those dealing with controlling them. Click the link below for more information.
Livestock are an important commodity in Louisiana, and also require their own methods of pest management. Click the link below to learn more about IPM for livestock animals.
Love bugs get their name from their common behavior of prolonged mating flights. These mating love bugs can commonly be collected throughout the warm seasonal months. For more information, click the links below.
Mites can be challenging to identify, due to their small size. The two most important pest mites to humans includes the scabies mite, and the chigger. Identification of mites is best accomplished through a specialized dermatologist. For more information on mites, please click the links below.
Mosquitoes are important nuisance pests and vectors of disease-causing pathogens in Louisiana. In Louisiana, we have over 60 recognized species of mosquitoes, each with different host preferences, larval habitats, and importance. Our greatest concerns annually include the risk for West Nile virus, along with threats from large levels of nuisance mosquitoes. Click the links below for more information.
In addition to the annual Louisiana Pest Management Guide, the LSU Department of Entomology and AgCenter produce numerous IPM and Best Management Practice guidelines. Click the links below for more information.
Pollinators include more than just bees and wasps. Many other groups of insects can serve as important pollinators, including flies, butterflies, and beetles. For more information on pollinators and pollinator protection and conservation, click the links below.
Potatoes, in particular sweet potatoes, are an important commodity in Louisiana. Click the links below for more information on IPM for sweet potatoes.
Rice is an important crop in Louisiana and requires important pest management strategies for controlling insect pests. Click through the links below for more information.
This is a very large group of flies that are found in a variety of habitats. The adults are predaceous and feed on a number of insects, including bees, wasps, dragonflies, grasshoppers, other flies and small butterflies. They will often attack insects their size or larger and always capture their prey on the wing. The larger robber flies can inflict a painful bite if mishandled. Most of the robber flies are slender and elongate; others are stout-bodied and hairy, resembling bumble bees or other bees or wasps. Yet others are very slender and resemble damsel flies. The larvae live in the soil and are predatory on other insect larvae.
There are numerous insect pests that affect soybeans. Click through the links below to find out more about insect pests on soybeans and ways to control them.
While many people are afraid of spiders, very few can cause any serious harm. Most spiders can be beneficial and kill off other pests in your home. The two spiders to be concerned about include the brown recluse spider, and the black widow spider. Click the links below for more information.
Termites are an important group of insects, as they can cause destruction to homes, structures, and personal property. Click through the links below to find out more about different kinds of termites, their biology, and ways to control them.
While ticks are not insects, many entomologists study ticks due to their importance in medical and veterinary entomology. Ticks are important throughout the United States, and can transmit disease-causing pathogens, such as those that cause Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Fortunately, these pathogens are much less common in Louisiana compared to other parts of the United States. Click the links below for more information.