What Are Springtails?
What are springtails? Springtails manage to get their name because of the forked tail, at the end of their abdominal area which will be curved below their very own body. This helps these tiny pests to spring frontward kind of like a small flea, hence the name springtails.
Thanks to the tenacity of folks like Dr. Frans Janssens and his colleague, Dr. Kenneth A. Christiansen, the scientific community is beginning to recognize that springtails can pose a very real threat to human comfort when present in large numbers.
The two researchers collected scores of reports from homeowners, doctors, and pest control operators in several countries, including many regions of The United States.
Springtails are everywhere, and it’s not impossible for them to latch onto humans and animals.
They happen to be small, whitish-gray, or lightly shaded pests; around 1/32 to 1/8 inch in size and their antennae are actually long and they have a small unique head. They happen to be wingless insects and do not fly, and the females will raise offspring in clusters located in damp areas.
Springtails are actually scavengers, feasting on inactive vegetation, molds, algae and / or fungi, and they also would prefer to stay on the outside around leaf litter, under rotting wood or perhaps involved with fungi.
The more you water the lawn and apply fertilizer, the happier they’ll be. They are considered the most abundant arthropods on earth. Since prehistoric times, they have survived frigid winters and very hot summers, but their numbers decrease exponentially under dry conditions.
These kinds of insects pose zero threat to your house but they can become a nuisance whenever they end up getting inside your home. Springtails grow and are prosperous in moist foliage, soil, and plants along the side of the house foundation and even sidewalks.
You can also see them near floor drains, wet cellars and even crawl spaces. These particular insects will be small enough that they may access the structure around windows, small gaps not to mention cracks.
They’re going to normally enter the house because there nesting area outside happens to be free of moisture and they are generally hunting for moisture. You will uncover them near sweating plumbing, house flowers or vegetables, and around old and unwanted moldy household furniture.
The greatest control of springtails is going to be clear away their nesting environment by taking care of debris that has piled up around the home.
Clean up all debris near your house and get any logs on the ground in close proximity to the house up off the ground. Seal off every one of the tiny access points around the house that include; crevices as well as holes around water lines, utility cable, cable wires, gaps in the siding plus any open places around windows.
If it turns out cleaning up doesn’t take care of the issues, pesticides could very well be needed to control the springtails in places where significant amounts of insect pests have overpopulated.
