MOMS OF PEST CONTROL
Mother’s Day is coming up on May 9th! The pest control industry wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for our pest moms! And by pest moms…we mean actual bugs. We’ll cover some of the basic pest moms you’ll see in the spring time and up into the summer months.
Termite Queen
The termite queen is responsible for the growth and survival of a termite colony. She can lay up to 30,000 eggs in one day; that’s 1 egg every 3 seconds! Her job is to lay eggs and help build colonies by producing eggs DAILY. Queens are at peak egg performance for 7-10 years until secondary queens can begin producing eggs and growing the colony numbers to extreme amounts.
Life Span: Termite queens can live 25-50 years!
Queen Ant
Queen ants lay the eggs that help an ant colony grow and thrive. They can lay up to 300,000 eggs per day. They are also responsible for building new colonies. Queen ants will leave the colony they were born into, find a few male ants to mate with, then make a nest to lay her first clutch of eggs in. The queen ant produce MILLIONS of eggs in her lifetime.
Life Span: Queen ants can live to 30 years!
Queen Bee
The queen bee is known as the reproductive leader of a colony. She can lay up to 1,500 eggs per day. Unlike queen ants and termite queens, the queen bee is the ONLY bee in her colony that produces eggs for colony growth. Also unlike the pervious queens, the queen bee is largely responsible for the working of the colony. She balances the population of the colony and can even dictate the behaviors of others bees within the colony.
Life span: Queen bees can live up to 5 years, but most live around 2-3 years.
Bed Bugs
Female bed bugs lay eggs on a daily basis, which is why a bed bug infestation grows so rapidly. She usually lays 5-7 eggs a day, which makes up about 200 or more eggs in her lifetime.
Life Span: 2-4 months
German Cockroaches
The most common household pest in America, German cockroaches mate at extremely high rates. One female German cockroach, along with her offspring, will produce around 30,000 cockroaches in a single year. They lay 20-40 eggs at a time in a single casing called an ootheca.
The most important fact we want you to take away from this blog is how fast an infestation can grow. Especially with termites, a pest colony can be growing by the thousands right under your nose without you knowing until damage has already been done. Taking preventative steps, like having an annual inspection, will greatly decrease your chances of a pest infestation and will save you money in the future!