Occasional Invaders & Other Insects
Occasional invaders — crickets, millipedes, pill bugs, earwigs, springtails, silverfish — wander in from damp soil and mulch, especially after heavy rain or a hard freeze. Most are a sign of moisture, not an infestation.
This page also covers pantry and fabric pests and the beneficial insects we leave alone. For most occasional invaders, drying out the foundation edge does more than any treatment.
Daddy Longlegs
Not a spider. Harvestmen are a separate arachnid group with a single oval body, no venom, no silk, and no fangs. They cluster on foundations and under eaves in late summer.
Identify daddy longlegs →
Bold Jumping Spider
The fuzzy black spider with white spots and green fangs that watches you from the deck railing. Curious, harmless, and one of the more useful predators around a Kansas City home.
Identify bold jumping spider →
Garden Spider
The big black-and-yellow spider in the large wheel-shaped web with a zigzag of white silk down the middle. Alarming to look at, beneficial, and not a house pest.
Identify garden spider →
Honey Bee
The managed pollinator every food crop depends on. We do not exterminate honey bee colonies. If a swarm lands on your fence or a colony moves into your wall, the right call is a beekeeper, and we will help you find one.
Identify honey bee →
Bumble Bee
The fuzzy, slow-flying bee that nests in old mouse holes, compost, and under sheds. An important native pollinator and, several species being in decline, one we leave alone unless a nest is somewhere truly unworkable.
Identify bumble bee →
Mason Bee
A small metallic blue-green solitary bee that seals its nest tubes with mud and pollinates fruit trees better than honey bees. If you see mud-capped holes in a bee house or in old nail holes, this is who lives there.
Identify mason bee →
Leafcutter Bee
The bee responsible for the neat half-circle notches cut from rose and redbud leaves. Solitary, gentle, and a top-tier pollinator of alfalfa and garden vegetables.
Identify leafcutter bee →
Sweat Bee
The tiny bee that lands on your arm on a hot day to lap up sweat for its salt. Many are bright metallic green. Annoying at a ballgame, essential in a garden, and not a structural pest.
Identify sweat bee →
Carpet Beetle
Adults are harmless flower visitors, but the fuzzy, bristly larvae eat wool, silk, fur, feathers, and pet hair — the actual cause of unexplained holes in sweaters, rugs, and heirloom textiles.
Identify & treat carpet beetle →
Japanese Beetle
The metallic green-and-copper beetle that skeletonizes rose bushes, grapevines, and linden trees every July. A lawn and garden pest, not a home-invader — its larvae (white grubs) feed on turf roots.
Identify & treat japanese beetle →
Boxelder Bug
The black bug with red-orange wing edges that gathers by the hundreds on sun-warmed, south-facing walls every fall looking for a place to overwinter. A classic Kansas City occasional invader tied directly to boxelder and maple trees.
Identify & treat boxelder bug →
Stink Bug
A shield-shaped bug that invades homes by the dozens in fall looking for a place to overwinter, and releases a strong odor when disturbed or crushed. The invasive brown marmorated species has spread through the Kansas City area over the past decade.
Identify & treat stink bug →
Clover Mite
A tiny reddish mite that can appear indoors by the hundreds in spring and fall, leaving red streaks when crushed. Tied to thick, well-fertilized lawns close to the foundation.
Identify & treat clover mite →
Silverfish
A fast, wingless, fish-shaped insect found in damp basements, bathrooms, and around stored paper and book bindings. Not dangerous, but a reliable sign of excess moisture and humidity.
Identify & treat silverfish →
Springtail
Extremely tiny insects that appear in large numbers on damp soil, mulch, window sills, and around pools, and can leap several inches when disturbed. Entirely a moisture-driven nuisance, not a threat.
Identify & treat springtail →
Millipede
A slow-moving, many-legged invader that shows up in large numbers after heavy rain, especially around new construction and homes with a lot of mulch or leaf litter. Harmless, but overwhelming in numbers some years.
Identify & treat millipede →
Pill Bug
The roly-poly that rolls into a tight ball when touched. A land crustacean, not an insect, that lives in damp mulch and occasionally wanders indoors — harmless and honestly beneficial in the garden.
Identify & treat pill bug →
House Centipede
The startlingly fast, long-legged creature that darts across a bathroom floor and disappears down a drain. Unsettling to see, but a predator of other household pests, not a threat itself.
Identify & treat house centipede →
Indian Meal Moth
The single most common pantry moth, and the source of webbing found in flour, cereal, pet food, birdseed, and dried fruit. Adults flying near the pantry or kitchen at night are usually the first sign.
Identify & treat indian meal moth →
Clothes Moth
A small, uniform golden-tan moth whose larvae eat wool, fur, feathers, and silk. Rarely seen flying (they avoid light), so damage to stored clothing is often the first sign.
Identify & treat clothes moth →
Drugstore Beetle
A small, oval reddish-brown beetle that infests an unusually wide range of dry stored goods — not just food, but spices, dried herbs, pet food, and even some non-food items like book bindings and dried flowers.
Identify & treat drugstore beetle →
Grain Beetle
A slender, flattened beetle common in stored grains, cereal, and dried fruit, distinguished by saw-like projections along the sides of its thorax.
Identify & treat grain beetle →
Flour Beetle
A small reddish-brown beetle that infests flour, cornmeal, cereal, and other finely milled dry goods, often in large numbers once established.
Identify & treat flour beetle →
Earwig
A dark, fast-moving insect with a pair of visible pincers at the rear, common in mulch beds and under stones, that wanders indoors during wet weather. The pincers look alarming but are harmless to people.
Identify & treat earwig →
Cricket (Field & House)
The loud nighttime chirping and, occasionally, fabric damage in a closet come from crickets that wander in from the yard looking for warmth and shelter as temperatures drop in fall.
Identify & treat cricket (field & house) →
Cave Cricket
A silent, humpbacked cricket with long legs that lives in damp, dark spaces — basements, crawlspaces, wells — and startles people with its jumping when disturbed. Unlike other crickets, it doesn't chirp.
Identify & treat cave cricket →
Cicada
The loud buzzing insect that defines a Kansas City summer. Annual cicadas emerge every year; periodical cicadas emerge in massive numbers every 13 or 17 years depending on the brood. Neither is a structural pest.
Identify cicada →
Walking Stick
A large, slow-moving, twig-mimicking insect found on trees and shrubs. Occasionally wanders onto a porch or wall but poses no threat and isn't a structural pest.
Identify walking stick →
Praying Mantis
A large predatory insect that eats other garden pests and is entirely beneficial. Occasionally found on porches and near outdoor lighting hunting insects, never a structural concern.
Identify praying mantis →
Lady Beetle (Ladybug)
The classic red, black-spotted beetle beneficial to gardens for eating aphids. Native ladybugs don't invade homes in large numbers the way the Asian lady beetle does — that is the Asian lady beetle, the fall home-invader version.
Identify lady beetle (ladybug) →
Asian Lady Beetle
The beetle behind the fall invasion that fills window sills and light fixtures by the hundreds every October, and can bite (a pinch, not a sting) and stain surfaces with a yellowish defensive fluid when disturbed. A different species from the beneficial native ladybug.
Identify & treat asian lady beetle →
Assassin Bug
A predatory insect — the wheel bug is the large, distinctive local species — that hunts other insects and delivers a notably painful bite if handled. Beneficial in the garden, best left alone rather than picked up.
Identify assassin bug →
Digger Wasp
A broad group of solitary, ground-nesting wasps that dig individual burrows in bare or thin turf, often in visible numbers over a lawn in summer. Not aggressive and generally beneficial, but the burrows and hovering males can alarm homeowners.
Identify & treat digger wasp →
Sowbug
A close relative of the pill bug (roly-poly) that looks nearly identical but cannot roll into a tight ball. Lives in the same damp mulch and stone habitat and wanders indoors for the same reasons.
Identify & treat sowbug →Pest photos are used under Creative Commons and public-domain licenses — see photo credits.