7 Common House Bugs In New York You Need To Watch Out For

When you say “a New York pest infestation”, most people immediately imagine some incredibly nasty things. And, indeed, both insects and the various rodents such as mice or rats can be quite frustrating to deal with. Here, we’ll exclusively be looking at house insect pests, however, as rodents are quite a different issue to deal with.

So, which are the most common house bugs in New York, what do you need to know about them, and how can you best deal with them?

7 common house bugs in New York

When going over the various insects you might need to deal with, we’ll be looking at the whole of New York State, not just at New York City even though NYC locations such as Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, etc. can have different pests than the more rural parts of the state. So, which are the most common bugs you may encounter in your house in the state of New York?

1. Cockroaches

Probably the most dreaded New York house pest, especially in urban areas and apartment buildings, is the cockroach. These skittering little bugs are always attracted to moisture which is why they are often found in basements, in and around pipes (especially after a leak), as well as in bathrooms and kitchens.

Fortunately, cockroaches don’t bite or sting. Unfortunately, they are incredibly dirty and nasty insects that often transmit disease. What’s more, all three of the common US types can be found in NY – American cockroaches, German cockroaches, and Oriental cockroaches.

How to deal with them?

Cockroach traps and baits are the usual solutions most people go to when faced with this problem. Sadly, traps and baits often aren’t sufficient and can even make the situation worse as they attract the insects before killing some of them.

That’s why it’s often advised to reach out to pest control services. Especially if you live in a large apartment building, professional exterminators are usually the quickest and most surefire way to deal with the issue.

2. Ants

Ants aren’t often seen as a particularly nasty type of pest and they certainly aren’t as dangerous as certain other 6- or 8-legged pests. What’s also great for New Yorkers is that the infamous stinging red imported fire ants aren’t commonly found in the state.

Of the ant species that can cause actual physical harm to humans through bites or stings, Carpenter ants are the big offenders here. They don’t sting but their mouthparts are generally large and powerful enough to deliver painful bites.

The actual danger of ants, however, is similar to that of cockroaches, albeit to a much smaller degree – spreading diseases, namely by constantly rummaging through both our trash and our food supplies.

How to deal with them?

Similar to cockroaches, ant infestations can be stopped with traps and baits but only if the problem is still in its inception. Once an ant colony grows beyond a certain size, you’d need quite heavier insecticides and use them more liberally too. The exact type of solution will depend on the type of ants you have and exactly where in your home their colony is.

3. Bed bugs

The pest most likely to require pest control once encountered is probably the bed bug. This isn’t the most common pest, however, most others can be dealt with more easily with DIY methods whereas bed bugs are almost always troublesome to get rid of.

That’s largely because they are incredibly tiny and can hide and procreate in the most obscure places, not just in your mattress. Fortunately, bed bug bites don’t spread diseases as they pretty much only stay hidden indoors and only feed by biting humans in the middle of the night.

This also means that the only way for these bugs to spread is by jumping on people’s clothes and luggage from one house, hotel, or – occasionally – the seats in public transportation – and going to new homes that way. This also means that bed bugs are as active during the winter months as they are in the summer as they don’t care about weather changes.

How to deal with them?

Getting rid of a bed bug problem usually requires heat-treating all your bedding and clothes while chem-bombing the rest of your home. The reason both need to be done at the same time is to make sure that there are no surviving bed bug eggs that can restart the infestation.

4. Stink bugs and various beetles

There is a vast array of bugs that tend to go either after our indoor plants or after furniture and carpets. Such bugs include the brown marmorated stink bug, ladybugs, carpet beetles, Asian lady beetles, spider beetles, Latridiidae beetles, and others.

Most of these are harmless to people, though you should beware of the nasty bite of the Asian lady beetle. Some of them, such as stink bugs and Asian lady beetles can have a nasty odor too.

The commonality between such insects is that they usually enter our homes quite directly – through open doors and windows with no screens on them or through small cracks and crevices in the house’s exterior. Fixing those issues is the simplest and easiest prevention here.

How to deal with them?

Once an infestation has started, the way to deal with it will depend on the particular type of bug. Most bugs in this category are easy to deal with, however, and can be wiped with a simple insecticide spray.

5. Spiders

Spiders are very often not just harmless but outright beneficial as they prey on most insect pests and don’t really attack humans as spiders know that their venom is not strong for us. So, if you see something simple such as an American house spider, you hardly need to worry.

This isn’t always true, however, as some spider species can have venom powerful enough to harm to hand even grown people. In the case of New York, the two most dangerous offenders are the Yellow sac spider Cheiracanthium mildei and the Black-footed yellow sac spider Cheiracanthium Inclusum. Both of these can be harmful to people and should best be avoided when encountered in the wild

How to deal with them?

If you’re faced with a particularly nasty nest of yellow sac spiders that you can’t just ignore as it’s growing on your property or inside your home, it’s best to call professional pest control. You can deal with the issue yourself with a strong enough insecticide that you can spray from afar but you’ll need to be both thorough and careful.

6. Moths

Both food and cloth moths can be encountered in New York. Fortunately, neither of them bites, stings, or spreads any diseases. Unfortunately, either of them can be very destructive to the things we own. Cloth moths can litter our clothes and upholstery with holes as they feed on them while food moths can quickly infest our food to such a degree that it becomes inedible.

How to deal with them?

Cloth moths can usually be easy to deal with by hanging special moth insecticides around your clothes in the wardrobe. If you don’t do this quickly enough you will have to throw away some of your clothes, however.

Food moths, on the other hand, are usually easiest to kill with baited glue moth traps, however, it’s also typically necessary to throw away the food items they’ve infested to get rid of their eggs.

7. Pantry pests

Speaking of food moths, there are lots of other pantry pests that can infest our home’s grains and foods if they are not packed in airtight containers. From flour beetles and pantry beetles to the Western conifer seed bug, such pests aren’t usually dangerous or spread diseases but they can render the food in our pantries inedible.

How to deal with them?

As with food moths, such pests are best dealt with by throwing away the infested food and setting up baited glue traps to deal with any adults still roaming around.

In conclusion

The above are among the most common pests that people have to deal with in New York. Fortunately, not all of them require the help of pest control professionals as simple homemade solutions can help with insect infestations.

It is important not to underestimate some problems, however, as certain problems are best dealt with quickly and decisively – wasting time when faced with a bed bug cockroach infestation can often lead to the issue growing too much and becoming unmanageable without professional help.

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