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Southern California Field Guide
California
Bug Guide
Meet the bugs living in (and around) your home. Learn what they want, why they're a problem, and how to show them the door — the eco-friendly way.
Tap a bug. It might react.
Click or tap each bug to see it move. Open the card for eco-friendly removal tips.
Termites live in huge underground teams — a colony can have millions of workers! They eat wood, like the beams inside your walls. They have been around since the time of dinosaurs. Some termites knock their heads against the wall to send secret messages to the rest of the colony!
Termites cause $5 billion in property damage in the U.S. every year — and most home insurance won't cover it. They work silently inside walls for years before you notice. Signs include mud tubes on your foundation, hollow-sounding wood, and tiny pellets near wood called frass. Eco-friendly treatments include orange oil, chemical-free heat treatment, and long-lasting borate wood protection.
Learn about termite control →Cockroaches can run 3 miles per hour — really fast for such a tiny bug! They can hold their breath for 40 minutes. They come out at night and love dark, warm, wet spots like under the sink. Gross but kind of impressive!
Cockroach droppings and shed skin trigger asthma attacks — especially in kids. They contaminate food surfaces and spread bacteria like Salmonella. One cockroach usually means hundreds more are hiding nearby. Fix moisture issues first (they need water more than food), seal cracks, and use targeted gel bait that roaches carry back to the colony.
Cockroach control options →Ants can carry 50 times their own body weight! Argentine ants in California form one giant supercolony stretching over 600 miles. They talk to each other using chemicals called pheromones — it is like a secret smell language. There are more ants on Earth than any other insect.
Carpenter ants hollow out wood beams to build their nests — same structural damage as termites, different bug. Fire ants are spreading through SoCal and cause painful stings with allergic reactions. Argentine ant supercolonies are nearly impossible to eliminate without treating the source colony with targeted bait stations.
See ant control options →Spiders have 8 eyes but most can barely see! They feel vibrations in their web to know when dinner arrives. Spider silk is stronger than steel by weight — scientists are still trying to copy it. Most spiders are harmless and eat the bugs you do not want in your house.
Black widows are common in SoCal garages, sheds, wood piles, and outdoor furniture — and their venom is medically significant. Always check shoes and gloves stored in the garage. If you are seeing spiders regularly indoors, it means they have prey to hunt — a sign of a broader pest issue worth addressing at the source.
Spider control →Only female mosquitoes bite — they need blood to make their eggs. Males just eat flower nectar! A mosquito's wings beat 400–600 times per second, which makes that buzzing sound. They can smell you from 100 feet away. Yikes!
The invasive Aedes mosquito now lives year-round in Southern California and bites during the day — not just at dusk. It can carry dengue fever, Zika, and West Nile virus, and breeds in as little as a bottle cap of water. Dump standing water weekly. In2Care stations use a biological treatment mosquitoes spread among themselves — no broadcast spraying needed.
Mosquito treatment options →Bed bugs are the ultimate hitchhikers — they sneak into your luggage at hotels and ride home with you! They can go a whole year without eating and hide in a crack as thin as a credit card. They only come out at night and are very, very sneaky.
Bed bugs spread fast through apartments, hotels, and used furniture. Bites cause intense itching and infestations are hard to eliminate with store-bought products. Heat treatment is the most reliable solution — it kills every life stage with zero chemicals and you can re-enter your home the same day.
Learn about heat treatment →Honeybees visit 2 million flowers to make just one pound of honey — and a single bee only makes 1/12 of a teaspoon its whole life! One third of all the food we eat depends on bees to pollinate it. Bees are basically superheroes for your garden.
Honeybees should always be relocated, not killed — they are vital to the food supply and protected in California. Yellow jackets are different: aggressive, they nest in walls and sting repeatedly. For anyone with a venom allergy, a nest near your home is a genuine medical risk. Call a beekeeper first for bees; targeted nest treatment for yellow jackets only.
Bee & wasp removal →Monarch butterflies travel up to 3,000 miles every year from California to Mexico — and they find their way back to the exact same trees! They taste with their feet, and their beautiful orange wings warn predators that they are poisonous. Monarchs are one of the most amazing creatures in nature.
Monarch populations have dropped over 80% in 20 years due to habitat loss and pesticide use. At Ecola, protecting the Monarch is personal — it is our mascot and part of our mission. Our low-toxicity, eco-friendly approach to pest control is designed to protect beneficial insects like the Monarch while keeping your home safe.
Save the Monarch Butterfly →