### ?…ask the Bugman

Green Pest Management | ID your Bugs | Animal Issues | Natural Living
All Creatures Great and Small

# Pest Misidentification

Posted by askthebugman ⋅ November 11, 2019 ⋅ 1 Comment

This happened when I was in Albuquerque and it demonstrates why you have to be very careful when you hire a pest control company. A lady had some small white grub-like insects all over her floor. She called several exterminators including the one that regularly services her home and none of them had any idea what they were, although one said he would spray the house with pesticides to kill them. She called me and I went to her house and inspected it. She had fungus gnat larvae on the floor. Usually these insects live in overwatered house plants, but she didn’t have any plants. They were on the floor on both sides of a bathroom near a bathtub that is rarely used as it is a guest bathroom. It is obvious that she has a plumbing leak as the adult gnats laid eggs in damp soil under the tub, probably through the access hatch. When the soil dried out, the larvae moved out looking for mold and fungi to feed on and they were all over the floor. It is unbelievable that professional pest control companies wouldn’t recognize what was going on and couldn’t even identify the larvae. Many of them work around roaches and ants and just aren’t knowledgeable about anything else. She will call a plumber to look for and fix the leak. If you have any pest questions, you can contact me at askthebugman2013@gmail.com and I will help you as best I can and I don’t charge anything.

Advertisement

### Share this:

- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
- Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
- Click to print (Opens in new window)

### Like this:

Like Loading...

### Related

## About askthebugman

I have been in the pest management industry for over 40 years. In that time I have used almost every pesticide available to control so-called “pests”. With this experience, I have learned over the years that the pesticides we use are far more dangerous than the pests we are trying to control. As a result, it has become a passion for me to improve the quality of life for humans and the planet, by assisting people to not only become more educated and aware of their environment – but also by learning to manage their home and business with a sustainable and healthier approach to tending to unwanted infestations of bugs. Please enjoy my blog posts, check out my publications, utilize my services, or simply stay in touch if you have a bug question…
View all posts by askthebugman »

## Discussion

### One thought on “Pest Misidentification”

1. You are a blessing!

   Posted by d | November 11, 2019, 2:43 pm
   Reply to this comment

### Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (required) (Address never made public)
Name (required)
Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

Δ

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

- Follow
  Following
  - ?...ask the Bugman
  Join 219 other followers
  - Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
- - ?...ask the Bugman
  - Customize
  - Follow
    Following
  - Sign up
  - Log in
  - Copy shortlink
  - Report this content
  - View post in Reader
  - Manage subscriptions
  - Collapse this bar

%d bloggers like this: