Fleas and Ticks are the most important external parasites of pets, livestock and humans. Both fleas and ticks are very abundant, have irritating bites and can transmit disease. Fleas can transmit tapeworms. Ticks can transmit Lyme dis-ease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and relapsing fever. Lyme disease is trans-mitted in the Northern United States by the deer tick and in the Southern United States by the black legged. Gulf Coast, American dog, lone star and relapsing fever tick. Lone star and American dog ticks can cause tick paralysis.

Earwigs: Many earwigs, especially the striped earwig, prey upon insects such as chinch bugs, small mole crickets, sod webworms and other insects that live on soil surface. This large species is 3/4” to 1” long and brown, with longitudinal dark stripes on the thorax and wings. In laboratory experiments this earwig com-monly consumed 50 chinch bugs a day.

Silverfish. These are in the order Thysanura. They are wingless, flattened insects with two or three filaments at the rear end of the abdomen. Their antennae are long and filamentous. Silverfish are gray and their bodies are covered with scales. They are about 3/4” long. In buildings they can feed on starch and fabric, often caus-ing damage to book bindings.

Plaster bagworms. They are small caterpillars. Each bagworm spins its own grayish case that is about the size and shape of a watermelon seed. Plaster bagworms are common in garages and around window. They eat spider webs, and can destroy fabric in houses.

Scorpions. They have eight pair of legs, with the pedipalps enlarged for pinching. They also have a stinger at the tip of the tail, which is six segments. The stinger is connected to poison glands and can cause a pain-ful sting. Scorpions usually are found outdoors under logs and debris, feeding on insects such as cock-roaches, but they can wander indoors at night. No Florida scorpion is considered poisonous.

Five species of venomous spiders occur in Florida: the southern black widow, northern black widow, red widow, brown widow and brown recluse. The four species of widow spiders are very similar in shape. All are about 1 1/2” long with legs ex-tended. Their life cycle is also similar. The female lays about 250 eggs in a pear-shaped egg sac that is about 1/2” to 5/8” in diameter. The eggs hatch in about 20 days. As the young spiders mature, they construct a loosely woven web and capture progressively larger prey. In Florida, all the widows except the northern black widow breed year round.

Anyone bitten by a spider should preserve it in rubbing alcohol for positive identification. Most spider bites are not considered dangerous, but if you suspect one of the widow or brown recluse spiders, get medical attention immediately.