Amazing Insect Facts
Our part of the country is not that much different than any other part of the world.Insects live everywhere…except the polar ice caps. Insects are fine until they invade your living space. Here are some amazing, and perhaps somewhat troubling, facts about insects:
- There are more insects in one square mile of empty field than there are people in the world.
- Termites cause more damage to homes each year than all fires, floods, and storms combined.
- When a queen ant dies, the colony can’t survive for more than a few months because worker ants can’t reproduce.
- Ants can carry around 50 times their own weight which is the equivalent of an average man carrying 8,000 pounds.
- Cockroaches can hold their breath up to 40 minutes, can live nearly a month without food, and they can live two weeks after being decapitated.
- Mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on Earth due to the diseases they spread, killing nearly 1 million people per year.
- Houseflies can see behind them. Their compound eyes allow them to process visual information seven times faster than humans.
- Bed bug hatchlings are so small they can pass through a stitch hole in a mattress.
- Only female mosquitoes bite humans.
- Fleas can jump 50 times their height. That is the equivalent of human with a vertical leap of 300 feet.
- Cockroaches can run 50 body lengths per second. That’s the equivalent of a person running 140mph.
- Subterranean Termites never sleep. All they do is eat, and they produce over 120 tons of methane each year.
- Bed bugs can ingest seven times their own weight in blood. That’s the equivalent of a person drinking 120 gallons of liquid.
- Female rats can produce as many as 84 offspring per year. Newborn rats reach sexual maturity in as little as three months.
- Mosquitoes can spot their next meal from over 160 feet away.
- Houseflies taste with their feet.
The bad news is all of these insects live all around us. The good news is they can be controlled. Insects around us are fine. When they come indoors insects take on another name: pests. Properly controlling insects can free homeowners from having to learn amazing bug facts the hard way. Hilton Head Exterminators specializes in keeping insects in their habitat rather than invading yours. They’ve been keeping insects from becoming pests since 1968.
by Brian DeChirico, General Manager, Hilton Head Exterminators
