Know your enemy

The Texas pest library

Straight answers on the pests that target North Texas homes and businesses — how to spot them, why they matter, and how to get rid of them for good.

North Texas pest experts

Fire Ants

Solenopsis invicta

Aggressive stinging ants that build dome mounds across North Texas lawns and deliver painful, blistering stings.

German Cockroaches

Blattella germanica

The small indoor roach that breeds explosively in kitchens and is the hardest cockroach to eliminate.

Subterranean Termites

Reticulitermes spp.

Soil-dwelling termites that cause the most structural damage of any pest in Texas — silently.

House Mice

Mus musculus

Small rodents that squeeze through pencil-width gaps, breed year-round, and contaminate far more than they eat.

Carpenter Ants

Camponotus spp.

Large ants that hollow out moist or damaged wood to nest, weakening structures without eating the wood itself.

American Cockroaches

Periplaneta americana

The large reddish-brown 'water bug' that lives in sewers and drains and pushes indoors through plumbing.

Brown Recluse Spiders

Loxosceles reclusa

A reclusive venomous spider that hides in undisturbed clutter and can deliver a slow-healing bite.

Black Widow Spiders

Latrodectus mactans

A glossy black spider with a red hourglass whose venom makes it one of the most medically significant in Texas.

Scorpions

Centruroides vittatus

The striped bark scorpion — the common Texas scorpion that climbs walls and hides indoors in cool, dark spots.

Roof Rats

Rattus rattus

Agile climbing rats that nest in attics and upper structures and travel utility lines and tree limbs indoors.

Mosquitoes

Culex / Aedes spp.

Biting flies that breed in standing water and transmit West Nile virus, a documented threat in Dallas County.

Bed Bugs

Cimex lectularius

Hitchhiking blood-feeders that hide in mattresses and furniture and are notoriously hard to eliminate.

Fleas

Ctenocephalides felis

Fast-breeding biting parasites of pets and people, with most of the population hidden as eggs and larvae in carpet.

Ticks

Amblyomma americanum / Rhipicephalus sanguineus

Blood-feeding parasites — notably the lone star tick and brown dog tick — that transmit disease to people and pets in Texas.

Wasps and Hornets

Polistes / Vespula spp.

Stinging social wasps — paper wasps, red wasps, and yellowjackets — that build nests on homes and sting to defend them.

Silverfish

Lepisma saccharina

Moisture-loving, wingless insects that damage paper, books, and fabrics in humid, undisturbed indoor spaces.

Bees

Apis mellifera

Essential pollinators that occasionally nest in walls, chimneys, and trees — assessed and, for honey bees, relocated alive where possible rather than exterminated.

Chiggers

Trombiculidae

Tiny biting mites in tall grass and brush whose larvae cause intense, lingering itch — controlled by treating the yard and vegetation they live in.

Crickets

Gryllidae

Nuisance insects drawn to exterior lighting that push indoors into garages and utility rooms and damage fabrics, paper, and stored materials.

Common House Spiders

Araneae (wolf, jumping, orb-weaver & house spiders)

The everyday non-venomous spiders of Texas homes — wolf, jumping, orb-weaver, and house spiders — that are mostly harmless and signal an underlying insect food source.

More pest guides are added regularly. Don't see your pest? Ask us — we treat far more than we've written up.

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Know your enemy

Texas top 15 most common pests

The pests Definity gets called about most across the DFW Metroplex — tap any one for identification, risk level, and how we treat it.