This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Is Your Home Bugged?

Summer can bring unbidden insect guests.

While each season produces its own crew of insects ready to invade home and hearth, summer often brings them in spades, although by no means are all pests.

Summer can trigger a population explosion among house flies because flies in general reproduce most rapidly in warm weather. During cold weather, it may take a fly months to progress from egg to adult. Warm weather accelerates the process into as little as a week, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln extension office. Summer's warmth also can multiply the housefly's normal month-long lifespan by a factor of five. Perhaps the best way to control house flies is to tightly seal garbage, compost and other organic waste in which they lay eggs. Wash empty beer bottles because they usually still contain yeast that attracts flies.

Fruit flies can be a problem year around but they may turn up more in summer, especially if you have a garden, because that is when the pitch is more likely to have ripe produce in the open. A simple fruit fly trap is made from a jar covered by tightly stretched plastic wrap or a plastic sandwich bag secured around the rim with a rubber band. A variety of baits can be placed in the jar before sealing. Among them are stale beer and cider vinegar. A bait suggested by the University of Nebraska consists of a third a cup of warm water mixed with a teaspoon of sugar and a small package of dry yeast. Killingworth naturalist and author John Himmelman suggests baiting the trap with balsamic vinegar. Flies enter the trap through eight-of-an-inch holes poked in the wrap cover that Himmelman makes with a ballpoint pen. Like lobsters in a funnel trap, once the flies enter they cannot find their way out.

Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To trap ants that sometimes swarm into the house at this time of year, a humming bird feeder filled with sugar suffices, says Himmelman, author of Guide to Night-Singing Insects of the Northeast, a book published by Stackpole Books. Ants drawn to the liquid drown.

Speaking of night-singing insects, Himmelman says that those brilliant green insects showing up around outside lights and lighted windows right about now are bush katydids. They pose no problems.

Find out what's happening in Durham-Middlefieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

When the outside weather is hot and dry, earwigs may enter homes seeking cool, damp refuges. The earwig is an elongate, flattened insect whose stern is easily mistaken for its bow, due to tail appendages that resemble large jaws or pincers. They are harmless, although, according to Ohio State University, they have been known to enter the ear canals of campers while seeking a refuge. Earwigs feed on soft vegetables, fruits and flower petals. The best way to prevent earwigs indoors is to keep moist, damp conditions at a minimum and clean outdoors, in the immediate vicinity of the house. These include landscaping, crawl spaces and around outdoor faucets. Tightly sealed windows, doors and pipes help keep out earwigs as well as increase a home's insulation.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?