Facts about pests & insects from EBS Pest Control in London

Cockroaches have been present on Earth for around 400 million years. There are currently 4000+ different species, but only a handful are considered to be pests. Some can also live for up to nine days without their head!

Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) do not have an audible distress call. They have white flashes beneath their wings which they display as a warning to others in the flock.

If living in a cold environment, rats can quickly grow their fur for extra insulation and even lose their tail to save body heat. They can also last longer without water than a camel.

Beginning with one pair of House Flies in April, there would be 191,000,000,000,000,000,000 flies by August if all descendants lived and reproduced normally.

If a man could run as fast for his size as an Ant can, the man could keep up with a race horse. An Ant can also carry 20-100 times its own bodyweight depending upon species. And they don’t sleep.

The reproduction cycle of a mouse - From birth, they will take 6 weeks to reach sexual maturity with an average litter size of 6-8 young which can breed themselves 6 weeks later. Mice can also re-breed straight-away after giving birth.

A mouse can jump 12 feet straight down without injury, jump up 12 inches vertically and can climb rough vertical walls.

Wasps only live for one season, except for the Queen who will hibernate over-winter. A single nest can hold around 2000 wasps at the end of its season. Wasp larvae are carnivorous; they eat smaller insects caught by adult workers who themselves only eat nectar.

When feeding, bedbugs have been observed climibing on top of another bed bug that is feeding from a human, piercing that bedbug with its beak and feeding directly from it, thus getting its blood second hand. They can also go many months without food if needed.

Fleas can jump over 150 times their own length - That compares with a human jumping a thousand feet! The female flea can lay 2000 eggs in her lifetime and she can consume 15 times her own body weight in blood during one feed. An adult female flea cannot lay eggs until after her first blood meal. Their average life span undisturbed and without a blood feed is  2-3 months.