Author: Joseph LaForest, University of Georgia
Certain arthropods affecting urban environments have the potential to damage buildings, spread diseases among humans, taint stored food products, and act as a general nuisance. These insects include a wide variety of creatures including spiders, bed bugs, cockroaches, termites, ants, flies, mosquitoes, wasps, bees, centipedes, beetles, scorpions, fleas, lice, ticks, and silverfish. Many of these organisms are native to the United States and their status as a pest is a result of humans trying to live in the natural environment. Other pests are not native and are the result of a particular species being introduced with the movement of cargo or humans from other regions of the world. As the global movement of people and cargo has increased, so have the number of pest species that have been introduced.
When introductions occur in other areas such as field crops, vegetables, turf, ornamentals and other agronomic crops, a great deal of time and resources are often dedicated to quarantine infested areas, prevent movement of infested materials, slow the spread of the organism or even attempt to eradicate the pest. Despite the potential for damage and losses that a new household or structural pest could cause, the same efforts and resources are rarely brought to bear when a new introduction is identified unless it transmits a human pathogen. This is unfortunate since eradication may be plausible for some of these species that require time to build a significant population before they will spread.
We have created this article to help bring attention to some of these invasive urban and structural pests. Below is a listing of species know to be introduced and some pests that have the potential to cause problems if they are introduced.
Invasive introductions in the United States
| Structural pests
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| Common Name
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Scientific Name
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Year of Introduction
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| Company |
CA |
USA
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| Urban pests
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| Common Name
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Scientific Name
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Year of Introduction
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| Company |
CA |
USA
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| Miscelaneous
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| Common Name
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Scientific Name
|
Year of Introduction
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| Company |
CA |
USA
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Exotic pests of concern
| Structural pests
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| Common Name
|
Scientific Name
|
Year of Introduction
|
| Company |
CA |
USA
|
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| Household pests
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| Common Name
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Scientific Name
|
Year of Introduction
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| Company |
CA |
USA
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| Urban pests
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| Common Name
|
Scientific Name
|
Year of Introduction
|
| Company |
CA |
USA
|
|
| Miscelaneous
|
| Common Name
|
Scientific Name
|
Year of Introduction
|
| Company |
CA |
USA
|
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