Spring Bugs of 2023 in Maryland & Northern Virginia

Spiders will enter your home through gaps between doors, open windows, utility lines, and inside secondhand furniture, crates, or packaging. They enjoy dark environments, like the basement, a crawlspace, or an attic.

Ants will take advantage of any opportunity to get indoors and find new food sources, including

• Pipes & plumbing
• Wall & foundation cracks
• Attic vents
• Utility lines

The most significant springtime bug to worry about is the carpenter ant. Carpenter ants aren’t like the annoying ants in your house — they are bigger and more destructive than other ants.

Carpenter Ants will create homes inside your walls and wooden structures, causing significant damage. Though they excavate wood as they move, they do not eat it. They travel from their nest throughout the rest of your house, seeking food. These ants tend to colonize areas with high moisture.

Four signs of carpenter ant activity:

1. Rustling sounds in your walls
2. Piles of sawdust
3. Wood shavings
4. Carpenter ant sighting

Termite swarming is prevalent in the spring and after rain showers. They can eat enormous amounts of wood around your property and cause extensive, expensive damage before you even know they’re there.

Seven signs of a termite infestation:

1. Hollowed or excavated wood
2. Mounds of wood shavings
3. Sagging wooden floors or ceilings
4. Crumbling wooden structures
5. Chipped or warped paint on wooden surfaces
6. Visible termites or their wings
7. Mud tubes

Mosquitoes bite and suck blood, leaving behind itchy spots. Still, their biggest threat is the viruses and bacteria they can carry, including

• Zika virus
• West Nile virus
• Chikungunya virus
• Dengue
• Malaria
• Heartworm for pets

Flies wake up in the spring but move more sluggish than average. You’ll likely spot them near windows and lights, making erratic movements and noise as they try to find a way out of your home.

Appropriately named for their attraction to boxelder trees, the boxelder bug will latch onto other trees and plants if available. These pests are dark grayish-black with red stripes.

Mice and rats are a nuisance year-round; however, annual breeding cycles begin around March, so you might notice an influx of activity. They usually enter your home through doors, vents, roof gaps, and pipes.

Ticks have been able to stay active due to the mild winter and will only get more prevalent as the weather get warmer and consistently stays that way.

Wasps are ready to build their new colony for the spring season. They will form a hive in a dry area, like under a deck, porch, furniture, or soil.

Earwigs are slender bugs with sharp pincers that eat seedlings and garden plants. They are very resilient bugs, and due to the mild winter, not as many died this year. Eggs are already hatching, and larvae will infest your gardens and home.

They can multiply quickly and damage your gardens and crops, so prompt removal is necessary.