Washington Township’s Quiet Allure

Pests In the Pantry, On the Counters, and In the Cabinets

With its inviting geography and diverse climate, Washington Township attracts a wide range of pests.

Rats are commonly found in attics and basements. They can contort their bodies because of their collapsible rib cages, allowing them to sneak through impossibly small gaps (the size of a quarter). While cute and cuddly, rats are also gross; they poop thousands of times a year, leaving the droppings wherever they’ve invaded. They also leave behind trails of urine, contaminating counters and table tops with an invisible coating. 

Pantry moths, unsurprisingly, infest pantries, typically coming in with your Minute Rice or Cheerios. While they’re not very long-lived, they’re excellent reproducers, allowing infestations to survive. Only their larvae eat; the grownups’ sole job is to keep their species alive. 

Clover mites are tricky invaders because of their unique ability to reproduce without mates. I-am-woman-hear-me-roar ruiners, all clover mites are female, and they’re tiny enough to climb through intact window screens. They often move into wall voids during cold weather and emerge come summertime, coating Washington Township doorways and window sills.

Centipedes are fast, using all their legs to scurry across the kitchen floor. While pests in their own right, they’re also pest controllers, spending their nights hunting cockroaches, spiders, and other insects and using their venom to paralyze their prey before digging in. Some centipedes can regrow lost limbs, and some limbs twitch even after they detach from the anthropod’s body.