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For beetles north of Mexico, I recommend the old favourite, Peterson Field Guides: Beetles of North America. People who complain that the book should have photos instead line drawings don't know what they're talking about. Line drawings are superior for identification because diagnostic traits are more visible. The purpose of a field guide of identification, not to a pretty coffee book (if you want a pretty coffee book, The Book of Beetles is my favorite, and I have it in my living room at the moment).

For insects in general north of Mexico, I recommend the counterpart from the same series.

If you insist on photos, I recommend the National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America (which, by the way, was written by a member of BugGuide.net). Since it has photos, I'd recommend it for beginners. Once they feel more comfortable with insect taxonomy, they should add the Peterson Field Guides to their collection. Avoid the popular Audubon series because it values pretty photos over practicality.

The Peterson Field Guides are great because they provide keys, diagnostic traits, similar families, collecting methods, and a plethora of amazingly detailed line drawings (and color slides). They also have great introductory material. The taxonomy is outdated, but it's not a big issue when you have online guides, like BugGuide.net, that keep their taxonomy current. The more important takeaway is that these guides will quickly teach you insect taxonomy, and you quickly develop a big-picture sense--that is, the diversity--and a granular sense--that is, the subtle difference between similar clades.

As for "state by state" guides, I have the California Natural History Guides: Field Guide to Beetles of California. There aren't line drawings like those in the Peterson Field Guides, but you do have some photographic slides in the middle section. For this, I would only recommend the book for those with enough familiarity with beetles.

Like you said, "the scope of insects is way too huge for a simple, small field guide." Many reviewers don't understand this, and complain about the lack of specificity. To satisfy their specificity, you'd probably need a guide at the city or county level (without exceeding a million pages, and assuming an entomologist is willing to take on that task LOL). Insects are so grossly misunderstood by most people (that is, most people compare the taxonomic scope of insects with that of let's say, mammals, which is like comparing travel guides for the Vatican with that of Russia--or the United States), you are better off ignoring most laymen reviews if your goal is to actually learn.

A specific regional guide will usually be more meaningful to own than a general guide that covers all of North America.

That been said, I personally own and recommend the National Wildlife Federation's Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America. It's packed with pictures and organizes everything by order, and then by family (to really understand the groupings, you should familiarize yourself with taxonomic rank). For each order, it includes some basic anatomical diagrams to help you distinguish one order from another.

It's also printed on some pretty durable gloss paper and has a water resistant cover, as icing on the cake.



I have not compared it to the Kaufman guide, since my book store does not carry it.

Comparing it to the Audubon version, I find that the NWF's guide is better for beginners due to having a picture for everything it lists. I also noticed the toner was coming off on my hand on the audubon guide while I was flipping through it in the book store.

I scarcely use it now because I've gotten good enough at identifying orders and a good number of families to use bugguide to narrow things down, but it was nice to take along on a camping trip.

Note that if you want to learn how to differentiate families of beetles or butterflies or spiders based on their anatomical traits, you'll probably need a specific field guide pertaining only to that bug. I can't recommend any, since I don't own any. Or use online references - again, bugguide is pretty good for a lot of things, but I have learned a ton from just googling for the information on a specific taxon.

Oh, I hate these moths! I flip out every time I see one of these, from all the food I've had to throw away because of them. I've gotten them two or three times.

They typically come into your house by way of a bag of flour containing the larvae. Plenty of grocery store flour containers will have something living in them, and if left on the shelf for long enough, the moths will hatch and get out. Most commonly the larvae will be in bags of corn flour ("Indian meal").

You have to be thorough in eradication or you will never get rid of them. These traps are a good start, but they won't do the job alone. You have to go through all your food and eliminate anything they've gotten into.

And they get into all kinds of food - there's the obvious ones like flour and pasta, but they also love tea and spices. Check everywhere. Once you're done throwing everything out, wipe down your surfaces with diluted bleach.

Long-term, get yourself some airtight containers. The [lock-and-lock containers](http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A1055398%2Ck%3Alock%20and%20lock
) work well.

Good luck!

Yeah, Googling is hard without knowing some of the common families and such. There are nearly 50 thousand spiders in the world, and that's a lot to sift through!
Bugguide has some helpful pages, including this one that goes over some of the different eye arrangements you see in North American spider families.
If you're at all interested, there's a very nice new book full of vivid drawings of spiders, would probably be nice to flip through with the kiddies.
Spiders are a fun thing to get into!

Yea, I feel bad for you. Here is a pretty good resource to get you started on inspecting for bugs. Also, if you are really paranoid consider the use of climb up monitors on the legs of beds, couches, etc. It is unlikely that you would infest your house if you are taking these kind of precautions, but passive monitors can help you keep a long term strategy in place (and may help you sleep better at night depending on how paranoid you are).

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/vector/bed-bug-guide.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/ClimbUp-Interceptors-pack-passive-traps/dp/B0028Z0LDQ

In addition to what has been said, these moth traps (or something similar) will help to get rid of them. Most important though is to take away everything that they love as has been mentioned. And don't bring anything into the house that they infest, like grain sacks, bird food, etc. And if you do need to bring that stuff in then store it in a sealed container and/or in the freezer.

If you live in eastern North America, I highly recommend Stephen Marshall's Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity. It has a brief written overview for each insect order, and is filled with tons of captioned color photos showcasing common or interesting species. It's basically a mega field guide, so don't expect a huge amount of written discussion, but I love my copy so much!

An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles is a great book about beetles, for iding them i like the peterson guides.

She definitely overpaid. =}

https://www.amazon.com/1500-Live-Ladybugs-Guaranteed-Delivery/dp/B00533KOIC

I think it is better to encourage the locals to populate though, however in Germany, Netherlands and presumedly Switzerland there are already huge populations of the Asian Multicolor that I do not know if it can get any worse for the natives.

This one is a different species though:

https://www.planetnatural.com/product/live-ladybugs/

2000 beetles for $25. And some of the related products include ladybug food to keep them from straying so quickly.

But you are correct! Crazy expensive in the UK (which is like Switzerland in being outrageous price-wise, or unwise maybe):

http://www.greengardener.co.uk/product.asp?id_pc=34&cat=75

Germany though has German eBay and its own Amazon and prices can be super reasonable there.

Another strategy is to not release all of them at once which would cause an over-population almost guaranteed to make them disperse.

Ladybugs can be safely kept in the refrigerator produce drawers which stimulates winter for them. But they are hungry when released so hence the ladybug food to keep them from straying.

And it is a good idea to familiarize oneself with what the larvae of all of them look like because they scare most people who do not know and think they are monsters (so often sadly kill them).

Anyway, there are a lot of other organic and inexpensive strategies such as neem oil, insecticidal soap, and even nicotine (not a lot).

Appreciate it! Any tips on how to get rid of him/them possibly? Going to clean my room, would this be smart to put in the room?

Yeah, SF is great. I miss it. Good luck with fixing your problem! The dryer is a good method for getting them off cloths, blankets, etc. You can also buy a bedbug cover to reduce their hiding places. Then you can get a trap filled with cornmeal and place that around the base of the bed (assuming it's lifted). As long as you pull your bed from the wall, that should help. The traps will also let you know how many bedbugs there are and you can give the info to an exterminator. Keep in mind that probably no matter what you do you'll eventually have to call a professional.

Bedbug trap: http://www.amazon.com/ClimbUp%C2%AE-Interceptors-pack-passive-traps/dp/B0028Z0LDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380818397&sr=8-1&keywords=bed+bug+trap

Bedbug cover: http://www.amazon.com/SafeRest-Waterproof-Certified-Zippered-Encasement/dp/B004BAPK8C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380818468&sr=8-1&keywords=bed+bug+cover

I'd say Aphids. You could try to get a close-up, for a better ID.

Most of my advice for aphids (soapy water in a squirt bottle, etc.) is more suited to gardens, not trees. Maybe hit up r/arborists?

Probably couldn't go wrong by hiring some ladybugs. Always make sure insect imports are legal in your area, since interstate delivery could be considered "importing"! Sometimes laws vary from state to state, maybe try a local source.

3 is definitely a zebra swallowtail (E. protesilaus)

5 is a morpho of some type, but not sure which.

I could probably figure them all out if I had my field guides with me. Not sure about texts to recommend but I knew someone with this who recommended it.

Welcome to Toronto! Might want to invest in a tube of this stuff.

By any chance, do you know if these are worth it? https://www.amazon.com/Pheromone-Attractant-Insecticide-Dr-Killigans/dp/B00U1SMPBS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1469237229&sr=8-4&keywords=meal+moth+trap

Use this Diatomaceous Earth to get them gone.

It non-toxic and completely safe unless you have an exoskeleton.

I looked it up, do you mean this stuff? Diatomaceous Earth

If so, I'll order some right now. I just want to get rid of these ants lol

Came here to say "aphids" as well. Can I reccomend the world's finest aphid "insecticide"? ;)

https://www.amazon.com/1500-Live-Ladybugs-Guaranteed-Delivery/dp/B00533KOIC

While thick, one book you'll probably want to look into is Evolution of the Insects by Grimaldi and Engel. It's required reading in some taxonomy courses. As much as I like physical print for reference books, the digital $17 version looks awfully tempting, and you wouldn't be out too much.

You can try adding a door sweep. It's just a cheap item you attach to the bottom of your door (and/or screen door) to seal the gap and keep bugs out.

Something like this or this.

Might as well get some tick removers...

Well, I'd say that's a Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Yah. You want these: https://www.amazon.com/1500-Live-Ladybugs-Guaranteed-Delivery/dp/B00533KOIC/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=lady+bugs&qid=1550688599&s=gateway&sr=8-4

I would just put out any generic sticky trap on your sofa for a few days. Something simple and cheap like this. You can totally get them at a hardware store or bodega too. Don't stress it too much but if you catch anything it's time to call an exterminator asap.

To the best of my knowledge, those appear to be pantry moth larvae. Get yourself some of these before your dried goods are infested and you have to throw everything out.

The larvae squish nasty green goo when you kill them. Best to detach and pinch rather than bash against the wall.

Yea, or just online. Through amazon for example

Um, order some ladybugs?

This is correct I just read about it in this really cool book: Adventures Among Ants.

https://www.amazon.com/1500-Live-Ladybugs-Guaranteed-Delivery/dp/B00533KOIC

Alternatively if you want the problem solved in a more nuclear fashion... https://www.amazon.com/72-000-Live-Ladybugs-Guaranteed/dp/B01B205Q0U

Na, we have 4 small ones and 2 farm dogs. People abandon their pets around here, and if the single no-kill shelter is full and I can't find anybody to adopt them they usually end up staying with me... Nothing but kill shelters out here. I recently tried the tick twister and it works. However the dogs usually don't hold still long enough for the tick to remain between the two teeth while I spin it, so they end up slipping off and usually squeeze the tick in the process. I switched back to the tweezers after that. Just normal ones, nothing fancy.

I've always been curious about the diseases but we don't have many deer on our property. Maybe 1 or 2 a month. Are there tests for all the diseases? The house we just bought has a lot of woods and debris. We've started cleaning up most of the debris and cutting down the tall grass. However, we are still going to lay down poison this year as its really bad.

It's a toss up on responsibility..

"The implied warranty of habitability means that landlords must maintain livable conditions in a rental property. A pest infestation is one of those things that will jeopardize that condition. So for the most part, it's up to the landlord to arrange and pay for pest control."

also

"Pest control falls under the general responsibility of both tenants and landlords to maintain the premises in a state of reasonable repair, safety and cleanliness."

But that aside, self treating I can't recommend any brands but I would caution against glue traps. Largely they end up being a waste of money and if you forget about one, they then become a food source as dust settles and the sticky portion no longer works. If you do use them, try to use a sharpie to number and date them. You know you set 10 on this date so if a month later you come up 1 short you know you missed one. They also have a habit of catching non insects like mice which either starve to death slowly or end up with broken bones or torn skin if you try to remove them yourself.

A quick search I found this helpful video.

$30.76 for 4 tubes on Amazon.