Stored product pests are insects that infest dry goods and pantry items such as grains, cereals, flour, nuts, and pet food. They can quickly contaminate large amounts of food, making early detection and control essential.

Birds and bats can become problematic when they roost or nest in homes, attics, or commercial buildings. Their droppings, noise, and nesting materials can create health risks and property damage. At Martin’s Pest Control, we provide safe, humane, and compliant solutions to remove and deter unwanted birds and bats from your property.

INDOOR PESTS

Bed Bugs (Cimex Lectularius)

Color: Mahogany, rusty, brown red after a meal
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 10mm (Adult) | 1.5mm (Young)

Bedbugs are tiny, flat-bodied insects that come out at night to feed on the blood of animals and people while they sleep. They prefer locations that are easy to hide in and where they can feed regularly.

Since they feed at night, bedbug bites are hard to notice right away. It may take up to 14 days before a bedbug bite appears, which can be anywhere on the skin but often is found on the face, neck, arms, chest, and legs.

Carpet Beetle (Anthrenus Verbasci)

Color: Black centers with white, brown and yellow patches
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1/16 inches Shape: Round Legs: Six Antennae: Yes Flying: Yes, once they reach adulthood

These pests eat carpets, woolen fabrics, dead insects, furs, hides, feathers, horns, hair, silk, and bones. They damage the fabrics and surfaces they eat, which can be a costly problem. It can take 249 days to three years for varied carpet beetles to grow from an egg to an adult. If untreated, this beetle is able to wreak havoc for a long time.

Centipede (Scutigera)

Color: Body is brown to grayish-yellow, three dark stripes on top
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: Up to 1 1/2 inches long
Shape: Long, flattened, segmented bodies

Legs: One pair per segment | 15 pairs encircled by dark and white bands Antennae: No Flying: No

Centipedes prefer residing in damp portions of basements, closets, crawl spaces, and bathrooms. In the Calgary area, house centipedes feed on small insects, larvae, and spiders.

Earwig (Dermaptera)

Color: Dark brown
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1 Inch Legs: six Shape: Long, narrow Antennae: Yes Flying: no

The long clippers on their backsides easily identify an earwig. Earwigs hide during the day and feed on leaves, flowers, fruits, mold, and insects at night. These insects live together in the Calgary area in large numbers.

They can be found under piles of lawn debris, mulch, or in tree holes. They gain entry to a structure through exterior cracks. An earwig’s menacing appearance and their tendency to cluster in large numbers can be alarming to a homeowner.

Cockroach (Blattaria)

American Cockroach Color: Reddish-brown wings and light markings on its thorax
German Cockroach Color: Light brown with two dark stripes down its back
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: (American Cockroach) 1 - 1.5 inches | (German Cockroach) 1/2 - 5/8 inches

Legs: Six Antennae: Yes Flying: Yes

Cockroaches are a common problem across Calgary and Alberta, thriving in dark, damp areas like kitchens, under sinks, and behind appliances. They feed on almost anything — from starchy and sugary foods to book bindings, linens, and even leather — making them difficult to eliminate.

These pests can survive for weeks without food and emit a strong, unpleasant odor that contaminates everything they touch. More importantly, cockroaches carry bacteria linked to serious illnesses such as food poisoning, cholera, dysentery, salmonella, and strep, and their allergens can worsen asthma symptoms, particularly in children.

Flea (Siphonaptera)

Color: Black, brown
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1 – 2mm Shape: Oblong Antennae: No Flying: No

Fleas are blood-feeding pests that can transmit serious diseases such as plague, murine typhus, bartonellosis, and tapeworms. Attracted to body heat, movement, and carbon dioxide, they can leap up to 150 times their body length and infest pets, wildlife, and even humans.

Adult fleas feed on blood, while larvae survive on organic debris. A single pair can produce billions of offspring in a year, making infestations grow rapidly. Prompt, thorough treatment is essential to stop them from spreading.

Millipede (Diplopoda)

Color: Tan, dark reddish brown (Greenhouse Millipede: light tan)
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 2.5 – 6 cm Shape: Somewhat rounded | Worm-like Legs: 2 on each segment | more than 15 pairs
Antennae: No Flying: No

Millipedes live in damp locations such as in potted houseplants, greenhouses, garages, basements and lower levels. They feed on damp and decaying vegetable matter and prefer to stay in moist locations but may wander into any part of the house.

Being most active at night, they can enter a home through cracks, doors, and windows. However, they are commonly found under woodpiles, leaves, and other organic debris in the Calgary area. Not dangerous, they are an alarming and unwanted house guest.

Sow Bug (Armadillidium Vulgare)

Color: Light grays
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 6mm – 1cm Legs: Multiple Shape: Oval | Flat Flying: No Antennae: No

Sowbugs are crustaceans that live in damp habitats within the Calgary area. They feed on decaying vegetable matter. You will find them under dead leaves, rocks, boards, mulch, and other objects on moist ground.

Dark, damp areas of the house may become breeding sites for sowbugs. Evidence of sowbugs in the home routinely suggests there is a moisture control issue that needs correcting.

Spider (Araneae)

Color: Brown, black, gray mixture
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1mm – 4cm Legs: Eight Shape: Round Flying: No Antennae: No

There are over 3,000 spider species in Canada, many of which are common in Calgary. Spiders are natural predators that feed on insects and can often be found around siding, decks, sheds, play structures, and dog houses. While most are harmless, their webs can accumulate, creating unsightly, sticky tangles that are difficult to remove. Some species also have venom that can cause painful reactions in humans and pets.

Brown Recluse Spider (Loxosceles reclusa)
The brown recluse is a venomous spider recognized by its light brown color and violin-shaped marking on its body. Unlike most spiders, it has six eyes instead of eight. Its webs are used for shelter, not trapping insects.

Black Widow Spider (Latrodectus mactans)
The female black widow has a shiny black body with a distinctive red hourglass marking on the underside. Found in basements, garages, sheds, and woodpiles, these spiders are not aggressive but will bite if disturbed. Canada is home to five black widow species, all typically found under rocks and debris outdoors.

MOTHS

Clothes Moth (Tinea Pellionella)

Color: Light gray to champagne; each front wing has three indistinct darker spots
Caterpillar Color: Creamy white with a brown head
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1/4 inch long body | Caterpillar: 1/2 inch long at maturity

Clothes moth’s larva (caterpillars) mainly damage animal items such as wool, fur, silk, and feathers. Textiles injured by clothes moths have holes eaten through them by tiny, white larvae, and furs will have noticeably loose hairs. However, only the catapillar feeds.

Materials in storage or kept in the dark places such as a closet, attic, or drawer are most at risk by these insects. The adults enter through cracks around doors and windows in the Calgary area as they seek to avoid daylight.

House Moth (Endrosis Sarcitrella)

Color: White, brown, gray
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 6mm – 2cm Legs: Six Antennae: Yes Flying: Yes

The house moth eats grains, fruit, rotting wood, old textiles, and cereals. Attracted to light, they can be seen in groups around any light source at dusk in the Calgary area.

Though not harmful, they can be a general nuisance when enjoying a summer evening and attract predators such as spiders and bats. The house moth also leaves unsightly cocoons and a reddish-brown fluid on buildings, which can be difficult to remove off of windows, walls.

Indianmeal Moth (Plodia Interpunctella)

Color: Bi-colored wings- 2/3 copper or bronze & 1/3 light gray

Caterpillar: Cream with yellow-green or pinkish shades, dark brown head
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1/4 – 3/8 inch Caterpillar: up to 2/3 inch

During the caterpillar stage, it feeds on nuts, herbs, coarsely ground grains, and fruits, which are accessible as the caterpillars are capable of chewing through plastic bags and thin cardboard.

The caterpillars can seriously damage food items, and the adult moths are an irritant as they fly through the store. All stages of the Indianmeal moth may be found in Calgary area homes and businesses.

Pest Guide

ANTS

Carpenter Ant (Camponotus)

Color: Red to black
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 5/8 inch Legs: Six Shape: Segmented; Oval Antennae: Yes Flying: Yes

Carpenter ants excavate deteriorating, moist wood to build their nests, but do not actually eat the wood. The excess wood is deposited outside entrances to the colony in small piles of sawdust. Often the colony will extend its nest into adjacent, sound wood, resulting in smooth tunnels inside the wood.

In the Calgary area, carpenter ants are found in porch pillars and roofs, window sills, live and dead trees, rotting logs and stumps, and wood in contact with soil. They will enter homes through wet, damaged wood, and if they gain entry to a structure, they pose a property threat that needs to be remedied.

Cornfield Ant (Lasius Alienus)

Color: Yellow-brown to very dark brown
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 2 – 3.5 mm Antennae: Yes | 12 segments Flying: Yes

The cornfield ant is found predominantly in outdoor locations. To the untrained eye, they are recognizable by their habits more so than by their appearance. In the Calgary area, cornfield ants build visible, crater-like nests near or underneath bricks, stones, sidewalks, cracks in the pavement, and rotting logs. They also leave tell-tale piles of soil where they have excavated.

Often a pest to the putting green and immaculate yard, they will also make themselves busy foraging sweets and meats from the home or business.

Pavement Ant (Tetramorium Caespitum)

Color: Dark brown, black
Region: Calgary, AB, Canada

Size: 1/8 inches Legs: Six Shape: Segmented | Oval Antennae: Yes, long & pronounced Flying: Yes

Pavement ants make their nests in or under cracks in the pavement. They can infest structures, eating almost anything, including insects, seeds, fruit, honey, bread, meats, nuts, and cheese.

Like other ants, pavement ants can contaminate food with their constant foraging. Though they are not aggressive, pavement ants can bite and sting and cause a general unease to those sharing the patio with them.