If you’re a resident of Texas or planning to move there, then this guide will save you from many itchy bites and buggy nights.
This post reveals 19 common house bugs in Texas homes and yards. It also includes bugs in Texas that bite.
On top of it, you’ll also find information on when these bugs are active. And what you can do to stop them from invading your home and property.
Plus a lot more!
Keep reading.
6 Common House Bugs In Texas
Not all bugs are biting bugs. You’d find these bugs hiding inside depending on the season and the weather conditions outside.
These bugs take refuge in your home, searching for food and shelter to escape the harsh weather conditions outdoors.
Some of these bugs breed fast and become a nuisance inside the home.
But some of them don’t breed. They wait till the weather outside becomes suitable for these bugs.
Here are the common house bugs in Texas that don’t bite.
#1 – Carpet Beetles In Texas Homes
Carpet beetles are fabric pests. These beetles fly into your home to lay eggs on fabric and materials made out of animal matter.
So, their main target is fabrics made out of leather, silk, wool, and feathers.
Carpet beetles lay eggs on these materials so that the larva from the egg can feed on clothes made out of animal products.
Carpet beetles are active during the spring and the summer months when they invade homes to lay their eggs.
The larvae of these beetles cause severe damages to your expensive clothing and even to your leather shoes.
The adult carpet beetles are outdoor bugs. Outdoors, the adult carpet beetles feed on the nectar and pollen from the flowers.
Light from your home attracts them, causing them to fly into your home.
They can also enter your home by latching onto any garden plants and flower pots you may introduce into your home outdoors.
Adult carpet beetles do not bite humans or pets. Neither do they carry any diseases, nor do they damage the fabrics inside your home.
It’s the larvae of the carpet beetles that damage the fabrics made out of animal matter.
The adult carpet beetles can be black or brown with whitish spots on them. Once they enter your home, you can spot them pretty quickly because they are not tiny.
In the spring and the summer months, always install window screens with fine meshes to stop the carpet beetles from flying into your home.
Carpet beetles can also get into a car. So, if you see small black bugs in your car’s floor mat then chances are they can be carpet beetles.
You should also check any plants for carpet beetles and bugs before you bring them inside.
#2 – Cockroaches In Texas Homes
Homes in Texas are always under the threat of cockroach infestation, especially from one type of cockroach.
And that’s the American cockroach.
American cockroaches are reddish-brown, and the adult ones can grow up to 2 inches in length.
American cockroaches love to infest homes, and they hide in places that have high dampness, or there’s a source of water nearby.
That’s why it’s pretty common to find them in the kitchen, bathroom, basement, and laundry rooms.
Nocturnal by nature, these roaches hide in tight corners and gaps in your home during the day.
They breed quite fast, and the infestation gets quite severe if you don’t put a lid on it at the early stages of infestation.
German cockroaches are also quite a menace in Texas homes. But these roaches prefer to hide in drier areas like the attic and inside electrical appliances.
In your yard, wood roaches, predominantly outdoor roaches, can take refuge in your yard or garden.
Cockroaches carry bacteria that can cause harmful diseases, including food poisoning.
These are tough bugs to kill. That’s why most DIY methods of getting rid of roaches fail, especially when the infestation levels are severe.
It’d be best to hire a pest controller to get rid of roaches in your home if you see roaches often and in most areas of your home.
#3 – Silverfish In Texas Homes
Silverfish are humidity and dampness-seeking bugs that homeowners in Texas frequently encounter in their kitchen and bathroom.
Silverfish look like tiny shrimps with a teardrop-shaped body and two antennae on their head. They can be brown or blackish with visible scales on their body.
So, how big are the silverfish? Silverfish are tiny, and they grow from half-an-inch to three-quarters of an inch in length.
Silverfish don’t carry any diseases, nor do they bite humans or pets. They feed on starchy products high in cellulose.
So, silverfish can damage things like books, cotton clothes, and even stored food.
Silverfish will also eat molds and fungus that develop on the floors and the walls in the damp places of your home, like the bathroom, kitchen, and basement.
Silverfish breed fast, especially when they hide in damp places. The faster rate of reproduction can make the number of silverfish in your home skyrocket fast.
And when their numbers are big, the silverfish become quite a nuisance as you can spot them even in unlikely places like your bed.
But thankfully, getting rid of silverfish isn’t a big deal.
Vacuum cleaning your home and reducing the humidity levels inside your home by fixing water leakages do most of the job.
However, sealing the gaps and cracks on the walls, windows, and door frames also stops the silverfish from sneaking inside.
#4 – Centipedes In Texas Homes
The very thought of a centipede crawling on your home’s floor can send shivers to your spine.
But the hard reality is centipedes are also a regular sighting in homes in Texas.
Why?
It’s because, given the warm weather outdoors, centipedes look for a humid and cooler place to hide.
But, centipedes are outdoor insects. They’re beneficial insects for your yard or garden because they’re predators, and they hunt down pests like aphids and mealworms that can cause damage to plants.
Inside the home, too, centipedes hunt bugs like crickets, roaches, silverfish, and earwigs.
Centipedes don’t carry any diseases either. They also don’t bring any infestation risks.
But centipedes can bite you if you try to touch it or poke it. However, the first reaction of a centipede on coming across you is to hide into the nearest gap or crevice.
It’s because they’re scared of humans or anything bigger in size than them.
Centipedes also prefer damp places to hide. And they hide in the tiny gaps and cracks.
So, places like the bathroom, kitchen, and basement are the favorite hiding places of the centipedes.
These places have enough moisture, cracks, and other hiding bugs to eat.
You’d come across centipedes quite often in your bathroom. They’ll hide in the gaps between the floor tiles and the walls.
And if there are baby roaches in bathroom drains, then your bathroom is a perfect place for them.
But most of the centipedes quit your home when the weather outdoors becomes favorable for them.
It’s essential to seal gaps and cracks on the floors and the walls to stop centipedes from entering your home.
To repel them, using peppermint essential oils as a spray works well. Centipedes hate the smell of essential oils like peppermint and eucalyptus.
Also, cleaning your home and getting rid of bugs hiding in your home and kitchen will deny centipedes the food they need to survive.
However, killing or squashing centipedes isn’t always a good idea. It’s because they’re harmless, and secondly, the liquids that splash out of the centipede’s body can attract other bugs like ants and roaches.
#5 – Millipedes In Texas Homes
Like the centipedes, millipedes sneak inside Texas homes for the same reasons.
They want to escape the harsh conditions outdoors. Heavy rains outdoors can drive the millipedes to sneak inside your home looking for drier places.
But parched weather can also cause the millipedes to get into your home looking for a water source and a cooler place to live.
Inside your home, millipedes will hide in the kitchen and bathroom where there’s dampness and food available.
Like the centipedes, millipedes are outdoor bugs. But they’re not predators like the centipedes.
Outdoors, millipedes will eat decaying plant matter. But they can also damage live plants if they run out of rotting leaves and woods.
In your yard or garden, millipedes will hide in damp places under organic matter like woodpiles, mulch, foliage, and even underneath stones and rocks.
Millipedes are omnivores. When the situation demands, millipedes can eat dead animals and insects.
Millipedes don’t bite humans or pets. But when poked, they’ll secrete a toxin that can cause severe irritation on the skin.
And if that toxin gets into your eye, then you’re up for some severe itching, redness, pain, and swelling in the eye.
But inside your home, millipedes don’t carry any infestation risks.
They don’t want to be inside your home. They wait to get out as soon as the weather outdoors becomes suitable for them.
If you come across a millipede inside your home, use a vacuum cleaner to remove it.
Then dispose of the millipede outside your home.
You can also use peppermint essential oil sprays in your home to stop millipedes from entering your home.
#6 – Termites In Texas Homes
Texas is unlucky when it comes to termites in Texas homes.
The termites are a menace in Texas, and the state has the two worst species of termites a home can ever have.
And these are the destructive Formosan termite (a type of subterranean termites) and drywood termites.
Both these termites cause damages worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Texas.
And given the weather of Texas, Texas homes are at the same risk of termite invasion as the homes in the state of Florida.
Formosan termites spread fast, breed fast, have a larger coverage area for damage, are the most aggressive termite in the termite species, and invade homes from underground.
Being able to reproduce faster, the Formosan termites can cause more damage in a specific amount of time than any other termite.
Formosan termites, often called “super termites,” can damage not just wooden objects. They can chew through the floor, walls, and even wallpapers.
Formosan termites are bigger than regular subterranean termites. A soldier Formosan termite can grow up to 0.6 – 0.7 inches, and they’ll attack anything approaching their colony.
Another type of termite that is a menace to Texas homes is the drywood termites.
But drywood termites invade homes by flying into your home. These termites can cause severe damages to the structural wood of the homes.
And if the infestation levels increase, your entire home is at the risk of collapsing.
Please do not use any DIY methods to get rid of these termites as they won’t affect getting rid of termite infestation.
It’d be wise to take professional help to get rid of termites in your home.
6 Little Black Bugs In Texas Homes
Some common tiny black bugs invade Texas homes that need a special mention.
Most of these bugs are a nuisance in coastal homes. But if you’re living in northern Texas, you’d also see them crawling and buzzing inside your home.
Let’s have a look at what the small black bugs are in Texas homes.
#1 – Gnats In Texas Homes
Gnats (many people confuse them with mosquitoes and fruit flies) are little black flying bugs that are a nuisance in many homes in Texas and many states across the US.
Two things attract gnats in your home.
First, organic debris in your yard. And second, food wastes in your kitchen and elsewhere.
Gnats eat both the decaying organic debris and the food wastes.
Gnats are good at detecting odor from their antennae, and they fly straight at the above two sources that attract them.
Houseplants inside your home also attract gnats. They lay eggs on the moist soil of the plant-soil bed.
There are many species of gnats. And the most common type of gnat is the fungus gnat.
Gnats are a real nuisance, and they can sneak into electronic items like refrigerators and water filters.
#2 – Carpenter Ants In Texas Homes
Carpenter ants are black, and they can grow up to half an inch in length.
These ants are common in yards and gardens across homes in Texas.
However, the ones that are inside the home have a reddish color with a black abdomen.
Carpenter ants will bore into wood to lay eggs. That makes them quite a risk to the furniture in your home.
Another thing that makes carpenter ants a menace in homes is that they don’t build a central nest inside your home.
It means that they’ll build nests in different areas of your home. And most of these nests are hard to spot.
So, that makes it hard to eliminate these ants inside your home. And hence, you’d need an expert pest controller to get rid of them.
Unless you destroy each of their hidden nests, carpenter ants can come back again even after treatment.
#3 – Drain Flies And House Flies In Texas Homes
The bug list for Texas wouldn’t have been complete without mentioning the drain flies and house flies.
These two flies are the most irritating sight in homes across Texas homes.
Many homeowners find them hard to get rid of despite taking all the measures they take.
But, most of the time, the source of these two tiny flying bugs lies in clogged drains, gutter, and sewer pipes.
So, keeping these drains clean goes a long way in managing these flies.
Also, getting rid of food wastes, keeping the trash bins inside and outside the home clean, and removing any water logging in the yard prevents them from laying eggs and reproducing.
When they go unchecked, the drain flies’ numbers inside the home increase rapidly. And drain flies have a bad habit of infesting your refrigerator and dishwasher.
#4 – Hackberry Psyllids In Texas Homes
Hackberry gall psyllids are a nuisance in Texas homes, especially during the summer and the fall months.
They cause galls at the underside of Hackberry tree leaves.
When their numbers increase during the summer and fall months, hackberry psyllids enter homes in Texas through open doors and windows.
These bugs are also known as jumping plant lice. Hackberry psyllids have very strong hind legs that make them good jumpers.
They’re also good fliers, and they can fly into your home during the sunny days of fall and early winters.
Hackberry psyllids have distinctive tiny dark spots on their wings, and the adult ones can grow up to 3/16 of an inch in length.
#5 – Chinch Bugs In Texas Homes
Chinch bugs are not typically indoor bugs. They prefer to infest crops like corn, wheat, and rice plants.
But chinch bugs also have a habit of infesting turf grass on home lawns.
They also have a habit of gathering around organic debris in your yard and garden because they eat them.
When they’re in your yard, they also feed on the sap of the grass.
During the dry days of the summer month, chinch bugs cling onto the exterior walls of the houses. And they can sneak inside your home through the tiny gaps and crevices on your home’s walls.
That’s the reason many homes in Texas with big yards and lawns come across chinch bugs inside their homes.
To get rid of chinch bugs inside your home, use a vacuum cleaner on them to get rid of them.
They don’t carry any infestation risks, so the chances of chinch bugs spreading inside your home are zero.
Get rid of them from your yard and lawn to ensure that chinch bugs don’t enter your home.
Chinch bugs are black, 3/16 of an inch long, and they’ve fully developed wings.
#6 – Crickets In Texas Homes
Crickets, like grasshoppers, are black jumping bugs that invade homes in Texas during the late summer and fall months.
These bugs like to hang around in places that have high dampness levels.
The worst part?
Like the cockroaches, crickets can eat anything.
Crickets are nocturnal, and they’re attracted to light. So, the light from your home can cause the crickets to sneak inside through open doors and windows.
Food stains in the bedsheets attract crickets to your bed. They can chew through the stains and can damage the bedsheets by creating holes in them.
Also, crickets can damage other fabrics like curtains and drapes, socks, table sheets, etc.
Crickets make a chirping sound late at night during the summer nights and after the rains to attract a mate.
Crickets are more common in houses than in apartments. Heavy damp areas, potholes with water in the yard, and organic debris are perfect for the crickets to hide and breed.
Crickets can also be a nuisance in your kitchen, where they can hide in tight places like kitchen cabinets.
Places underneath the sinks of your kitchen and bathroom, where there are high moisture levels, are also preferred hiding places for crickets.
7 Bugs That Bite In Texas
This post won’t have been complete if there’s no mention of small bugs in Texas homes that bite, sting, and suck your blood.
The bugs that you’re about to find out are a nuisance and give sleepless nights to the Texas residents.
Let’s find out what they are.
Here’s the list of tiny biting bugs in Texas homes.
#1 – Bed Bugs In Texas Homes
Bed bugs are getting from bad to worse in the state of Texas. Two Texas cities, Dallas and Fort Worth, are in the top 20 list of worst cities for bed bugs.
Bed bugs infestations are common in Texas homes and commercial buildings like office spaces, hotels, hospitals, and daycare places.
If you think that bed bugs can only hide in your bed, then you’re wrong.
They can hide anywhere, starting from your couch, dresser drawers, and even in your baby’s car seats.
Bed bugs are tough bugs to get rid of, and they multiply at the speed of light. Within weeks their infestation levels can go over the roof.
Over the past decade, bed bugs have developed immunity to conventional pesticides. So, getting rid of them has become harder than before.
In all honesty, bug bombs and bed bug sprays don’t work anymore on bed bugs.
So, it’s always a wise idea to involve a professional pest controller to get rid of bed bugs rather than trying to get rid of them yourself.
#2 – Fleas In Texas Homes
Fleas don’t just bite your furry family member, but they can also bite you.
You’re not a typical host for fleas, but when fleas hide in places like in your bed, they’ll bite you when they’ve got no other option.
And fleas in bed are quite common if your pet has a habit of hopping onto your bed often or sleeps on your bed.
Fleas latch onto your pests outdoors. And your pets bring them home.
That’s the reason why you’ll experience flea bites while you’re in your bed, couch, or even in your carpet and rugs.
To get rid of fleas in your home, treating your pet for fleas, vacuuming your home, and maintaining a flea and bug-free yard or garden are the best options.
#3 – Mosquitoes In Texas Homes
Another obvious biting bug in Texas homes is the mosquito.
There are three main species of mosquitoes that are active in Texas homes. These are the Asian tiger mosquito, the house mosquito, and the southern mosquito.
Out of the three, it’s the Asian tiger mosquito which is the most dangerous.
Asian tiger mosquitoes carry viruses that can cause diseases like Zika, West Nile, and dengue fever.
The mosquito menace is quite severe in Texas. According to a recent study by Orkin, the most number of cities in the top mosquito cities came from Texas.
Houston is the worst city in Texas when it comes to mosquito infestation.
Mosquitoes are light shy, and they’re most active during dawn and dusk. And rooms with a lack of natural light can have many mosquitoes too.
To know more about mosquitoes, their sources, and how to get rid of them, read our in-depth guides here and here.
#4 – Biting Mites In Texas Homes
There are two biting mites that homeowners in Texas are coming across often lately.
These are the rodent mites and the bird mites.
Now, both of these mites are not typical human-biting bugs.
They are parasites on rodents and birds. But when the birds and rats leave your home, or when you get rid of them, they can leave behind these biting mites.
They leave behind these biting mites. Rodent mites and bird mites will bite humans and pets when their primary host isn’t available.
Both of these mites are tiny or microscopic biting bugs that can be very hard to spot.
But unlike bed bugs, both rodent and bird mites don’t hitchhike or spread far and wide inside your home.
They’ll be hiding in places where they’re initially, and you’ll experience their bites in certain rooms of your home.
To control them, you need to remove the primary hosts of these mites, which are rats in your home and bird’s nests in your property.
Roof rats are pretty common in Texas. Many homeowners complain about the noises coming out from places like attics and roofs. They’re good climbers, and, most importantly, they carry rodent mites.
Roof rats are common in Texas homes during the fall and the winter months. In contrast, birds in Texas can nest on your property during the summer and spring months.
So, it’d be best if you’re careful about their presence on your property during these times of the year. That’ll ward off any possible bird and rodent mite infestation in your home.
#5 – Biting Ticks In Texas Homes
During the spring, summer, and fall months, many biting ticks in Texas are active.
These biting ticks carry diseases like Lyme, Stari, and Rocky Mountain Fever.
Ticks are tiny and can be hard to spot. These biting ticks that you’re about to find grow up to only 0.2 inches in length, making them difficult to detect.
There are 4 types of biting and disease-spreading ticks in Texas – Lone star ticks, Black-legged ticks, Brown dog ticks, and American dog ticks.
It’s the bite from black-legged ticks that causes Lyme disease. And the worst part is that these ticks can remain active in the winter months as long as it’s not cold.
Brown dog ticks and the American dog ticks spread Rocky Mountain fever. Both these ticks prefer to bite animals, but when they don’t have access to their primary host, they can bite humans too.
#6 – Red Imported Fire Ants In Texas Homes
The red imported fire ants are invasive ants brought in from South America during the early 1930s. And when they crawl onto you, these ants can leave behind an excruciating bite.
Though these are outdoor ants, they can sneak inside your home when the weather outside becomes extreme for them.
When the weather outdoors is too hot, too cold, or too wet after the rains, fire ants can sneak inside your home through the thinnest of gaps looking for food and shelter.
Fire ants are prone to detect vibrations. That’s why they can bite you when you’re on the move.
Fire ants can bite and sting you multiple times, especially when you’re trying to get rid of them from your body.
Fire ants can hide in the tiniest or thinnest of gaps inside your home.
Cracks on the walls, gaps in the floor, and places like your kitchen and pantry storage are some of the most common places for the fire ants to hide.
Your yard or garden is the primary source of fire ants inside your home.
These ants make nests that you can detect by the mud molds on the soil. To get rid of them, pouring hot water mixed with white vinegar on the nests is one of the options.
You can also use insecticide spray on the fire ants’ nests to kill them.
#7 – Brown Recluse Spider In Texas Homes
If there’s one spider that is common in Texas homes it’s the brown recluse spider.
It’s one of the most feared household spider in Texas that leaves a nasty and painful bite. But bites from the brown recluse spider is a rare incident.
The brown recluse spider is shy, hates human contact, and it’s not aggressive by nature.
These spiders don’t bite unless they feel threatened or cornered. And most of the bites takes place when you inadvertently come in contact with it or while trying to get rid of it.
Brown recluse spiders are hunting spiders. These are not the types of spiders that spin web to catch their prey.
They spin webs in hard-to-reach places. And they use these webs mainly as retreats or a place to lay their eggs.
They lurk and hide and pounce on their prey from the top.
Brown recluse spiders hide in places which you don’t frequent often.
So, places like attic, piles of junk or paper lying around in storage rooms for months, and tight corners and spaces that are hard for you to reach are common hiding places for the brown recluse spider.
Brown recluse spiders are nocturnal and they do their hunting activity at night. During the day they hide and remain idle in their hiding places.
Even though these spiders are solitary, presence of one brown recluse spider in your home can indicate there are more.
It’s always a wise decision to hire a pest controller to eliminate the brown recluse spider. Doing it yourself can expose you to the unnecessary risk of spider bites.
Summary
In this extensive and in-depth post, you’ve got to know the most common house bugs in Texas.
Also, there’s a list of little black bugs in Texas homes and the biting bugs that Texas homeowners can come across.
To summarize, here’s the list of 19 common bugs in Texas homes –
- Carpet beetles
- Centipedes
- Millipedes
- Cockroaches
- Silverfish
- Termites
- Gnats
- Carpenter ants
- Flies – drain flies and house flies
- Hackberry Psyllids
- Chinch bugs
- Crickets
- Bed bugs
- Fleas
- Mosquitoes
- Biting mites – Rodent and Bird mites
- Ticks
- Fire ants
- Brown recluse spiders
So, what do you think? Is there any bug that you’ve encountered in your Texas home and that’s not on the list?
Do let us know.
We’re Mark and Jim, and we’re retired pest controllers who made homes pest-free for more than three decades. We, along with our team of experts, founded this site to give you the pest control hacks that work.