Found something and don’t know what it is? Start here. Every pest below links to a page explaining how to confirm it, what it does to an Atlanta property, and how we treat it. If you can’t match what you saw, call (404) 647-6677 and a technician will identify it at no charge.
Start here: three questions that narrow it down fast
- Where did you see it? Kitchen and bathroom sightings point to cockroaches, ants or silverfish. Attic and wall noises point to rodents or wildlife. Damage to structural wood points to termites or carpenter ants.
- What did you actually find — the pest, or the evidence? Droppings, mud tubes, sawdust, shed wings and gnaw marks each narrow the list faster than a glimpse of something moving.
- When is it active? Daytime attic noise usually means squirrels. Night noise means rats, mice or raccoons. Activity at a roofline at dusk usually means bats.
Insects and bugs
- Ants — trails along baseboards or counters; fine soil pushed up through pavement cracks.
- Bed Bugs — rust-coloured spotting along mattress seams; bites on skin left uncovered while sleeping.
- Beetles — hard wing covers meeting in a straight line down the back.
- Carpenter Bees — near-perfect round holes, about half an inch wide, in eaves, decking and fascia.
- Centipedes — one pair of legs per body segment; fast, and usually in basements or bathrooms.
- Cockroaches — flat oval body, long antennae; droppings like coarse pepper behind appliances.
- Crickets — chirping after dark, and chewed holes in fabric or paper stored in basements.
- Earwigs — pincers at the rear; found under mulch, pots and damp leaf litter.
- Fleas — pets scratching persistently; dark specks in bedding that smear red when damp.
- Flies — clustering at windows; breeding in drains, bins or standing organic matter.
- Honey Bees — fuzzy amber-and-black bees working from a colony inside a wall or soffit. Honey bees are valued pollinators, so contact us to discuss the options.
- Hornets — a large grey papery nest, usually in a tree or under an eave.
- Ladybugs — domed orange-red beetles gathering on warm, sunny walls in autumn.
- Millipedes — two pairs of legs per segment; curl into a tight spiral when disturbed.
- Mites — itching or irritation with nothing visible; often traced to a bird or rodent nest nearby.
- Mosquitoes — biting at dawn and dusk, with standing water somewhere close by.
- Moths — small holes in stored wool, or fine webbing through pantry goods.
- Silverfish — teardrop-shaped and metallic grey; feed on paper and starch in damp rooms.
- Spiders — webs in corners, garages and crawl spaces; egg sacs nearby.
- Stink Bugs — shield-shaped, and congregating on sun-warmed walls as temperatures drop.
- Ticks — found attached to skin after time in tall grass or at a wooded edge.
- Wasps — an open, umbrella-shaped nest under eaves, rails or play equipment.
- Yellowjackets — nests in the ground or in wall voids; aggressive around bins and outdoor food.
Ants, specifically
- Carpenter Ants — large dark ants with coarse, sawdust-like shavings beneath damaged wood.
- Fire Ants — dome-shaped mounds in open, sunny lawn; the colony swarms and stings when disturbed.
Rodents
- Rats — droppings around three quarters of an inch, gnaw marks, and greasy rub marks along walls.
- Mice — droppings the size of rice grains, and nests shredded from insulation or paper.
- Deer Mice — white belly and feet with a sharply two-tone tail; more common in outbuildings and rural edges.
- Gophers — fan-shaped soil mounds with the hole plugged off to one side.
Wildlife
- Raccoons — torn soffit or roof edging, overturned bins, and heavy chittering from the attic.
- Squirrels — daytime scurrying overhead and chewed fascia or vent screening.
- Bats — activity at a roofline gap around dusk, with droppings accumulating below the entry.
- Opossums — night activity, usually denning under a deck, shed or crawl space.
- Snakes — a sighting, or a shed skin in a crawl space or garage. Georgia has both venomous and non-venomous species, so identification matters.
- Birds — nesting in vents and dryer exhausts; droppings collecting on ledges.
- Moles — raised surface tunnels across the lawn and volcano-shaped mounds.
- Voles — narrow runways worn into turf, with plant stems gnawed at ground level.
Termites
- Termites — mud tubes running up foundation walls, wood that sounds hollow when tapped, and discarded wings on windowsills.
Termites get their own set of pages because the work splits into distinct jobs: inspection, treatment, bait systems and damage repair.
Identification guides
These guides go deeper on telling one pest from a look-alike, using University of Georgia Extension and other published sources.
- Rat vs Mouse: How to Tell Which One Is in Your Atlanta Home — droppings, size and other clues that separate mice from rats.
- German Cockroach: How to Identify It and What Works in Atlanta Homes — the small tan roach with two stripes behind the head.
- Eastern Subterranean Termites in Georgia: Swarmers, Mud Tubes and What to Do — termite swarmers versus flying ants, and what mud tubes mean.
- Hornet vs Wasp vs Yellowjacket: How to Tell Them Apart in Georgia — telling nests apart, and when to call.
- Southern Black Widow in Georgia: How to Identify It and What to Do After a Bite — identification and bite safety.
Still not sure what you’re looking at?
Describe what you found and we will identify it. Inspections are free, and if pests return between scheduled visits we re-treat at no additional cost. Call (404) 647-6677.
For independent identification help, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension publishes Georgia-specific guidance, including its structural pest insect and weed identification service and Bulletin 1412, a guide to common household pest insects of the Southeast.
Common questions
Do I need to know what the pest is before I call?
No. Describe what you have seen — the pest itself, the damage, the droppings, or the sound and when you hear it. Identification is part of the inspection.
Is this an insect problem or a wildlife problem?
They are handled differently. Insects are treated; wildlife is removed and then excluded so it cannot re-enter. If you are hearing something larger than an insect in a wall, attic or crawl space, start with wildlife removal rather than residential pest control.
Something is in my attic but I have never seen it. What is it?
Timing is the fastest clue. Squirrels are active in daylight. Rats, mice and raccoons are active after dark. Bats leave and return at a fixed gap in the roofline around dusk. An inspection confirms which, and where it is getting in.
Which of these are actually dangerous in Georgia?
Stinging insects matter most for anyone with an allergy, and Georgia is home to both venomous and non-venomous snakes, which is why identification comes before removal. Ticks are a recognised disease risk in the Southeast. For species-level risk information, UGA Extension and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources are the authorities to check rather than a pest control company.
