On 2013-10-26 8:20 PM, buglady wrote:
On 10/26/2013 3:11 PM, Rhino wrote:
I don't know much about bugs and don't know what these particular
critters are. They are very small and never seem to get much larger.
They seem to both hop and fly and they seem to like my cats' litter box
and places with a bit of water.

............Do they look like little bitty flies with big wings? Or are
they transparent and very very small and hop around?

They don't look like they have big wings to me and they don't look
transparent either. I have really poor eyesight even with my very strong
glasses and just can't make out that kind of detail. If I can catch one,
I'll use one of my magnifiers and then maybe I can figure it out.

........First one is drain flies, second is springtails. Drain flies
can look like they're hopping because their flight is very short.
Springtails do sort of hop, using a pogo stick on their butts.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2071.html

........Potted plants can sometimes produce fungus gnats if the soil's
wet all the time, but I can't figure out what they'd be doing around dry
litter and they don't hop. Really, all these critters seem to rise out
of damp conditions. Could be it is the location of the litter box, not
the litter that makes you notice them.

I don't have any plants at all. My windows have been closed for a couple
of weeks now since it's noticeably chilly a lot of the time now but
these bugs appeared when it was still very warm out and they have
probably established themselves now without any need for them to leave
the apartment.

But I've also mistakenly received an
Orkin bill that should have gone to the property management company

............You should ask them what they treated the building for.

Good idea.

Am I going to need to catch one of these things and take it to a bug
scientist (entomologist) to get its species determined?

...................That would be the best route to go! If in US. your
local extension agent may be able to help you.

I'm not sure what an extension agent is. I'm in Canada, Southwestern
Ontario to be more precise. I'm not sure if the bugs you describe are
common here. I'll have to see if the local university has an
entomologist. I'm not sure how reliable pest control companies are in
determining what species are involved. I guess I'm a little skeptical
about them and suspect that they just come and spray with strong
pesticides that kill just about everything so that they don't have to
worry about dealing with a specific insect. But maybe that's not fair to
them....

Thanks for the suggestions.

--
Rhino

--
Rhino