Garden Pests and Diseases: Friend or Foe #4, 0 by Night_Bloom

Night_Bloom wrote:
RachelBee - I'll be interetsed to see what the exterminators say your cockroach is.


margu: Grasshoppers are definitely not one of my specialties. There are small species. Generally a grasshopper is an adult when it has its full set of wings. You might try looking at some of the grasshoppers on bugguide to see if you can see yours.

As for your picture, I'm not sure about the "antennae", likely that is someething else, because I think the "amber colored device" is the head. I believe that this is most likely a case-making clothes moth which don't necessarily only eat "clothes" per se. The "case" materials vary depending on what materials are around for the caterpillars to make it out of. Generally if you find what they are eating (check wool sweaters and wool rugs) and either "mothball" it or put it in the freezer for a while, there won't be any more problems. General spraying won't do much good usually. They are often well hidden and protected until they get big enough to move out ("wander") in preparation for becoming a moth.

Here's a case from a garage in Florida. This caterpillar used mostly sand to make its case. The brown "skin" sticking out the end is most likely what remained of the pupa after the moth emerged from the case.