Pests to know in West Virginia
Pests documented in West Virginia
Many public records (364)
- Aerial yellowjacket
- Ailanthus Webworm
- Alfalfa plant bug
- Allium Leafminer
- Amber snails
- American Black Bear
- American carrion beetle
- American crow
- American Dagger Moth
- American Dog Tick
- American Mink
- American Plum Borer
- Anchor stink bug
- Annual Cicadas (dog-day cicadas)
- Antlions
- Artichoke Plume Moth
- Asiatic Garden Beetle
- Asiatic Oak Weevil
- Aspen Twoleaf Tier
- Auplopus spider wasps
- Azalea Caterpillar
- Bagworm
- Bald-faced Hornet
- Balsam Woolly Adelgid
- Banded Garden Spider
- Banded longhorn beetle
- Banded Tussock Moth
- Banded Woolly Bear
- Barklice
- Beaver (American beaver)
- Bed Bug
- Beech Scale
- Big Poplar Sphinx (Modest Sphinx)
- Big-eyed toad bug
- Birch Leafminer
- Black carpenter ant
- Black Onion Fly
- Black Vine Weevil
- Black-and-Yellow Lichen Moth
- Black-waved Flannel Moth
- Blackjacket
- Blacklegged Tick
- Blinded Sphinx
- Blue-black spider wasps
- Blue-Winged Wasp
- Box Tree Moth
- Boxelder Bug
- Boxwood Leafminer
- Broad-Faced Sac Spider
- Broad-necked root borer
- Bronzed Cutworm
- Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
- Brown Stink Bug
- Brown-belted bumble bee
- Buffalo Treehopper
- Burying beetles
- Canada thistle bud weevil
- Carolina Grasshopper
- Carpenter Ants
- Carpenterworm
- Catalpa Sphinx
- Cecropia Moth
- Celery Looper
- Cherry Scallop Shell Moth
- Chimney bee (miner bee)
- Chimney swift
- Citronella Ants
- Citrus Flatid Planthopper
- Clover leaf weevil
- Clover root curculio
- Cluster Fly
- Codling Moth
- Common blue mud dauber
- Common Eastern Bumble Bee
- Common Gluphisia
- Common Gray
- Common True Katydid
- Common Watersnake
- Cooley Spruce Gall Adelgid
- Copper Underwing
- Copperhead
- Corn leafhopper
- Crab Spiders (e.g., goldenrod crab spider)
- Cranberry Girdler (Subterranean Webworm)
- Crane Flies
- Cross-Striped Cabbageworm
- Crowned Slug Caterpillar
- Cuckoo wasps
- Curved-toothed Geometer Moth
- Deer (white-tailed deer shown; mule deer similar)
- Deer Fly
- Diamondback Moth
- Dogbane leaf beetle
- Dogwood twig borer
- Eastern Carpenter Bee
- Eastern chipmunk
- Eastern Comma
- Eastern Dobsonfly
- Eastern Hercules Beetle
- Eastern Spruce Budworm
- Eastern Spruce Gall Adelgid
- Eastern Tent Caterpillar
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
- Eastern Yellowjacket
- Eggplant flea beetle
- Eight-spotted Forester
- Elderberry borer
- Elm cockscomb gall aphid
- Elm Sawfly
- Elm Spanworm
- Entypus spider wasps
- European Deer Ked
- European Earwig
- European Hornet
- European starling
- Face Fly
- Fall Webworm
- False potato beetle
- Field Crickets
- Fireflies
- Fishflies
- Fishing Spiders
- Flatheaded Appletree Borer
- Forked fungus beetle
- Fourlined Plant Bug
- Gall and Bud Mites
- Garden Fleahopper
- Garter snakes
- German Yellowjacket
- Giant Bark Aphid
- Giant Resin Bee
- Giant Woolly Bear
- Gold-striped Leaftier Moth
- Golden Tortoise Beetle
- Goldeneyed lacewing
- Goldenrod Bunch Gall Midge
- Goldenrod Gall Fly
- Granulate Ambrosia Beetle
- Grape colaspis
- Grape Flea Beetle
- Grape leaffolder
- Grape Phylloxera
- Grapevine Beetle
- Grapevine Epimenis
- Grass Spiders (Funnel Weavers)
- Gray Spruce Looper
- Green Cloverworm
- Green cone-headed planthopper
- Green Fruitworms
- Green June Beetle
- Green Stink Bugs
- Greenhouse Millipede
- Ground crickets
- Groundhog (woodchuck)
- Hacklemesh Weavers
- Hag Moth Caterpillar
- Half-wing Moth
- Harvestmen (Daddy Longlegs)
- Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
- Hermit Flower Beetle
- Hickory Horned Devil
- Hickory Tussock Moth
- Hop Looper
- Horned Passalus
- Horntails (Wood Wasps)
- House Centipede
- Hummingbird Moths
- Hydrangea Leaftier Moth
- Imperial Moth
- Imported Willow Leaf Beetle
- Indianmeal Moth
- Io Moth Caterpillar
- Japanese Beetle
- Jocose Sallow (The Joker)
- Keeled treehopper
- Larder Beetle
- Large Milkweed Bug
- Large Yellow Underwing
- Larger Elm Leaf Beetle
- Leaf Crumpler
- Leaf-Rolling Weevils
- Leafcurl Ash Aphid
- Leafcutter Bees
- Leafhoppers
- Leafminers (boxwood leafminer)
- Lesser Maple Spanworm
- Linden Looper
- Locust Borer
- Locust Leafminer
- Longbodied Cellar Spider
- Luna Moth
- Magnolia Leaf-Footed Bug
- Maple eyespot gall midge
- Maple Leafcutter
- Maple Shoot Borer
- Maple Trumpet Skeletonizer Moth
- Marbled Orbweaver
- Margined leatherwing
- Masked Chafers
- Masked Hunter
- Mason Bees
- Meadow grasshopper
- Meadow plant bug
- Meal Moth
- Mexican Bean Beetle
- Mimosa Webworm
- Mining Bees
- Monarch Butterfly
- Morning-glory Prominent
- Morrison's Pero
- Mousy Angle
- Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle
- Native Holly Leafminer
- Ninebark Calligrapha
- Nomad bees
- Northern Black Widow
- Northern flatid planthopper
- Nursery Web Spider
- Oak timberworm
- Oak Treehopper
- Oak Vein Pocket Gall Midge
- Odorous House Ant
- Oil beetles
- Orange assassin bug
- Orangehumped Mapleworm
- Orangestriped Oakworm
- Orchard Orbweaver
- Organ pipe mud dauber
- Oriental Cockroach
- Painted hickory borer
- Painted Lichen Moth
- Pale Beauty
- Pale Green Assassin Bug
- Pales Weevil
- Palmerworm
- Pandorus Sphinx
- Parallel-banded Leafroller Moth
- Parson Spider
- Pavement Ant
- Pecan spittlebug
- Periodical Cicadas
- Pigeon tremex
- Pine Needle Scale
- Pine tree spur-throat grasshopper
- Pine Tube Moth
- Pine Webworm Moth
- Pipevine Swallowtail
- Pitch Twig Moth
- Pleasing antlion
- Pleasing Fungus Beetles
- Plum Curculio
- Plume Moths
- Pole borer
- Polished lady beetle
- Polyphemus Moth
- Poplar Tentmaker
- Porcelain Gray
- Prionus Root Borers
- Promethea Silkmoth
- Pure Gold-Green Sweat Bee
- Purple Carrot-seed Moth
- Pygmy grasshoppers
- Rainbow Scarab
- Raspberry Cane Borer
- Rat snakes
- Red Fox
- Red Milkweed Beetle
- Red oak borer
- Red-fringed Emerald
- Red-spotted Purple
- Redbanded Leafroller
- Redheaded Pine Sawfly
- Redhumped Caterpillar
- Rednecked Cane Borer
- Rhubarb curculio
- Rodent and rabbit bot flies
- Rose Chafer
- Rosy Maple Moth
- Rough strawberry root weevil
- Roundheaded Appletree Borer
- Saddleback Caterpillar
- Saddleback Looper
- Saddled Prominent
- Silver-spotted Skipper
- Silverfish
- Six-spotted tiger beetle
- Skiff Moth
- Small Carpenter Bees
- Snipe Flies
- Snowy Tree Cricket
- Sod Webworms
- Soldier Beetles
- Southern flying squirrel
- Southern Yellowjacket
- Sparganothis Fruitworm
- Spicebush Swallowtail
- Spider Wasps
- Spined Micrathena
- Spiny Oak-Slug
- Spiny Oakworm Moth
- Spiny Witchhazel Gall Aphid
- Spittlebugs
- Spongy Moth
- Spotted Lanternfly
- Spotted Orbweaver
- Spotted-Wing Drosophila
- Squash Beetle
- Stable Fly
- Stag Beetles
- Striped Cucumber Beetle
- Sugar Maple Borer
- Swamp milkweed leaf beetle
- Sweat Bees
- Sycamore Lace Bug
- Thistle tortoise beetle
- Tiger Bee Fly
- Treehoppers
- True Armyworm
- Tufted Apple Bud Moth
- Tulip-tree Beauty
- Tuliptree Scale
- Tussock Moth Caterpillars (whitemarked tussock moth)
- Twicestabbed Lady Beetle
- Two-spotted bumble bee
- Twolined Chestnut Borer
- Twolined Spittlebug
- Underwing Moths
- Variable Oakleaf Caterpillar
- Versute sharpshooter
- Viburnum Leaf Beetle
- Virginia Creeper Sphinx
- Virginia Ctenucha
- Walkingsticks
- Walnut Caterpillar
- Walnut Sphinx
- Waterlily Leafcutter
- Waved Sphinx
- Wavy-lined Emerald
- Western Honey Bee
- Western Yellowjacket
- Whirligig beetles
- White Slant-Line
- White-margined burrower bug
- Whitefringed Beetles
- Whitetriangle Leafroller
- Wild turkey
- Willow Beaked-Gall Midge
- Willow Sawfly
- Winter firefly
- Wood Cockroaches
- Woodpeckers
- Woodrats
- Woolly alder aphid
- Woolly Elm Aphid
- Yellow Mealworm
- Yellow Poplar Weevil
- Yellow Woollybear
- Yellow-collared Scape Moth
- Yellow-faced bees
- Yellow-shouldered Slug Moth
- Yellowlined Forest Looper
- Yellownecked Caterpillar
- Yellowstriped Armyworm
- Zebra Swallowtail
Fewer public records (285)
- Acorn Weevils
- Acrobat Ants
- Admirable grasshopper
- Alfalfa caterpillar (orange sulphur)
- Ambush Bugs
- American Lady
- American red squirrel (pine squirrel)
- American Snout
- American yellowjacket
- Apple curculio
- Apple Ermine Moth
- Arborvitae Leafminer
- Ash flower gall mite
- Asian Longhorned Tick
- Asparagus Beetles
- Assassin Bugs
- Aster Leafhopper
- Backswimmers
- Barn Funnel Weaver
- Bat Bugs
- Bats (big brown bat and little brown bat)
- Bean Leaf Beetle
- Bee Flies
- Beech Blight Aphid
- Beewolf
- Billbugs
- Black and Yellow Mud Dauber
- Black Soldier Fly
- Black Stem Borer
- Black-and-gold bumble bee
- Blister Beetles
- Blueberry Leaftier Moth
- Bobcat
- Bold Jumping Spider
- Braconid Wasps
- Broad-headed sharpshooter
- Brown Lacewings
- Brown snakes (DeKay's brownsnake)
- Buck Moth Caterpillar
- Bulb Flies
- Bumble Flower Beetle
- Camel Cricket
- Canada Goose
- Cankerworms (fall cankerworm)
- Carolina Wolf Spider
- Cellophane Bees
- Chalcoela Moths
- Clay-colored leaf beetle
- Click Beetles
- Cliff swallow
- Colorado Potato Beetle
- Common Buckeye
- Common Green Bottle Fly
- Common House Spider
- Common Pillbug
- Common Stalk Borer
- Corn Earworm (Tomato Fruitworm)
- Cornfield Ant
- Cottony Maple Scale
- Coyote
- Cutworms
- Damsel Bugs
- Dark Flower Scarab
- Daylily leafminer
- Digger bees
- Dingy Cutworm
- Dogwood Borer
- Dragonflies
- Drain Fly (Moth Fly)
- Drone Fly and Rat-Tailed Maggot
- Dung beetles
- Eastern Black Swallowtail
- Eastern Blackheaded Budworm
- Eastern Bloodsucking Conenose
- Eastern Cicada Killer
- Eastern Subterranean Termite
- Ebony bugs
- Elephant Mosquito
- Elm Borer
- Elongate Hemlock Scale
- Emerald Ash Borer
- European corn borer
- European Paper Wasp
- European Pepper Moth
- European Wool Carder Bee
- Fall Armyworm
- False Widow Spiders
- Field Ants
- Filament Bearer (Horned Spanworm)
- Filbertworm
- Five-banded thynnid wasp
- Florida Fern Caterpillar
- Foreign Grain Beetle
- Forest Tent Caterpillar
- Garden Tortrix
- German Cockroach
- Giant Conifer Aphids
- Giant Ichneumon Wasps
- Giant Water Bugs
- Golden northern bumble bee
- Gouty Oak Gall Wasp
- Granulate Cutworm
- Grape Cane Gallmaker
- Grape leafhoppers
- Grapeleaf Skeletonizer
- Grass-Carrying Wasps
- Grasshoppers
- Great Black Wasp
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Golden Digger Wasp
- Greater Angle-Winged Katydid
- Green-striped grasshopper
- Ground Beetles
- Guinea Paper Wasp
- Hackberry Emperor
- Hackberry Psyllids
- Hammerhead Flatworms (Land Planarians)
- Harlequin Bug
- Hemlock Looper
- Hibiscus Scentless Plant Bug
- Hickory Gall Midges
- Hognose snakes
- Holly Bud Moth
- Holly Looper
- Horse Flies
- House Fly
- House sparrow (English sparrow)
- Hover Flies (Flower Flies, Syrphid Flies)
- Ichneumon wasps
- Imported Cabbageworm
- Introduced Pine Sawfly
- Iris Borer
- Japanese maple leafhopper
- Japanese Maple Scale
- Jumping Worms
- Juniper Geometer
- Katydids
- Keeler grasshopper
- Kiowa grasshopper
- Klamathweed beetles
- Knapweed flower weevils
- Lace Bugs
- Lecanium Scale
- Lesser clover leaf weevil
- Lone Star Tick
- Long-horned bees
- Longlegged Flies
- Magnolia Scale
- Mantidflies
- Maple bladdergall mite
- Mayflies
- Melonworm
- Mildew-Eating Lady Beetles
- Mile-a-minute weevil
- Minute Pirate Bugs
- Moles
- Mulberry whitefly
- Muscovy Duck
- Musk thistle crown weevil
- Muskrat
- Mydas Flies
- Nessus Sphinx
- North American Racer
- Norway Rat
- Oak Gall Wasps
- Oak Leafshredder
- Oak Shothole Leafminer
- Obliquebanded Leafroller
- Oblong-Winged Katydid
- Oleander Aphid
- Orange Wing
- Orb Weaver Spiders (yellow garden spider)
- Oriental Beetle
- Outdoor centipedes (stone, soil and bark centipedes)
- Owlflies
- Painted Lady
- Pale-winged Gray
- Palestriped flea beetle
- Parenthesis lady beetle
- Pawpaw Sphinx
- Peach Bark Beetle
- Peachtree Borer
- Pecan Weevil
- Pennsylvania dingy ground beetle
- Pepper Maggot
- Pigeon (feral rock pigeon)
- Pine Bark Adelgid
- Pine Sawflies
- Pine Sawyers
- Pink Spotted Lady Beetle
- Poplar and Willow Borer
- Porcupine (North American porcupine)
- Potato flea beetle
- Potter Wasps
- Praying Mantids
- Predaceous diving beetles
- Pseudoscorpions
- Question Mark
- Rabbits (cottontails; eastern cottontail shown)
- Raccoon
- Raspberry Crown Borer
- Rattlesnakes (western diamondback shown)
- Red Admiral
- Red Wasp
- Red-Banded Hairstreak
- Red-Legged Grasshopper
- Redbanded Leafhopper
- Redheaded Ash Borer
- Rhododendron Borer
- Rice stink bug
- River otter (North American river otter)
- Robber Flies
- Rose Slugs (Rose Sawflies)
- Rough Stink Bugs
- Rove Beetles
- Rusty-patched bumble bee
- Saltmarsh Caterpillar
- Sap Beetles (Picnic Beetles)
- Scoliid wasps
- Sevenspotted Lady Beetle
- Shrews (northern short-tailed shrew)
- Small Milkweed Bug
- Small-eyed click beetle
- Smoky-winged beetle bandit
- Southern Black Widow
- Soybean Looper
- Spined Soldier Bug
- Spiny Elm Caterpillar (Mourning Cloak)
- Spotted Cucumber Beetle
- Springtail
- Squash Bees
- Squash Bug
- Squash Vine Borer
- Strawberry Leafroller
- Strawberry Root Weevil
- Strawberry sap beetle
- Striped Lynx Spider
- Striped skunk
- Sumac Leaftier Moth
- Sunflower Maggot
- Tachinid Flies
- Tarnished Plant Bug
- Tawny Emperor
- Thief Ant
- Thread-waisted sand wasps
- Threelined Potato Beetle
- Tree squirrels (eastern gray and fox squirrels)
- Twig Girdler
- Twig Pruner
- Twobanded Japanese Weevil
- Twostriped Grasshopper
- Uglynest caterpillar
- Varied Carpet Beetle
- Variegated Cutworm
- Variegated Fritillary
- Variegated Leafroller
- Velvet Ants (eastern velvet ant, "cow killer")
- Velvet Mites
- Velvet-striped grasshopper
- Velvetbean Caterpillar
- Viburnum borers
- Viceroy
- Virginia opossum
- Voles (meadow mice)
- Vultures (black vulture shown; turkey vulture also covered)
- Water boatmen
- Water scorpions
- Water striders
- Wax Moths
- Weasels (long-tailed weasel and relatives)
- Western Conifer Seed Bug
- Western Raspberry Fruitworm
- Wharf Borer
- Wheat Head Armyworm
- Wheel Bug
- White Flannel Moth
- White Peach Scale
- White Pine Aphid
- Winter Ant
- Winter grain mite
- Woodlouse Spider
- Woolly Apple Aphid
- Woolly Beech Aphid
- Yellow Sac Spider
- Zebra Jumping Spider
Range named by extension sources (1)
Invasive species reported here
Pests local experts flag
Common ticks in West Virginia include the American dog tick, blacklegged (deer) tick, and lone star tick.[4]
Public agencies that handle pests
Lyme disease is the most common tickborne disease reported in West Virginia; the state Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services tracks tickborne disease and tick surveillance.[5]
Hiring a licensed company
West Virginia's pesticide regulatory agency is the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (Regulatory & Environmental Affairs Division).[1]
Free local help
WVU Extension's Plant Diagnostic Clinic helps identify and solve plant stress, injury, and disease problems.[6]
Local guides in West Virginia
Through the year
Sources
- National Pesticide Information Center, “State Pesticide Regulatory Agencies.” npic.orst.edu/reg/state_agencies.html (accessed 2026-10-06)
- West Virginia Department of Agriculture, “Spotted Lanternfly.” agriculture.wv.gov/spotted-lanternfly/ (accessed 2026-10-06)
- West Virginia University Extension, “Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs.” extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/pests/brown-marmorated-stink-bug (accessed 2026-10-06)
- West Virginia University Extension, “Ticks.” extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/pests/tick (accessed 2026-10-06)
- West Virginia Office of Epidemiology and Prevention Services, “Tickborne Diseases.” oeps.wv.gov/tickborne-diseases (accessed 2026-10-06)
- West Virginia University Extension, “Plant Disease.” extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/plant-disease (accessed 2026-10-06)