Sources and References Policy

Good insect information is easy to find and easy to garble. This page explains which sources we trust and how we show them to you.

Sources we rely on

University extension services and entomology departments. Land-grant universities publish fact sheets written by entomologists for the public, and they are the backbone of our pest pages.
Federal and state agencies. The EPA for pesticides and their labels, the CDC for disease and public-health questions, the USDA, and state departments of agriculture and structural pest control boards.
Peer-reviewed literature. For classification, behavior and research findings, especially where extension material is out of date.
Natural history museums and scientific societies. For taxonomy, species descriptions and naming.

Sources we avoid

We do not cite pest-control company blogs, product marketing, general-interest content sites, forums or AI-generated pages as evidence. We may mention that a claim circulates widely, but we will not repeat it as fact without support.

How we cite

Articles end with a numbered list of the sources used, linked to the original page. We paraphrase rather than quote and do not reproduce copyrighted text or images. When a source we relied on moves or disappears, we replace it with a current one during our review cycle.

When sources disagree

Size ranges, development times and distributions often differ between sources, partly because they describe different regions and conditions. We give the range or say which source a figure comes from rather than picking one silently.

Suggest a source

If you know a better source for something on this site, especially a current extension publication, please contact us.