BUGSPOTTER
Know what's crawling — household bug & insect identification.
From sizing up a bug and telling a spider from an insect to classifying a find, scoring your home’s infestation risk, planning monitor traps, and checking the season, BugSpotter pairs free hands-on identification tools with practical prevention guides and a richly illustrated museum. Identify first, then decide what — if anything — to do about it.
Bug ID Tools & Calculators
Free tools for identifying and preventing household bugs — bug size estimator, spider vs insect ID key, benign vs nuisance classifier, infestation risk checklist, trap spacing calculator, and seasonal pest calendar.
Bug Size Estimator
Enter a body length and get its size band — Tiny to Very Large — plus common household bugs typically found in that range
Spider vs Insect ID Key
Count the legs, note wings or antennae, and see whether you're looking at an insect, an arachnid, or a myriapod
Benign vs Nuisance Bug Classifier
Pick a common household bug and see whether it's beneficial, a harmless nuisance, or a genuine property-damage risk
Infestation Risk Checklist
Check off moisture, clutter, and exclusion conditions to get a weighted risk score and prevention steps
Trap Spacing Calculator
Enter a room's dimensions to get a suggested layout for non-chemical sticky monitor traps
Seasonal Pest Calendar
Pick a month and hemisphere to see which household bugs are typically active that time of year
Bug & Spider Museum
Wander an immersive, richly illustrated collection of the bugs sharing your home — spiders and arachnids, beetles and true bugs, the everyday insects you actually run into, and the beneficial bugs quietly working in your favor, each in its own gallery. Every entry, image, and fact is drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Practical guides on telling bugs apart, sealing your home against them, and understanding why they show up when they do — reading to pair with the tools above.
How to Tell a Spider From an Insect: The Simple Leg-Count Test
Leg count is the fastest, most reliable way to sort a household bug into insect or arachnid before you look at anything else — here's exactly how to use it, and the two exceptions worth knowing.
Beneficial Bugs You Should Never Kill: Spiders, Ladybugs, and Ground Beetles
Not every bug in the house is a problem. A handful of common household and garden bugs are quietly working in your favor — here's how to recognize them and why leaving them be usually pays off.
Which Household Bugs Actually Damage Your Home (and Which Just Look Scary)
Boxelder bugs look alarming in numbers but do nothing to your house. Termites look unremarkable but can compromise framing. Here's how to sort real structural risk from bugs that just startle you.
Sealing Your Home Against Bugs: A Room-by-Room Exclusion Guide
Most household bug problems trace back to a handful of entry points and conditions, not bad luck. Here's a practical, room-by-room walk through the gaps and habits worth fixing first.
Why Bugs Show Up in Fall: The Overwintering Behavior Behind Autumn Invasions
Boxelder bugs on a sunny wall, cluster flies in the attic, spiders suddenly everywhere indoors — autumn's bug surge isn't a coincidence. It's a specific survival behavior called overwintering.
Sticky Traps vs Guesswork: How to Monitor for Pests Before You Have a Problem
Most people only start paying attention to household bugs after a problem is already obvious. Non-chemical sticky monitor traps let you catch an issue early, and placement matters more than most people think.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on the anatomy that separates spiders from insects, the language entomologists use, and the exclusion and sanitation habits that keep bugs outside — everything you need to go deeper with confidence.
Visit the Learn hub →