Bug identification service
Are you seeing strange bugs at your home or office and don't know what type of bugs they are, or where they are coming from? Is your skin itchy and developing raised welts, rash, or red spots, but you are unsure if all of these are because of an insect/mite? Do you see bugs in your pantry, spices, flour, or other parts of your home? If your answer is yes to any of these, then our identification service is what you need
By purchasing this service, you will be able to submit photos or insect specimens (see mailing instructions below) to us and have them identified by our pest control experts. Based on your photos/specimens, we will provide proper identification and send you the results. IMPORTANT: Before ordering, please read our service agreement details in the description below.
- After purchase, please send (attach) your photos to our email: info at pomerix.com (replace ‘at’ with @). For sending real insect specimens, please see our mailing instructions on the bottom of this page.
- This service is for identifying bugs only. If you need to identify other pests (e.g. rodents, birds, etc.), please find the right product on our shop page and purchase it.
- We will identify the bugs in the photos only to the extent possible. Sometimes, we can identify a bug at the species level. Other times, all we can identify is the bug family or the order it belongs to.
- We will respond to you with an initial answer within 1-3 business days, for digital photos, and 3-7 business days for mailed specimens from the purchase time except during weekends, immediately before, after, and during holidays.
- Our initial answer will either contain the “general id” of the pest, or "More information needed".
- Photo/Specimen quality: Accurate identification of bugs depends on the quality of your photos or your mailed specimens. If your photos have a low quality (e.g., underexposed, overexposed, blurred, or too small, etc.) or your specimens are crushed/rotten/moldy/damaged, we won’t be able to identify your bugs, and you need to send us additional photos or specimens. If you can’t provide additional photos or specimens before the expiration date, your purchase will expire and you would need to repurchase our service. See Purchase expiration time below. Ofcourse, we will do our best to help you and keep you happy.
- Photo/specimen limits: Depending on the purchased package, we will identify up to a specified number of photos/specimens. Extra photos/specimens beyond the package limit will be ignored unless you ask us to examine them and pay appropriate additional fees.
- Photo copyright: Pomerix.com reserves the right to store and reuse your submitted photos anonymously (without photo credits) for educational and marketing purposes unless you specifically ask us not to do so. We will remove any identifiable information from your photos before reusing them.
- Purchase expiration: Your payment is valid for 2 weeks (for digital photo submissions) and 1 month (for mailed specimens) from the date of the purchase. Afterward, your purchase will expire, and you are required to repurchase the service to keep using our identification service.
Specimen submission
We accept specimen submissions from customers. Before purchasing this service and mailing the specimen(s), please read the following section carefully:
- Please do not mail live specimens! All the insects must be dead before shipping. (How? see below)
- Please, do not send us human body fluids or human debris.
- Collect 1 or several preferably undamaged similar specimens.
- Any live insect should be placed in an airtight (e.g. Ziplock) bag and placed in the freezer for a minimum of 24 hours. This ensures that the insect is dead and will not disperse to new places during and after shipping. If the insect specimen is already dead, you don’t need to put it in a freezer.
- After killing the insect using the method discussed above, place the bagged insect in a small card box or padded envelope. Place additional padding materials in the box to prevent specimens from getting crushed or damaged.
- Crushed specimens are much harder to identify. We do not guarantee successful identification of crushed/squashed specimens. If a specimen is already squashed, include all the fragments as they may help with the identification.
- Send the package to the following address: Pomerix Pest Solutions - 6185 Magnolia Ave #201, Riverside, CA 92506
- Please let us know about any new shipment by sending an email to: info at pomerix.com. If you have a tracking number, please share it with us so that we can track your package and pick it up ASAP.
- We will respond to you in the timeline described above when we get your specimen(s).
