Boxelder (Maple) Bugs

Boxelder bugs, sometimes called maple bugs, are relatively large insects, about 1/2” long, dark gray in color with red markings on their backs. The bugs are harmless. What makes them remarkable is their tendency to congregate on certain houses in the fall of the year, often in enormous numbers. It truly seems like an invasion -- especially the first time it happens.

Here's what's going on. Boxelder bugs (see a color image at www.LivingWithBugs.com/boxelder.html) have one generation a year. Eggs are laid in early summer on maple trees (boxelder is a type of maple).Eggs hatch and the young nymphs feed on maple tree leaves during the summer. They do no apparent harm to the trees. The insects reach adulthood in fall and can fly. Adults abandon the trees on which they developed in search of a place to “overwinter”. Many insects overwinter. It is not really a state of hibernation, or diapause, but rather simply an inactive stage brought on by low temperature. Once warmed the insects resume activity. Insects seek protected places in which to overwinter.

Fall migrating boxelder bugs are attracted to large trees with dense, evergreen foliage like cedars. Trees with deeply fissured bark also are selected. Both must appear to be good overwintering sites. A single large tree might attract hundreds, or thousands, of boxelder bugs from the surrounding area. These bugs are strong fliers so may travel miles from the maple tree on which they developed. We now have a large tree with perhaps thousands of overwintering boxelder bugs -- so far so good.


Let's put this tree, full of bugs, near the sunny, southwest side of a house. When the house siding heats up during the day all of a sudden the nice warm house seems like a better place to overwinter than the tree. Presto, the bugs move en mass to the house. Imagine, a thousand, or more (seems like millions!), 1/2” bugs congregating on the outside of your house, around doors, windows and on siding. This actually happens to many people each fall, year after year.

What to do. First realize that these bugs are harmless. They don't bite or sting, won't hurt your house nor will they set up permanent residence. But even people who know all this freak out when confronted with all these bugs. Here are some suggestions. The most important thing is to prevent the bugs from getting indoors. If they do gain entry they will likely be around until spring. Repair window screens, caulk cracks around window and door frames and screen soffit vents.

Next, wash down aggregating masses of bugs with water spray from a garden hose then clean the siding with soapy water from a hose-end sprayer. A weak solution of laundry detergent is fine for this application. There is some evidence that washing the siding helps to discourage other bugs from congregating. Don't use insecticidal sprays. Insecticides don't work well on these semi-dormant insects and can be messy and dangerous. You may need to repeat this procedure every few days until the number of new bugs starts to drop.

On occasion large numbers of bugs will get into the attic or exterior wall voids of a house. Again, these insects cause no real harm but may be a nuisance. They will find a way into the home's interior on warm winter days -- probably the day of your dinner party. In this case it may be necessary to treat the attic and walls with insecticidal dust. Bugs found crawling around indoors should be removed with a vacuum cleaner. Don't reach for the can of insecticide!

You may have concluded that the solution to this invasion problem is to remove the big tree. Sometimes this works but sometimes it does not. Sometimes the big tree is in your neighbor's yard. Good luck!

Bed Bugs Symptoms

Many people these days are unaware of bed bugs symptoms. It is understandable since bed bugs together with some pests have been exterminated during the widespread use of DDT in the United States after World War I.

But because of international travel and immigration, these bugs symptoms are making a comeback. But people don't detect these symptoms until someone complains of excessive itching and has oval-shaped insect bite marks which are often mistaken as mosquitoes or dust mites bites.

When a household experiences a typical bed bugs symptoms, they don't check their mattresses, beddings, and couch upholstery for bed bugs. Member of the household just spray gel-type insect spray to kill cockroaches or mosquitoes. But this kind of insect spray does not kill bed bugs, and therefore, furniture and upholstery remain bed bugs infested.

* Bed bugs - symptoms of infestation

How do I know if my home is infested ?

A heavily infested home would have an offensive, sweet, musty scent. This odor is released by bed bugs' through their scent glands.

Another symptom to look out for is fecal or excrement stains, egg cases, and shed skins of bed bug nymphs in crevices, cracks or holes on the bed or near it. Furniture near the bed should be checked also. Bedroom wallpapers, bed springs and clothings in your dresser, should be examined for these reddish brown excrement stains.

Your living room couch should be checked for these stains, especially if you or any member of your family get bed bugs symptoms such as swollen bites after sitting from your couch. Every place in your house where a person stays more than 30 minutes must be checked for bed bugs.

-- Hiding Places

A thin crack or seams of mattresses are one of the hiding place of bed bugs. Bed bugs wants to live closer to their source of food, which is human blood, so cracks near the bed or around the bedroom and living room are the primary hiding places.

Once you find a bed bug in any parts of your house, the other parts of your house will undoubtedly have it too.

-- Finding Bed Bugs

Inspect your entire house the moment bed bugs symptoms are detected. Dismantle the bed, check the headboard, inspect the seams of of your mattresses. If you found reddish brown excrement and sheddings of insect skin, it means that your house is infested with bed bugs.

If you detected these symptoms, you must tear off your wallpaper too. Chances are that these creatures have created their bigger colony under the wallpaper. Every wood furniture that you own should be inspected too. They may have bed bugs too because bed bugs prefer wood or cloth as their hiding place rather than plastic or metal.

Empty the contents of your nightstands and examine it inside and out. Tip it over to inspect the crevices, cracks, recesses and corners of the woodwork underneath. Since bed bugs love woods, there is a big chance that they are hiding in there.

-- Some bed bugs facts

Bed bugs bites are often mistaken to mosquitoes or dust mites. So how would you know the symptoms? Below are some basic bite facts:

* Bed bugs feed by piercing human skin with its two elongated beaks.

* One of the beak injects saliva that contains anesthetic to reduce pain to pierced skin and an anticoagulant to keep the blood from clotting.

* The other beak sucks the blood.

* Bed bugs are nocturnal insects. They are very active during the night, especially an hour before the dawn breaks.

* Bed bugs are oval-shaped and flat, and they can therefore hide in extremely thin cracks which is the reason why their breeding site are very hard to find.

* An adult bed bug can live eighteen (18) months or longer without feeding and just stay in their hiding or breeding places until a host comes along and satiate their need for blood.

* Bed bugs are often called the hitchhikers because of their ability to travel long distances by riding on suitcases, luggages and clothings.

* Female bed bugs lay 300 eggs.

* After ten (10) days bed bugs nymphs are hatched from eggs.

Garden Pests

Although one is tempted to go on a rampage when seeing pests feast on your plants, try to control the amount of herbicides and pesticides you use. They are toxic and harmful to pests, pets and even people. Considering that pesticides are poisons, homeowners are remarkably careless with them - they use as much as six times the amount of pesticides per acre as farmers do. So read the labels, even the fine print, and follow the directions. More is not better. Remember that a healthy lawn or garden may mean sick people. The immediate effects are headaches, dizziness, eye problems, rashes, and confusion. The lasting effects are damage to liver, kidneys and central nervous systems; cancer; birth defects and skin disease.

IPM (integrated pest management) is a name given to an old idea: the managed use of biological, cultural, and chemical controls of pests for least harm to the environment and long-term results. Biological control means using natural enemies of pests to wipe them out. Cultural control involves use of pest and weed-discouraging methods of gardening like mowing high so weeds can't grow as easily. Chemical control, the last resort, involves the wise use of pesticides.

Before you spray, assess the pest situation in your garden by going out early in the morning to take a pest census. Look both for the pests themselves (remember to check under leaves) and the damage they have done - holes in leaves, dimpled or distorted leaves.

And consider using kinds of controls other than pesticides. The simplest is to pick pests off your plants by hand. Hose off others, like aphids, with water. Soapy water solution will kill sucking insects like aphides. You can also try:

Tiny biological controls:

1. Milky spore bacteria kill Japanese beetle grubs that eat roots and cause them to wilt and die. The bacteria come in pellet or powder form. This method works slowly.
2. Bacillus thuringiensis (BT), a bacterium comes in a powder used as dust or mixed with water for spraying. BTs can kill caterpillars, potato bugs, and mosquito larvae by paralyzing their digestive systems when eaten.
3. Nematodes, worm-like tiny organisms, kill insects that live below the surface - potato beetles, weevils, cutworms, grubs.

Good Bugs: Good bugs will keep 'bad' bugs down. They include ladybugs, green lacewings, syrphid, tachinid flies, and trichogramma wasps. You can attract good bugs by planting the flowers they like - Artemisia, asters, chamomile, cosmos, dahlia, daisies, marigolds, yarrow, zinnias. Good bugs also like herbs such as caraway, cilantro, dill, fennel, parsley, tansy. Plant the herbs close to the vegetables.

Traps: Traps lure and kill insects. The advantage is that poison is contained within the trap so it is harder for pets and children to get at it. A Japanese beetle trap can eliminate 4000 beetles. Traps are available for gypsy moths and larvae, slugs, yellow jackets, whitefly. Some can be emptied and reused.

House Bugs

There are many simple ways that you can employ to get rid of bugs and to you're your home free from bugs. Summer is a time of outdoor fun and enjoyment. To enjoy fully the joys of summer, there are few things you can do to keep bugs from spoiling your fun. The most important thing to do is to look around your house for areas that might harbor bugs and other organisms. Look for places like sediment water, overgrown grass, dirty cans, overgrown tree branches, unraked dry leaves from trees and other places that may ruin your fun.

Look also for things like loose nails, broken pieces of glass, paper and tools that may cause injury. When you have identified these areas, you can make an assessment of those that might need spending to be accomplished. Once supplies are in and you are ready to start, choose a day when your work can be done with little or no disturbance at all. You can begin with areas that will make work faster and easy for you. You can start by cutting the grass short. This will drive away ticks and mosquitoes and other bugs from the lawn.

You can then go on to clean the pond and other similar places wherever water becomes easily contaminated and dirty to keep germs and larvae from growing. Pruning tree branches will keep away bugs and remember to seek expatriate help if unsure. Do not attempt to do work you have never done before, you may hurt yourself especially if it is the first time. It's better to spend and save your self than save money and hurt yourself.

Maintaining dim lights outside during the night helps to keep bugs away from your house. It is also a good idea to turn on an oscillating fun while outside because it can help to blow some of the bugs away. Another good thing to do is to rake the leaves that have sediment in your driveway and also pull out all the weeds that have overgrown in your flowerbeds. Keeping your yard as clean as possible is an important step in getting rid of bugs and in keeping your house free of bugs and the infections that come with these bugs. Most importantly you get to enjoy your outdoors undisturbed.

Bed Bugs

What are bed bugs is a question asked by a lot of people. Bed bugs are small insects that feed on the blood of humans and other warm-blooded animals. There is a misconception that bed bugs can’t be seen by human eyes. However, it is not true. Adult bed bugs are about 5 mm long which is enough for a human to notice them. These crawling night stalkers invade our homes with a speed of light. They pierce the skin and feed by sucking human blood. After feeding, their body is often swollen and red in color. It is difficult to get rid of them and it requires persistence.

One of the ways to get rid of bed bugs is to kill them with the use of insecticides. There are two types of insecticides than can be used: biological and chemical.

Biological insecticides are living organisms that kill bed bugs. These insecticides are safe and easy to use.

Chemical insecticides quickly kill bugs but there are disadvantages to using them. The cost of this insecticide can be high and there is also a danger that some toxic materials remain after use.

If you want to quickly and effectively get rid of bed bugs the best way is to use treatments specifically made for this task. There is a spray that instantly kills bed bugs. The spray is safe and easy to use. To use it you need to apply the light mist to the mattress and the bed frame. Don’t forget to spray the bottom of the mattress, mattress tears and buttons. If the bed bugs appear after using the spray it is necessary to repeat the process for several days.

Summary: Bed bugs are small and dangerous creatures that adversely affect people. Getting rid of them is difficult and requires persistence. If you encounter bed bugs in your bedroom the best way is to use a bed bugs spray to quickly kill them