By Staff
For a long time I and about everyone else in the country have been cursing the Asian beetle invasion, those ladybug look-a-likes that pester us and our homes in swarms. Out here at our new place on the creek, though, we have an even more plentiful house invader, box elder bugs. You surely know the ones I'm talking about, those half inch long black bugs with red stripes on their wings. For the last several months they've been swarming all over the outside of the house. Some clusters are so dense you can't even see the siding underneath. Of course, they're all looking for a way inside to have a nice, warm, dry, cozy place to hibernate for the winter. Despite the house being brand new and well sealed up many are successful. At first I made a mission of rounding up and executing every invader. Eventually, though, it became apparent that I was making a career of that and still not keeping up. Now, as long as not too many show themselves at once, I just sit and cuss at them as they crawl around on the walls, ceilings, drapes and furniture.
Actually, the box elder bug really doesn't do any harm other than leaving a few droppings around. They don't eat wood or otherwise damage the house structure. Nor do they readily bite like Asian beetles do. It's reported they can bite hard enough to pierce human skin but they rarely do. I suppose if enough of them were to die somewhere behind the walls of your house they could stink the place up for a while.
The box elder bug gets its name from its affinity for box elder trees. Not all box elder trees though. There are girl box elder trees and boy box elder trees. The bugs have a thing for the girl trees. During the winter adult box elder bugs hibernate in dry, protected areas, including in wall voids and attics of our buildings. Come spring they emerge and most flock to female box elder trees. Both the box elder larvae and adults are especially fond of the fruit and seed pods that only appear on the female tree. There the box elder bugs mate and the females lay their eggs in bark crevices and on the undersides of leaves. The bugs may also be found on male box elder trees but seldom en masse like on the female trees. The box elder tree is related to silver maples and sometimes these trees are utilized but, again, not by large numbers of bugs.
In a short two weeks or so the larvae hatch. These have bright red bodies with darker red or brown at the head end. They feed on the leaves, fruit and soft seeds, depending on which is in season, by piercing the tissue and sucking the juices, causing no harm to the tree. The transformation from larvae to adult is a long, gradual process, taking most of the summer here in the northern climes. Both the larvae and adult feed in the same manner. In more southern regions there may be two generations over the summer.
Like Asian beetles, box elder bugs are hard to control. One of the more effective methods is to remove all female box elder trees from the area. The trees can be sprayed with pesticide but that's not real cool because of the far reaching effects of these toxins experts always recommend you seal up cracks, joints and any other entrance areas of the house the bugs can crawl through. That sounds good on paper but not so easily done. In fact, I think the little buggers employ Star Trek technology. "Scotty, it's cold out here, beam us inside." Once box elder bugs make it into the house control gets tougher yet. Pesticides suitable for us amateurs aren't particularly effective. A professional can be called in to hose the joint down if the bugs bother you that much. Otherwise, about all you can do is run around and vacuum them up. Be sure to remove your victims from the vacuum cleaner and dispose of them or they'll just crawl back out. Carpe diem.