leptoglossus occidentalis...

harman/kardon

From the Fatherland
Subscriber
The "Western Conifer Seed Bug" leptoglossus occidentalis came in 2009 from Italy to South West Germany. This little rascal is just two feet right of me on the curtain. They are harmless but they get on my nerves. When it gets cold outside they look for a warm place where they can wait for spring. We got a lot of them in our house.

The German name is "Amerikanische Kiefernwanze". The original habitat is the USA.

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The stink bugs I know are a bit shorter in size.

However - the illegal aliens also stink when I touch them in order to remove them.
 
We call those "assassin" bugs ...

... AND I DON'T KNOW WHYYYYYYY!!! ;-}
 
We have delightful things called 'Cluster Flies' (Pollenia rudis) - they collect in lofts to overwinter. I bought 4 insecticidal smoke bombs to get rid of our latest infestation, I used 2 of them at the same time - brilliant results! - massacred hundreds of the little beggars.
 
it is a form of stink bug, especially in smell. whereas true brown marmorated stink bugs have no purpose other than to stink, we have one in pa that looks like that that swarms in indian summer when the lady bugs do - it eats em.
 
Rather those than yellow jackets ...

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Came home from a couple weeks on the road to find a nest of them in the attic had chewed their way thru the wall and were pretty much covering the bedroom. Fortunately, it was cool (late fall) and they were lethargic, and didn't seem to mind getting sucked up into a shop vac ...

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Didn't bother counting them ... let's just leave it as "a lot" . Needless to say, last step was patching the hole, killing the nest, and sealing the eves where they'd been getting in.
 
Nasty lil buggers they are. Most fun I had with them was a couple years back. I'd been thinking about paving the drive and had a concrete guy come out to do an estimate. He got to walking up and down with his little measuring wheel while I gazed on from the porch, and all of a sudden started dancing. Then running. He'd managed to step on a ground nest that I'd been walking by at least a couple times a day to fetch the mail. Those things start stinging, and they'll keep stinging, and bring all their friends along as well. We both hit the porch and I managed to get zapped a few times as well. Few minutes later, he got brave, went out again, and started jumping again, then ran for his truck and left. Never saw him again ...

Few hours later I got brave and hit the nest with my driveway torch. Couple cans of hornet spray, and six foot of blue flame, then a couple ounces of insect dust did the job.
 
When I used to bush hog fields up north when I would reclaim a field (knock down all the 2" or less diameter trees) I would find white faced hornets all the time. they are vindictive and will sting your family after they get you. Plus, they keep CAP cover up at all times so they see the tractor coming...they love the smell of diesel exhaust in the morning...smells like victory
 
Those appear to be related to box elder bugs, which we have here in Chicago

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We had a Box Elder tree in our yard, and one year about 30 of these guys moved in for the winter.
They didn't move much (I'd guess they were hibernating), didn't bother us, and we thought they
were cool looking, so we left them alone. Occasionally I’d have to move one from someplace where it was in harms way; they never bit me or tried.

When Spring came, they all moved out.
 
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The stink bugs I know are a bit shorter in size.

However - the illegal aliens also stink when I touch them in order to remove them.
We get similar bugs in these parts (stink bugs). This year I saw them the most in the beginning of fall, I'm sure many of them hitched a ride into the house when I was bringing in fire wood. Killed quite a few of them but now that it's getting colder out I haven't seen any for a few weeks now. We got our first little bit of snow today so I guess golf season is officially over now too. :(
 
We get the "leaf-footed" bug here in Los Angeles.
The pest destroys my pomegranates .
I'm going to find a vacuum with a long extension and see if I can manually remove them next season.
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We have delightful things called 'Cluster Flies' (Pollenia rudis) - they collect in lofts to overwinter. I bought 4 insecticidal smoke bombs to get rid of our latest infestation, I used 2 of them at the same time - brilliant results! - massacred hundreds of the little beggars.

Just don't do too many of those things at once.

This guy set off 9 of them in an apartment and caused a massive explosion, injuring 4 people and killing the cat.

https://nypost.com/2017/12/07/botched-bug-bomb-causes-explosion-in-apartment-building/
 
We have a similar looking beetle here in NW Arizona that we call the Hualapai Tiger. They are relatively harmless, but they do suck blood, and they can leave welts.
 
Florida has some different varieties of those type of bug. One bit me once and it hurt, but no after effect.
 
We have delightful things called 'Cluster Flies' (Pollenia rudis) - they collect in lofts to overwinter. I bought 4 insecticidal smoke bombs to get rid of our latest infestation, I used 2 of them at the same time - brilliant results! - massacred hundreds of the little beggars.
Always check for noninflammable propellant when purchasing these, otherwise, you may be filling the space with propane plus insecticide.
Do a websearch on the possible undesirable results.
 
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