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Boxelder bugs!

electronjohn

electronjohn

Plug it in & see!!
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Damn things are everywhere. It's been dry & warm for quite a while now...perfect conditions for the disgusting creatures to proliferate.

Dunno if birds even eat them...I know the cats spit 'em out when they pounce on one. My wife LOATHES them...and I'm under strict orders to eliminate as many as possible.

A few weeks ago I was seeing lots of baby boxelders...I gave them plenty of lethal sprays. That helped a little...but they're not very good fliers & get blown into the yard on the slightest breeze. About the only thing that'll help will be a couple of days at 20-25F.

Then I'll have to deal with the ones who snuck into the house.:(

Damn boxelder bugs.
 
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Now is the PERFECT time to go for a relaxing stroll in the woods-Except for the fact its Yellowjacket season. Almost every fallen tree will have a nest of the ill-tempered ornery buggers in it, or more correctly, UNDER it. Some varieties here sting AND bite-they're DOUBLE whammies. It takes a few good frosts to take care of 'em.
 
Just now we have a lot of 'Crane Flies' around (sometimes incorrectly called "Daddy-long-legs")

My Wife and Daughter hate them, I think because of their similarity to spiders except... they fly :yikes: - completely harmless otherwise.
 
They are thick this year in northern Illinois. My poor Great Dane hates them they just freak her out. You Dane owners will know what I mean.

cubdog
 
Apparently they appeared here in SE Michigan today. One wall of our house is covered in 'em. No biggie, they leave soon.
 
yellow jackets

Bad case in Anchorage this year. Knats also, but the jackets do sting and bite at the same time !!! ask my wife. You can set a piece of salmon out and look out. you can actually here them crunching on it. Was told yellow jackets will eat everything people eat.
 
Is your house white? They love the color white. The best spay to kill them is some non antibacterial dish detergent and water in a garden sprayer (one cup detergent in five gallons of water). It will not hurt plants and it also cleans the outside of your home ;)

Take care,

Rob
 
rjag46 said:
Bad case in Anchorage this year. Knats also, but the jackets do sting and bite at the same time !!! ask my wife. You can set a piece of salmon out and look out. you can actually here them crunching on it. Was told yellow jackets will eat everything people eat.
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I HOPE to H3ll you guys in Alaska don't have our OTHER scourge-Kudzu-too...It is a vine that was imported before the War to help control erosion...You CAN'T kill it, & you can almost HEAR the damstuff grow. It swallows EVERYTHING in its path. Cattle apparently can eat it, but you can't bale it-It just gums up the bailers...
 
We have a woolly aphid infestation - millions of them.
Damn things are committing suicide on my barbeque at this very moment.
 
The house I just moved from had a lot of box elder bugs in the area. Sprays would help. A very effective technique is to vacuum them up. Don't crush them as they will stain whatever they hit and will smell bad. Yellow jackets are ornery this time of year. My new neighborhood has a slightly more positive 'infestation,'... squirrels! Lots of oak trees equals lots of squirrels, and they come in brown, grey and black. Had one come right up the front porch when I was drinking my coffee yesterday. It literally was five feet away, and we just checked each other out for twenty seconds or so, until he sauntered off. No running involved. He was a brave little devil! :D
 
Yeah, I have-Just a few, though. Usually I see a BUNCH of the l'il buggers. Not so many this year, for some reason.
 
Seen a few stinkbugs in vacationland to our north (Up North to us locals.) None around here. What surprised me is the Japanese Beetles are practically non-existent this year. Last year, you could practically shovel them at times.
 
Box elder bugs are good for one thing, though: they infect box elder trees with a fungus that makes pretty colors in the wood. Can't get that lumber any other way.

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ebacon said:
Stinkbugs. Hehe. When we were kids in MD we smashed them and then dared each other to smell.
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We now have a new Asian stinkbug that's pesticide resistant, has no natural enemies here, breeds like crazy and will attack and devastate almost any kind of crop.

None here in NM yet but considering how happy their cousins, the squash bugs, are here, it's just a matter of months.
 
Went to an antique store today. There was so much on a window it looked like the scene in the Amityville Horror with all the flies on the window.
 
On and under our front porch is loaded with bugs. I didn't know what they were as I had never seen them before. After seeing this thread and googling Boxelder bugs I learned this is what they are. Even old dogs can learn new tricks.
 
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