Box Elder Bugs

[Spaceman]

We always have a huge family of box elder bugs (http://www.insects.org/entophiles/hemiptera/hemi_001.html) on the side of our house who like to sun bathe.

Does anyone have or know of a humane, or non-chemical way of getting rid of them?

[Lacykitten]

Oo, pretty at least. ;) And not dangerous to hyoomans - which is always a good thing.

No idea how to humanely remove them though.

[Halfelf]

Uhh....... those are freaky looking! :o

I can be such a wuss sometimes :P

[Lacykitten]

Well, all bugs are freaky looking to me.. but it could be a lot more nasty looking.

Like an earwig.

Those are nasty.

Ew.

[misanthropy]

Those are neat looking! :)

Are they causing damage to the house?

[iamtheqbu]

Aww!! Bugs are cute!! :) Try spraying some stinky stuff, like vinegar, they might not like the smell and may move off somewhere else. I also heard that chalk repels ants, not sure exactly how though. It might work on your bug problem as well (though that may require you coloring your house with chalk :umm: ) I'd let them stay myself, and I'd use them as an interesting conversation starter when I have company! :p

[VeganKen]

I used to find those little guys in my bed when I was a kid. They'll let you hold them and they don't bite so no worries there.

Try spraying the side of the house with a mixture of water/vinegar like iamtheqbu said. Also, don't use dishwashing soap! I'm always reading that a mixture of dishwashing soap and water will keep bugs off plants. In my experience, it only kills the leaves on the plants.

Another idea would be to either remove their source of food or maybe try putting a bird feeder or a bird bath nearby so that the birds can do their thing as predators.

[misanthropy]

Now this bug is totally cool looking!

Metallic Weevil (http://insects.org/entophiles/coleoptera/cole_010.html)

[VeganKen]

What about this one (http://insects.org/entophiles/lepidoptera/lepi_039.html). Can you say, cool tatt?!

[Spaceman]

Normally they wouldn't bug me. I am just worried about if they were to find their way into my house .... especially into my daughter's room.

Supposedly they can make a mess with their droppings. I will try the bird feeder and the vinegar mix.

I have tried to hold a few but they jump. The next day they are out, I will try to get a macro picture with my camera.

Thank you for the tips!

[karabear]

insects are so cool! i love them. i don't understand why so many people want to kill them. :( if they aren't dangerous, why are you concerned about them getting in your daughter's room? when i was little, a swarm of bees came into my room. i kept saying "bee, bee" so my mom came in to see what was going on. hehe, i wasn't scared at all, but my mom sure was!

[Lacykitten]

I don't want to kill insects but I don't like most of them. Dangerous or not I find them really creepy. I'm not sure why. I like really odd things, like most horror movie creatures (tremors 1 and 2 - I LOVE those guys and want one! lmao!) and I even have a scorpion.. but most bugs just severely creep me out for some reason.. Butterflies and moths are okay. Dragonflies are okay. Ladybugs are good. Anything that buzzes freaks me out, and most crawlies are just.. eek.

I don't kill them though. I don't even kill mosquitoes unless I have no choice. I just sorta shoo them away and ask them nicely not to bother me *laugh* as silly as that may sound. ;)

[misanthropy]

This bug thread reminds me of when Toronto had an aphid infestation for a few hours 2 summers ago. I just got home when it happened but I heard that people were swallowing them and breathing them in... ick.

And surprise, surprise, we had TONS of ladybugs after that. I don't know for sure if the city brought them in or what, but come late fall, the downtown (at least close to where I am) looked like a ladybug massacre with dying ladybugs everywhere getting squished... :(

At my last apartment we had a wasp's nest at the side of the house by the backyard. I would sit out there while my dog Shadow romped through the tall grass & weeds. My BF would freak out because I'd be sitting on the stairs with wasps buzzing around me and Shadow would run through grass with wasps flyring around. He always thought we'd get attacked, but the wasps didn't seem to mind our company out in the backyard. :p

Mosquitoes, while they are interesting little creatures, creep me out. Ick.

[penfold]

Ken - awesome idea about the birdfeeder.

Spaceman - nice one! you've turned the board into a bunch of entomologists :cool:! make sure to use greasy seeds and nuts in the bird feeder, maybe a peanut net or sunflower seeds (the all-black type in particular) as opposed to grains, if you want to attract insect eaters.

[Spaceman]

Originally posted by misanthropy

I just got home when it happened but I heard that people were swallowing them and breathing them in... ick.


That's what I am afraid of.

[Spaceman]

Originally posted by penfold

Spaceman - nice one! you've turned the board into a bunch of entomologists :cool:! make sure to use greasy seeds and nuts in the bird feeder, maybe a peanut net or sunflower seeds (the all-black type in particular) as opposed to grains, if you want to attract insect eaters.

Thanks for the tip. I think I am going to go this route. Hopefully it will help. I just can't see spraying the bugs chemically.

[VeganMegan]

http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df9807/df980728.jpg

[Rosemary]

Originally posted by misanthropy
This bug thread reminds me of when Toronto had an aphid infestation for a few hours 2 summers ago. [...]
And surprise, surprise, we had TONS of ladybugs after that.

Those were no ordinary lady bugs.

I remember picking one up. Nicky (who I guess was 2 at the time) and his friend were saying, "No! Don't pick it up! It will bite you!"

I said, "No, no, ladybugs don't bite. ... Ouch!"

Aparently they were some special kind of Japanese ladybug that is more aggressive than the Canadian kind. Also, they were orange instead of red.

[VeganMegan]

We get thousands of those funky ladybugs in our house each year. The cats just love them. They are endless hours of chasing fun for the cats. :o

[misanthropy]

Rosemary, that's what I thought! They didn't nip at me though. But wasn't it horrible to see them all dying and squished in late fall?

Anyhow, y'all should rent the film "Twilight of the Cockroaches". It's 1/2 animated (the people are live action, the bugs are animated). It's a good film. And while it does anthropomorphize the bugs, it gives an interesting perspective.

http://students.haverford.edu/east/east260/projects/twilight.html (read the analysis too)

[karabear]

i saw that movie! it was very odd. i didn't really like how the roaches were walking around like humans and had human heads. did they think it was impossible for us to feel sympathy for cockroaches that didn't look like people? overall it was an interesting concept though...

[misanthropy]

Kara, did you read the analysis on the page I linked? Very interesting concepts.

[herbi]

I don't know about box-elder bugs, but I know ants don't like cinnamon...

[Adams]

Go Bugs! :chef:

[attackferret]

I normally don't kill bugs.. actually, I gained infamy in my public speaking class a few weeks ago for picking up a cicada and carrying it outside instead of squashing it when a girl noticed it and started screaming. However, on Tuesday I got stung a couple of times trying to climb up this weather tower for work. I had to unhook myself from the carabiner about 10 ft up and run back to the hut really quick, because I was swarmed with wasps. My boss went out and found a huge wasp nest on the tower right next to my ascender. I can't say I felt all that terrible (except for the obvious environmental concerns) when he proceeded to empty out pretty much an entire can of wasp and hornet killer on the nest and on a few other nests he found on the tower. When I climbed the tower 5 minutes later, I had no wasp problem. So, I suppose I'm not for the reckless killing of bugs, but if it's me or them...

[thecatspajamas]

We always have a huge family of box elder bugs (http://www.insects.org/entophiles/hemiptera/hemi_001.html) on the side of our house who like to sun bathe.

Does anyone have or know of a humane, or non-chemical way of getting rid of them?
Cut down your box elder! Problem solved!

Jason
(providing smartass answers to ecological questions since 1998)

[fridayiminlove]

I don't like when people kill bugs just because they are there for them to kill but if there is an ant infestation in your refregerator or termites are taking apart your living room or whathaveyou, then of course they should get rid of them.
I mean, if they are purposely doing something detrimental to your health or property then it is just silly to not do anything about it!

When I was little me and my brother would catch crickets and throw them outside. (killing crickets are bad luck!) One time we caught like 5 and all put them in a jar and kept them as "pets". We even gave them bread to eat, and it was awesome watching them eat bread but then we had one or two cannibalistic crickets who would rip off the other's legs and start eating them. We were beyond devastated and that's when we realized that we didn't want to support cannibalistic creatures who ate their friends so we had to let them go. =(

[troub]

Bugs are animals.

Vegans do not purposely kill animals.

I am vegan.

Therefore I do not kill bugs. (as much as I have control over)

[vegematic]

I said, "No, no, ladybugs don't bite. ... Ouch!"



They totally bite.
-vegematic

[Calliope]

I've been good about not killing bugs since I've become vegan. However, my apartment does have a bit of a silver fish problem (those things wig me out!) and the occasional fruit fly (I've been eating lots of bananas) Anyone know of any way to discourage them from hanging out in my house? (Besides taking out the garbage more, in regards to the fruit flies..I'm worried more about the silver fish.)