Boxelder Bugs - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

B-MAN · 10-02-2006, 02:11 PM

The last couple of days my area has been infested with asian beetles and boxelder bugs. They are covering every building in the area trying to get inside, it is so bad that I have to blow them off the front door with a leaf blower just to get inside. Is anyone else suffering with this problem?

maj · 10-02-2006, 02:49 PM

I was just going to bring this up. I thought it was just around here!
I was going to snap some pics of them, but can't stand to be out long enough to take one picture.

We had to quit work today, because of the ALB's. They are swarming the jobsite like a locust plague. The job I'm on now is in the country, surrounded by bean fields. As we all know in the midwest, the damn things are now leaving the beans for hibernation. Every year at this time, when we get warm days like today, I have to either work inside or just quit early. There is absolutely no way we can work outside.

snapper21 · 10-02-2006, 03:08 PM

I'm in the process of getting rid of a box elder tree because of that. I didn't have the swarming problem, but they get into the block foundation and wind up on the floor at some point. Kill all box elder trees and maples and you'll be lucky if they're gone in 3 years. If I turn on the spicket outside they'll come out of the ground and cover the front of my house.

747 · 10-02-2006, 03:12 PM

I personally think it has to do with the free trade agreement with asia. They get on those containers and enter U.S. space.

maj · 10-02-2006, 03:41 PM

The USDA imported them in the 90's to control aphids. There has been speculation that they "accidently" were brought in through containers from Asia, but that is just an excuse from the USDA. The farmers are to blame for the ALB's. Chemicals are expensive and "non-farming" citizens claim the chemicals we use are causing health problems. So the ALB was the "fix" we needed to control aphids.

BUGS are going to rule the planet!!!!!!

IHI · 10-02-2006, 05:21 PM

Our house has been terrible, always has as long as I can remember-even as a kid growing up in this house. Last fall my mom bought some sort of spray from Earl May's and sprayed the south side of our house and within a day's time I was sweeping up piles of the boxelder bugs and the lady bugs/asian bettles also left and the residue this spray left behind was toxic long after she sprayed it since piles continued to show up everyday....I mentioned something to her the other day since our vacuum cleaner has been going strong lataely sucking these fockers up, and the one and only entry to the house that used to stay relatively clear is now swarmed with them.

And to add to that, I noticed the spiders are having a freenzing as well...we've got spiders real bad this fall so that's a sure sign of a cold winter as I've never seen them like this before, but I had to go out this afternoon with a broom and clean the property of the spider webs since it looked like a friggin haunted house

Hated to do it since every web had at least 2 bugs stuck in it, but I hate walking through webs and having them stick to my bald head LOL!!!

For a quick fix to kill the boxelders, put some laundry soap through your low side line of a pressure washer and spray the house....only bad thing is for every 1 you kill 4 more come out of the wood work, and the laudry soap does not have the residual toxic affect like that spray my Ma used last year.

Maj: just wait till the farmers get out full throttle pick'n feilds, we aint seen nuthin yet as you well know!!

maj · 10-02-2006, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IHI

and the laudry soap does not have the residual toxic affect like that spray my Ma used last year.
Maj: just wait till the farmers get out full throttle pick'n feilds, we aint seen nuthin yet as you well know!!

Josh, aren't they harvesting down there yet? I would think they are about done down there by now. They've been full throttle here for two weeks, that's why we're being attacked!

Beens are about 80% complete, with some cornfields out. Goose hunt was a blast this past weekend with the harvested fields out.

I pay $235 a year to have my house professionally sprayed. Takes care of ALB's, spiders, houseflies, and basically any kind of lil' creature! The residual is what you WANT!!! Pest control is coming at 8:30 a.m. to spray the cabin I'm working on. May still have to quit early tomorrow, since 80+ degrees is again in the forcast. This heat sucks this time of year. Can't wait for the 20's myself!!!!

BTW, I live in the country, so the invasion is tens times worse than in town.

**joasis** · 10-02-2006, 07:57 PM

I had a box elder tree a few years back, and the bugs were never a problem til maybe 3 years ago...Stihl to the rescue, and the boxelder beetles left for good...rarely see them now.

B-MAN · 10-02-2006, 08:00 PM

Lucky you!

IHI · 10-02-2006, 08:09 PM

I know ya want the residual effect, just trying to offer some "for now" advise with the laundry detergent. I went and picked up some checks tonight and signed 2 contracts and figured since I was out, I'd swing by Earl Mays and pick up some bug juice. Basically told the gal I wanted the most toxic bug killer know to man and price was no object LOL!! Picked up 2-$20 bottle of something or other, bottles are outside and back hose has a huge hole so rear of my home will have to wait for the dousing till tomorrow, but I did get the north and south side doused reeeeal good. Each bottle is good for 10,000sq ft and I covered 2 sides of my house LMAO!!They were dropping like flies I tell ya and I loved it

Our farmers are slowly starting to get out, we still have all the corn/beans standing tall-yellow as all heck, but still in the feilds, so I assume they're pushig the natural dry time with the price of fuel still up there to manually dry it. Actually 1 fella I had to sign tonight was still in the feild when I got there at 6:30 with no plans on coming in anytime soon.

You country boys got it real bad...tornadic winds ALL THE TIME, bugs out yer azz, and the lovely gravel dust LOL!! My brother in law just bought a small acerage smack in the middle of a corn feild and a bean feild (both of which have'nt been touched yet as of Saturday when I was there) and it gets realllly bad out there come pick'n time so I fully understand your position, but at least his is right off the black top so no dusty vehicles

maj · 10-02-2006, 09:00 PM

No gravel Josh.... county blacktop...... with big woods & creek a few hundred yards away.

Huntin' paradise!!!!

IHI · 10-02-2006, 10:05 PM

aaaahhhh, your making me jealious!!! I suppose you have a nice heated porch with a built in high power perch and a land owner permit too?? sippin coffee/barely pops in the comfort of your home while scavaging for food

Summer time fishing, if you have'nt already, you might have to hook up a trout line to a electric winch, then the next morning, hit the switch and reel in your bounty LOL!!! or if your cheap a donor hand crank boat winch will do the trick too

Got me a squirrel today, was in the bus going down the road behind a gal in a lil car, and the lil guy ran across 2 lanes to the middle paint lines and turned back when the gals car got closer, then he must have decided he could make it....but he was too late and I saw it coming LOL!! second later I saw a few tuffs of fur shoot out the passenger side of the car's under carriage and then the main part of him doing multiple 360* rotations like a break dancer on crack, then a split second later felt the lil thump under my duals LOL!! lil guy never had a chance and will make for some nice crow cuisene.