Identifying Boxelder Bugs

Boxelder bugs are easily recognizable by their distinctive appearance. These bugs are about ½-inch-long, with a red body marked with black stripes. They’re primarily found in North America and feed on the sap of boxelder trees. However, in the fall, they seek warm shelter for the winter, which often leads them to invade residential homes.

Understanding Boxelder Bug Behavior

Your home offers everything boxelder bugs need for a cozy winter. Here’s why they find it so inviting during the colder months:

• Warmth Seeking: Boxelder bugs instinctively search for warm places to overwinter as temperatures drop in the fall. Your cozy home with its heated walls is a prime target.
• Light Attraction: Boxelder bugs are drawn to light sources. Exterior lights around your house can act as beacons, guiding them toward potential entry points.

Sealing Entry Points to Block Boxelder Bugs

Sealing entry points is the most effective way to prevent boxelder bugs from entering your home. Here’s how to do it:

1. Inspect Thoroughly. Look for cracks or gaps around windows, doors, foundations, and siding. Even a dime-sized opening is big enough for a boxelder bug. 
2. Caulk and Seal. Seal any identified cracks or gaps with quality caulk. This creates a physical barrier that keeps boxelder bugs out. Pay particular attention to areas around pipes, vents, and utility lines. Entry points annually before the fall season or as needed if you notice any gaps or cracks forming.
3. Check Door Sweeps. Ensure your door sweeps make good contact with the floor to create a tight seal. Weather stripping around windows can add an extra layer of protection.
4. Maintain Screens. Inspect your window screens regularly and promptly repair any holes or tears to prevent any accidental entries.

2 Ways to Reduce Boxelder Bug Attractions Around Your Home

Taking measures outside your home can also help reduce boxelder bug attraction. Here are two things you can do, especially in late summer and early fall when boxelder bugs are most likely to seek shelter:

1. Trim Back Trees. Boxelder trees near your house provide food and easy access for boxelder bugs. Trim branches away from your house to create a barrier.
2. Reduce Lights. During fall, minimize the use of exterior lights near entry points at night to reduce the attraction for light-seeking boxelder bugs.

Additional Tips for Boxelder Bug Control

Implementing additional preventive measures can further protect your home, such as:

• Inspections: Periodically inspect your home and surrounding areas for signs of boxelder bug activity. Early detection can help you address issues before they become severe.
• Maintenance: Maintain your yard and garden to reduce potential habitats for boxelder bugs. Remove leaf litter, fallen branches, and other debris regularly.
• Ventilation: Ensure proper ventilation in your home to reduce humidity levels. This makes it less attractive to boxelder bugs and other pests.

When to Call in Pest Control Professionals

While these preventative measures can be effective, sometimes professional help is needed. Here’s when to contact a pest control expert:

• If you’re seeing boxelder bugs in large numbers already inside your home, it might indicate a significant infestation outside. A professional can assess the situation and recommend appropriate actions.
• If you’ve tried these methods for a while and boxelder bugs are still finding their way in, it’s time to call in the experts.

Keep Boxelder Bugs Out for Good with Aptive

Following these boxelder bug prevention tips and remaining vigilant can help keep your home a haven for you—not for these red and black hitchhikers. Regular inspections, proper maintenance, and professional assistance when needed will help manage the situation.

For further assistance, reach out to our professional pest control service. We can assess your situation and suggest a tailored plan to address your concern.

The post How To Get Rid of Boxelder Bugs Entering Your House appeared first on Aptive Pest Control.

The key to stopping these creatures lies in understanding the boxelder bug life cycle and implementing strategic prevention methods. Here’s a breakdown of their development and how to disrupt it to protect your home from boxelder bugs.

Understanding the Boxelder Bug Life Cycle

Boxelder bugs spend most of their lives outdoors. Their life cycle can be broken down into three distinct stages:

1. Eggs: In spring, adult female boxelder bugs lay clusters of tiny red eggs on the undersides of leaves, primarily on boxelder trees.
2. Nymphs: The newly hatched nymphs are wingless and resemble smaller versions of the adults. They go through five growth stages, feeding on the sap of host trees like boxelders, maples, and ash trees. This nymph stage typically lasts throughout the summer.
3. Adults: By late summer or early fall, the nymphs develop wings and become adults. Adult boxelder bugs are about ½-inch long with a distinctive red and black shield-shaped body. As temperatures drop in the fall, adult boxelder bugs seek warm shelters to overwinter, which is when they often end up invading homes.

Breaking the Cycle: How to Disrupt Boxelder Bug Invasions

Understanding the boxelder bug’s life cycle allows us to target specific stages to prevent infestations. Here’s how you can stop boxelder bugs from becoming a problem in your home:

Target the Eggs

During spring, inspect boxelder trees around your property for egg clusters on the undersides of leaves. Carefully scrape off these eggs and dispose of them in a sealed bag to prevent hatching.

Trim Back Trees

Boxelder trees near your home can provide food and easy access for these pests. Trim back the branches at least once a year, preferably in late summer, to create a barrier that discourages boxelder bugs from reaching your home.

Seal Up Your Home

Fall is when adult boxelder bugs become most problematic. Seal any cracks or gaps around windows, doors, and foundations using caulk or weather stripping to prevent them from entering your home. Pay particular attention to areas around pipes, vents, and utility lines.

Additional Tips for Preventing Boxelder Bugs

Implementing these additional preventive measures can further protect your home:

• Regular inspections: Conduct monthly inspections of your home and surrounding areas for signs of boxelder bug activity. Early detection can help you address issues before they become severe.
• Proper maintenance: Maintain your yard and garden regularly to reduce potential habitats for boxelder bugs. Remove leaf litter, fallen branches, and other debris every week.
• Ventilation: Ensure proper ventilation throughout the year to lower humidity levels in your home. This makes your home less attractive, not just to boxelder bugs but to other pests as well. Regularly check and maintain ventilation systems to keep moisture levels under control.

When to Call in the Experts

Professional pest control might be your best option if a boxelder bug infestation has already taken hold. Experts can assess the severity of the problem, target specific areas, and offer targeted Boxelder Bug treatment and control to manage current and future invasions. Reach out to us for more information on how we can help.

Stop Boxelder Bugs in Their Tracks with Aptive

Don’t let boxelder bugs make your home their winter retreat. Understanding their life cycle and applying these preventive measures can keep them at bay. For a lasting solution, rely on Aptive’s expertise to build a treatment plan and ensure your home stays clear of these unwelcome guests this fall season.

The post Understanding the Life Cycle of Boxelder Bugs and How to Break It appeared first on Aptive Pest Control.

But then you walk outside one day to find a whole horde of them camped out on the side of your house, fighting with each other to get inside where it’s warm and sheltered. And just like that – boxelder bugs are a big deal. Even though they aren’t dangerous, no one wants to deal with a crowd of bugs like that. It’s not like you invited them to come over, after all. 

Your local St. Louis pest control companies can help you a lot when you have boxelder bug problems, but there are some things you can do to prevent and get rid of boxelder bugs too. Here are some simple tips to get you started:

Try Preventing Boxelder Bugs First

The best thing you can do as a homeowner is to prevent pests from coming inside in the first place. Of course, sometimes all the prevention in the world still doesn’t stop certain pests, but most of the time your prevention efforts will do a lot to protect your home.

There are simple things you can do to keep boxelder bugs out of your home. The most important thing to do is seal up any and all cracks in your home that a boxelder bug could fit through. Because boxelder bugs are small and flat, they can fit through smaller cracks than you might expect. So if there are cracks that you aren’t sure are a problem or not, it’s best to just go ahead and seal them off. 

The next best thing you can do is hire St. Louis pest control to give your home a preventative pest treatment. That treatment can make a big difference in the number of pests that come into your home, and that includes boxelder bugs. The treatment will often kill the boxelder bugs before they ever have the chance to come inside. 

How to Get Rid of Boxelder Bugs in St. Louis

Sometimes, even when you’ve tried preventing boxelder bugs, you still run into problems. Maybe you missed a crack in your home, maybe your pest treatment is wearing off, or maybe there’s just something in your yard or house that’s really attractive to boxelder bugs. Whatever the reason, when they do show up in big groups, it’s time to get rid of them. Here’s how you can do that:

1. Pull Out the Vacuum

It’s amazing how a vacuum can become your best friend when pests are around. You can use your vacuum to get rid of random boxelder bugs or crowds of them. Use the hose to suck them up, then immediately close off the vacuum bag and throw it away. The vacuum cleans up the bugs well, but it doesn’t always kill them, so throwing away the vacuum bag will keep the boxelder bugs from crawling out of the vacuum and into your home. 

Be careful when you go to vacuum up the boxelder bugs that you don’t startle them too much or they might start flying around before you can vacuum them up. If they scatter like this, they will eventually regroup and find a place to gather again.  

2. Keep Boxelder Bugs from Gathering

If you see boxelder bugs gathering in your yard or home, do your best to break up the gathering. If you’re outside, you can simply spray them with water. It won’t kill them, but it will break up their party. Vacuuming, of course, is a good option inside.

After you break up their gathering, wash the area to get rid of any pheromones the boxelder bugs left behind. They leave these pheromones to help other boxelder bugs find good gathering places, so getting rid of the pheromones will help prevent more boxelder bugs from showing up right away. 

Breaking up boxelder bug gatherings is important because they gather like that when they’re getting ready for winter. The groups will move into a home or other structure to hide out for the winter and then reemerge in the spring. But if you get rid of these groups, the bugs will struggle to gather in time or they will find somewhere other than your home to hide in. 

3. Mix Water and Dish Soap

If you want a safe way to kill boxelder bugs, look no further than your kitchen. When killing boxelder bugs, you should not squish them. If you squish them, they give off a gross smell that attracts bugs to your home that could cause damage to your furniture, carpets, etc. Plus, boxelder bugs often leave behind a red stain if squished. 

Instead, you can mix water and dish soap together and spray the boxelder bugs with it. This can kill individual bugs. It can be used on groups of boxelder bugs as well, but it may not kill all of them. However, it will kill some of the bugs, so it can still be worth using. But it won’t be as effective at getting rid of them as St. Louis pest control would be. 

4. Assess Your Yard

Boxelder bugs get their name because they like female boxelder trees. Mostly, they like to eat the seeds from the trees. The problem is, if you have a female boxelder tree in your yard, it will attract more boxelder bugs to your yard. And if the tree is near your home, it could lead the boxelder bugs straight to your home. You can replace these trees to discourage the bugs, or even just trim them back so they aren’t as close to your home. 

5. Call St. Louis Pest Control

When you get large numbers of boxelder bugs in or around your home, it becomes a lot harder to get rid of the bugs. And there’s a good chance it means that your preventative pest treatment isn’t up to date. You’ll want to reach out to St. Louis pest control to help you get rid of the masses of boxelder bugs and update your preventative pest control. Very soon, with their help, your home won’t be hosting hundreds of uninvited guests.

The post How to Help Get Rid of Boxelder Bugs in Your St. Louis Home appeared first on Aptive Pest Control.