Good Growing

As temperatures drop and daylight shortens, many insects begin their annual migration—straight into our homes. In this episode, horticulture educators Chris Enroth and Ken Johnson explore the biology and behavior of three common fall invaders: the brown marmorated stink bug, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, and the boxelder bug.

Learn how these insects respond to seasonal changes, why they choose our homes for overwintering, and how to identify them accurately. The hosts also discuss the ecological impact of invasive species, like the stink bug and Asian lady beetle, and share practical, research-based strategies for keeping these pests out of your living space.

Skip to what you want to know:
00:43 Hey, Ken! It rained, but it is still dry.
03:59 Now is the time of year when certain insects take refuge in our homes.
04:42 Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
14:17 Multi-colored Asian lady beetle
22:30 Boxelder Bug
27:05 Keeping fall-invading insects out of your home.
29:07 Exclusion
32:34 Do insecticides work to keep them out?
34:40 How to handle them when they get inside
38:15 Thank yous and coming up next week

Read More:
Fall House Guests - https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2019-10-01-fall-house-guests
Ladybugs everywhere: Preventing and managing multicolored Asian lady beetles - https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing/2024-11-01-ladybugs-everywhere-preventing-and-managing-multicolored-asian-lady


Pictures:
Gerald J. Lenhard, Louisiana State University, Bugwood.org
Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org
Bill Ree, Texas A&M University, Bugwood.org
William M. Ciesla, Forest Health Management International, Bugwood.org
Susan Ellis, Bugwood.org
Gyorgy Csoka, Hungary Forest Research Institute, Bugwood.org
Rob Routledge, Sault College, Bugwood.org
Kristie Graham, USDA ARS, Bugwood.org
Jack Rabin, Rutgers NJ Agric. Expt. Station, Bugwood.org
Gerald Holmes, Strawberry Center, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Bugwood.org

Contact us! 
Chris Enroth: cenroth@illinois.edu
Ken Johnson: kjohnso@illinois.edu 


Check out the Good Growing Blog: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowing
Subscribe to the weekly Good Growing email: https://go.illinois.edu/goodgrowingsubscribe

Any products or companies mentioned during the podcast are in no way a promotion or endorsement of these products or companies.


Barnyard Bash: freesfx.co.uk 

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Creators and Guests

Host
Chris Enroth
University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator serving Henderson, Knox, McDonough, and Warren Counties
Host
Ken Johnson
University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator serving Calhoun, Cass, Greene, Morgan, and Scott Counties

What is Good Growing?

Talking all things horticulture, ecology, and design.

Chris:

Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris Enroth, horticulture educator with University of Illinois Extension coming at you from Mac Omb, Illinois, and we have got a great show for you today. Oh, I was sleeping the other day and something started crawling on my face and I swatted at it. Got a face full of stinky bugness. So we're gonna be talking about some of those insects that are wanting to be coming to our house, especially those darn stink bugs that are really liking my house this year.

Chris:

But you know I'm not doing this by myself. I am joined as always every single week by horticulture educator Ken Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey, Ken.

Ken:

Hello, Chris. No. I haven't seen too many stink bugs on our house yet, but we're in the middle of town. So don't usually have as many as some people do.

Chris:

Yep. Well, we are on the margin of town. We are actually the county line is in our backyard. So we have woods, we have fields, we have neighbors, we have all kinds of fun things that that might draw in some insects. You should come over and visit, Ken.

Chris:

I think you'd really have a good time.

Ken:

May have to do that. Mhmm.

Chris:

Well, you know hey. Congratulations on the rainfall. Did you get any rain? Is is it is it raining right now in Jacksonville? Or

Ken:

It's not raining right now. It was at 02:30, but it was this morning when I got up and when we went to school. I looked at the weather app. I think we got about half an inch of rain. Although it seems like it was more than that because looking at the fairgrounds here, there's water, standing water in some of the ditches.

Chris:

Mhmm.

Ken:

I'm not sure exactly how much we got, but weather apps is about half an inch.

Chris:

Well, I think maybe we we got about a tenth of an inch according to the old rain gauge, but I I think we got a little bit more than that too in our backyard. So or or maybe it's just been so long. I don't know what it means to have, like, rainfall. Any little bit seems like a lot now. But, yeah, I did water.

Chris:

I went out and I watered part of my lawn for the last few days because we do we have a pin oak and we have this part of our lawn that we use quite a bit even in the winter, and I know that if I don't keep some of this grass alive, it's just gonna become a mud pit, and I wanna get my pin oak some water. It's it's near the house, and while I would never have planted this tree this close to the house, I don't wanna have to cut it down. So I'm gonna keep check keep, I'm gonna take care of this tree. And pin oaks, sometimes they need some water, so I did this for the rain.

Ken:

So last last week on Friday, did quite a bit of watering out of Lukeman in hopes of getting some cover crops in. So all morning, I was dragging around hoses and moving sprinklers and stuff. And then Friday afternoon, we got some pop ups. It's actually homecoming for Jacksonville. They had to cancel the parade because there's thunder in the area and stuff.

Ken:

And the it's it was Jacksonville's third celebrating Jacksonville's Two Hundredth Anniversary. So they had the Budweiser Clydesdales in town. We went to go see them. They we didn't get them out of the trailer because it was raining and stuff. After we left, the rain finally cleared up and they got him out.

Ken:

But yeah, it was it was a bit of a bummer, but Saturday was a big celebration. You know, that was that was nice weather for that.

Chris:

Well, that's good.

Ken:

Yes.

Chris:

I I guess well, just to remind your folks, I guess rain can be a little bit of a bummer, kinda ruin your event, but I'm I'm celebrating it right now. So happy to have it.

Ken:

Yeah. I would definitely take the rain over seeing the Gladsnails walking around personally. And maybe in the minority there, but

Chris:

Hey. It helps the water bill. Well, Ken, now is the time of year where I think the saying that you have popularized, I've not heard anyone say this but you, if you're cold, they're cold. Things are starting to come inside right now. Crops are coming out of the field.

Chris:

Trees are starting to shed their leaves. It's finally gotten some we've gotten some rain, and it's cooled off a little bit. And I'm seeing brown marmorated stink bug, seeing lady beetles, I'm seeing all kinds of little critters. I wanna get into my house. So I think what we're gonna do, we're gonna go through kind of the the big three.

Chris:

There's three main ones that we typically get. There are some others, though, that we would see. But I would say my main one, which could we, like, just sort of have a vote and call this the new bird of Illinois, the brown marmorated stink bug? My house is covered in them. They they want to be with me.

Chris:

They there's something about me that they really like, I'm assuming. So they're everywhere. They're all over my house to trying to get in. So brown marmorated stink bug. You said, Ken, you haven't seen many of them.

Ken:

Yeah. At least not congregating on our house. Yeah. We've we've seen occasionally in in the vegetable garden and stuff, you know, they get on tomatoes. So they're you know, brown marmorated stink bug is kind of one of those, you know, double whammy.

Ken:

They're agronomic or or plant pests. So, you know, a lot of our tree fruit, they can cause issues on that. They have those piercing, sucking mouthpart, they'll stick that in that. Whatever they're feeding, suck the contents out so you can get some, you know, spotting, some dead spots on plants, on fruit, you know, whether it's apples, peaches, tomatoes, things like that. So they can be issues there.

Ken:

And then I think most people are probably more familiar with their or kind of the nuisance where they're coming indoors looking for somewhere to overwinter. And so these are brown marmorated brown mermaid stink bug. These are an invasive species. They're native to Asia. First found in The US late nineties, something like '98 or something like that in Pennsylvania.

Ken:

And they've pretty much spread across majority of The United States at this point. It's 45, 46 states, something like that. I think in 2020 was the last numbers I saw, so it could be more than that, more than that now. But there when are so with a lot of these insects, as the day has started getting shorter, the night's getting longer. I'm not sure which one's actually triggering it.

Ken:

But as as we're getting more as days are getting shorter, that kind of triggers a lot of these insects to start looking for somewhere to overwinter so they can go into a dipause, basically kind of suspended animation where everything kind of really slows down and they wait out the winter. So in in kind of more northern climates and in Illinois, it's usually day length because they're generally doing this during the winter. So brown marmorated stink bug, that's what they're doing this time of year. Days are getting shorter. Temperatures are cooling off.

Ken:

That's driving them to find somewhere to overwinter. A lot of times it's our houses so they're in out of the way areas where It's gonna kinda keep them consistently cool. They're not gonna be they really want somewhere where they're gonna have these wide temperature fluctuations. So maybe under leaf litter, tree bark, or homes trying to get underneath the siding, wind up in your attic, things like that. There is one paper, so I can find it here.

Ken:

I'm doing some reading before this. There was a guy in Virginia, Maryland out in Maryland, Was just collecting all the brown marmorated stink bugs from his house from it was a hundred and eighty one day period from, like, January to January 1 to 06/30/2011, collected 26,000 brown marmorated stink bugs from his house. And what did they say? 13,000, about 50% of them, were found in in the attic and 40%, about 10,500 or so, or in the Second First And Second Floors, kind of the, quote, unquote, living area. There's I believe it.

Ken:

There could be you know, I'd when I saw that I was I was shocked that there was that many because, you know, you've seen pictures of them, it doesn't seem like there's 20,000 of them on there. But there can be a lot of them, potentially. That's probably a little bit of an extreme case, but

Chris:

I remember the pictures from Pennsylvania, though. They they had them, like, sweeping them out of their house. They were it seemed excessive, and I wondered when they get here to Illinois, that sounds like it'd be really bad. And it's never I don't think I ever gotten to necessarily that level here. But I bet you I got got couple thousand that have decided my attic, you know, my garage especially.

Chris:

You know, every spring when we have to start baseball again, we have to pull all of the stink bugs out of the baseball mitts because they're just jam packed in there. I think I might have scarred one of my children when they stuck their hand in there, and they just just just stink bugs all over the place. So so yeah, they there's a lot of them in Pennsylvania. They've made their way here. I definitely have noticed more damage on my tomatoes at this time of year now that they're around.

Chris:

They get these little soft spots on them, and you can see the little pinpricks where they've stabbed their piercing sucking mouthpart in them, and it's just these little soft spots. For the big tomatoes, can just cut that out. Most of the fruit is fine, but I definitely yeah. Seen some of that damage. They really like to tuck themselves in somewhere.

Chris:

We were able to like I have the screen door maybe it was sort of just sort of slightly open or slightly shut where they could get between the screen door and the glass of the glass door and they just all sort of like just that's where they started going. I think because you know they could get somewhere sort of tight where they could sort of hunker down And there's that. There's the the the patio umbrella when that's closed. Right now this time of year and I open it, it's just rain stink bugs. So I I would say they definitely are able to get into my attic.

Chris:

We don't have the most secure of of of attic space, and then from there they come in down through the light light fixtures into the living space of the house. So some of our older windows also, they're able to get through those. I can definitely tell which windows need to be replaced in my house because they typically have the more most stink bugs around them. So so yeah, I guess, Ken, some of the ways to to differentiate because stink bug, it's a broad term. We are specifically talking about brown marmorated stink bug.

Chris:

I think I've been looking at these guys so much so frequently, I just know what they look like. They have the white banding on their antennae. They don't have the pointed shoulders like certain stink bugs do. They're more rounded. And that modeled camouflage appearance of their of their body, they this allows them to blend in pretty well out in the natural setting.

Chris:

And then of course they have the white tan brown triangular pet and all along the the back edge of their body. They're they they can't be mistaken, I think, for a lot of other stink bugs out there, though. Some do look pretty closely similar.

Ken:

Yeah. We do have some native stink bugs. We've got a native, you know, brown stink bug that looks fairly similar, but doesn't have the banding on the antenna and that pattern on the abdomen that we have native green stink stink bugs that are green. So but those usually are not coming indoors. Those are typically more, you know, in your leaf litter, hunter tree bark and stuff.

Ken:

It's yeah. The brown marmorated are the ones coming to our house. It's not that we really want the other sting bugs feeding on our crops, but they don't those populations don't really seem to get as as high as brown marmorated. Because brown marmorated is introduced, it's been kind of released from its natural enemies, so to speak. There another is at least one parasitoid wasp, the samurai wasp, that was actually imported into The US.

Ken:

They were testing to see if it was going to be kinda specific enough that it's not gonna wipe out some of our native species. But they found it, popping up in two different sites in The US, completely distinct, you know, groups. So they were not related. So somehow they made it here on their own. So now those are are kinda spreading and they're behind think they're being released in the areas where they found them, maybe not necessarily areas where they haven't been found yet.

Ken:

But the kind of hope is that those will spread and help keep those help suppress some of that brown marmorated stink bug population because I think they're fairly effective in there. I remember at their egg parasitoids, they're laying the wasp was laying its egg and the brown marmorated stink bug eggs. Then those wasps are then eating those.

Chris:

I don't Ken, for some reason, I sort of blanked out and I just pictured a cartoon wasp with samurai clothes on. We're gonna have to do a deep dive on this particular wasp, maybe on a future show. Samurai wasp, I love the sound of that. So future show possibility.

Ken:

Yo. That's that's about the extent of my knowledge right there.

Chris:

Mhmm. Well well, there's more than just brown marmorated stink bug and and we are going to get into more tips, tricks for keeping them out of our homes towards the end of the show. Don't forget, we always put in little tags in our show description that gives you a timestamp of when we talk about what, so just check our show notes if you're you don't wanna hear, the descriptions of these particular insects. Because next, we have one that I think is near and dear to a lot of people, the ladybug. But it's not just the ladybug, is it, Ken?

Chris:

It is a particular type of ladybug or lady beetle. How I guess, what do you call it?

Ken:

Both. Both. Both. Yeah. Should be lady beetle.

Ken:

Mhmm. But so lady beetles is two words because they're true beetles. Ladybug is one word because they're not true bugs.

Chris:

That's right.

Ken:

You're useless random. Use a trivia for today.

Chris:

Yes. I got one. Good. I love it.

Ken:

You're on Jeopardy. Remember who told you?

Chris:

Mhmm.

Ken:

So this one is the the multicolored Asian lady beetle. Recently, I've heard a lot of people referring to them as Japanese beetles Yes. Which always throws me for a loop because it this time of year, they're talking about Japanese beetles out and about. I'm like, no. They've been gone for a while.

Ken:

But it's so multi colored Asian lady beetle, Asian lady beetle, sometimes Japanese beetle. It's got it's got a lot of different common names.

Chris:

Mhmm.

Ken:

That's one of the issues with common names, but Yep. Harmonia aceritis.

Chris:

There you go. We actually, I was doing a class just this morning and someone asked what do they do about Asian beetles? And I went into multicolored Asian beetle. And they said, no. Japanese beetle.

Chris:

Or, like like, we've determined it was Japanese beetle on tree on tree. So, yes, common names can be tough.

Ken:

So so this one, this is another, like, as the name implies, not native to North America. So, again, native to Asia. This is actually one that was back in the day, back in the nineteen teens, was actually attempted to be introduced. So first attempt was in 1916 in California in hopes of using as a biocontrol agent for aphids in pecan trees because this is more of a a lot of times it was more in trees in a lot of cases. And multiple different times, throughout the decades, into the sixties and eighties, releases trying to get them established, but they never did, for whatever reason.

Ken:

But then for some reason, in 1988, in Louisiana, there's a population that got established. There's some debate as to whether or not that was a an intentional release or accidental introduction from, you know, a cargo shipper or something like that. Regardless, 1988 was when I first got established in The US, and now they have, again, rapidly spread across The US, Canada. I don't know if they're in all all Lower 48, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were. Anyway, these, you know, these are the ones so these are they're bigger than the number of native most of our native lady beetle species, about a quarter inch long.

Ken:

And again, the combination, multicolored. There's a lot of different variety. And then we can throw a picture up, of what they look like. They can be kinda orangish yellow to orange to red, to black, and they can have no spots, they can have up to 19 spots, the spots can be red. So if it's a black body, can have red spots or orange spots.

Ken:

If it's the red or orange coloration, they're black spots. So there's a lot of variability within these insects, which a lot of insects we don't necessarily see a lot of variability. It's kind of, you know, this is what they look like. There's not a lot of variability. One way, a lot of time, for most of them, they kind of have an M type pattern on the the pronotum or part of the thorax, but there are some of the color morphs that don't have that.

Ken:

But if you've got a larger lady beetle that does not smell good, more than likely it's gonna be a a multicolored Asian lady beetle. And kind of the the same idea with them, you know, as temperatures start cooling daylight, days start getting shorter. Again, they're looking for somewhere to overwinter. So, you know, there are again, a lot of times in their in their native range, lot of times they're more in, like, cliff faces, rock faces, stuff like that. And majority of Illinois, we do not have that.

Ken:

So next best thing is your home. So they're kind of attracted to things that kind of stand out, on the horizon. So a lot of times if you're kinda cocoed out in the country and you're the the lone building for out there, the isolated object with high color contrast is gonna be very attractive to them. Usually the south and west exposure, same thing with brown marmorated stink bug is where they usually start congregating because it's warmer. And again, they're trying to find somewhere kind of protected to overwinter so they can enter dipause and kind of ride out the winter.

Chris:

The other thing that I'm often asked about multicolored Asian lady beetle is because they're an invasive lady beetle, we have our native species. Is there any conflict there, Ken?

Ken:

Yeah. So they're feeding on the same things, aphids, mites, soft bite insects, things like that. And they they can be quite voracious. What was it? They can eat three, four hundred aphids during their development.

Ken:

So they're eating a lot of food. So there there's a kind of potential that they are pushing out our native species. There's some research out there that kind of shows maybe our native populations were already in decline before they showed up. But they are certainly not helping matters at all. I would say that there's probably a good chance.

Ken:

They're definitely competing with our native species for those food resources. And there's probably the potential yet that they can now compete and maybe push out some of our native lady beetle species.

Chris:

And are these the ones that we would get if we would order them online, multicolored Asian lady beetles, that's what the companies would send us?

Ken:

I think a lot of times those are the convergent lady beetle that you're necessarily these were the those are you kind of collected from the wild Mhmm. And stuff and then shipped. Like, we're not completely unrelated, like, when you get buying praying mantids, usually that's Chinese praying mantid is the eggs they're sending you of that, not the native species. The

Chris:

other thing that I'm well versed in, so growing up, we had a home that was very often you know, we had a lot of times paper wasps would would find their way in our house. But then lady beetles, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, we have a lot of that. I do know that the wasps would sting and the lady beetles would bite. And it's not really the lady beetle bites nothing I would say hurts all too much, but it's like, you know, I remember them being on, like, the back of my neck one time, like, ah, what's that? And you, like, grab it and you pull off a lady be like, well, that kinda hurt.

Chris:

But it never necessarily left a welt for me personally, but they they do bite, and they do have a a pretty bad odor, I would say. So, yeah, that's just some other identifying characteristics for folks. They'll bite you and they stink.

Ken:

Yeah. And I think with you know, for for some people, can cause allergies. I think brown marmorated stink bug is the same thing. So there are people that are sensitive to them as well.

Chris:

Okay. But unlike brown marmorated stink bug, we at least do have the positive benefit of them. They're they're they're predators for a lot of our soft bodied insects, namely like aphids on several crops that that we use.

Ken:

Yeah. So you hear about them a lot in like soybeans, like soybean aphid and stuff. And they are, they do go into trees a lot and stuff too. So if you live in a forested area, that's a good chance of why you have, would have so many of them there because they like trees as well.

Chris:

And I guess we have one more insect that we would like to present before we get to some of the things that we can do to keep them out of our house. The box elder bug, which this is an insect I've known about for a long time. I've heard about it. I've I think I've seen it probably even as a young child, but I haven't really seen many of them lately until just the other day. I came across actual box elder tree.

Chris:

The box elder is a species of maple, and the the box elder bug was crawling all over this tree. There was just hundreds, maybe thousands of them crawling all over this tree onto a fence post, which then led into an old barn where I'm guessing they were gonna be spending the winter. So it seems like there's a specific relationship between the box elder bug, which looks seems to be I think it's like what a soft bodied beetle, and then or is it a bug? True bug.

Ken:

It's a true bug.

Chris:

It's a true bug. Okay. So it's long, slender, and it kinda has these orange and red black to black markings. Sort of reminds me of a milkweed bug. They have very similar characteristics in terms of their their shape and their coloration.

Chris:

But, yeah, there's they there's a relationship between those two. Right? The box elder bugs only go after box elder trees. Is that correct?

Ken:

More or less. Yeah. So the box elder and some maples. I've I've read ash as well, which probably isn't a food source for a lot

Chris:

of them anymore. Not many. Nope.

Ken:

So yeah, but with box elder, they kind of have the three red lines on the thorax. That's how you differentiate them between like your your milkweed bugs, kissing bugs, get sometimes confused with as well. These are true bugs. Again, they have that piercing sucking mouth part. And like I said, box elder, maples, they're feeding on the seeds.

Ken:

That's kind of their primary food source. So I don't know about you, but the maple trees that I have my in my backyard produce far more seeds than I want. And those seedlings pop up everywhere. So I would not be upset at all if I had a large population of black silver bugs on my maple trees.

Chris:

I'll I'll send them your way. I wonder if if the reason why we don't see them as much anymore, box elder, the tree used to be more frequently planted, I think, in home landscapes than it is today. I I almost don't see it at all in nurseries anymore, but I think they used to be far more common. I wonder if just because there's just fewer box elder trees out there, do we have fewer box elder bugs?

Ken:

There's there's a box elder one that has separate male and female.

Chris:

I bet Google knows.

Ken:

Yes, it's dioecious with male and female flowers on separate trees. So if you don't have a female box elder tree, you're not going to, like I say, you're not going to have, you're probably not going have box elder bugs because you don't have their food source, the seeds. So that could be one reason why You could have boxelder, but if it's a male. And I think a lot of places, mean, a lot of people, you know, if you have the separate male and female trees, a lot of people are going for the males, so you don't have seed production. That's true.

Ken:

Is one reason

Chris:

why Which

Ken:

is one reason why the steer eyes people have more allergies nowadays because you have more male trees putting more pollen into the environment. They're the one pollinated plants.

Chris:

That's true. I think across all species, the landscape industry has been selecting male trees in that that dioecious category. They've been going for the male ones over the female because fruit is messy according to some people. I love fruit. Give me a female Ginkgo any day.

Chris:

I'll I'll take it.

Ken:

Slice perfume.

Chris:

It is. Yeah.

Ken:

So but, yeah, I don't think we mentioned, but box seller is a native. Box seller bugs are a native species, so this is not introduced. They've they've been here for as long as we've been here and longer. Mhmm. So they're they're they're supposed to be here.

Ken:

Again, same idea there. You know, they're congregating, they're looking for somewhere to overwinter that maybe end up being on your house. You know, they're looking for out of the way areas to ride out the winter. So if you've got boxelder, maple trees, maybe ash, there's a chance you're going to have them. If you don't have those, more than likely you're not going to have box elder bugs in your landscape.

Ken:

Yeah.

Chris:

Well, Ken, I think it's time we talk about keeping them out. By them, I mean the bugs, unless you want them in your house, which is fine. But insects don't necessarily bother me because we're also getting other things, spiders, you know, centipedes, crickets. So there are other insects coming into our house, and I welcome them with open arms. The rest of my family, not so much.

Chris:

So I guess, Ken, for the sake of peace in my own home, what should I do to keep these insects out? Namely for me, the brown marmorated stink bug because there's probably different strategies here.

Ken:

Yeah. I think it's important to point out that for these things, when they're overwondering, they're not going to reproduce. So if you got 20,000 moving in, you're gonna have 20,000 moving out. Probably less because some are gonna die. But you're not gonna end up with, you know, a 100,000 because they're so they're they're not gonna reproduce.

Ken:

They're not really feeding. They're just, you know, they're more or less hibernating, diapause and hibernating. A little bit different, but they're they're just sitting there riding out the winter. You know, when they get indoors into our living areas, because they don't have anywhere to eat, you know, their metabolism is speeding up. A of times they'll die because they burn through their fat reserves.

Ken:

So really, they really want to stay, you know, in that attic, you know, behind the siding, areas where they're not gonna warm up and gonna break, that dormancy and stuff. So that being said go ahead.

Chris:

No. I yeah. I was just saying the other ones that are active, like some of the spiders, they like going in the basement where there's higher humidity typically. So if you have active moving insects in your house, like downstairs, dehumidifying that space probably would help drying out those insects or at least making it less habitable for them. But not necessarily for the brown marmorated stink bugs that are just looking for a place to chill for a little Sleep.

Ken:

Yes. So with these, you know, ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So again, the biggest thing is going to be excluding them from your home in the first place. So depending on where you're at, it may be too late or go out as soon as you listen to this and do it to prevent more from getting in. So, you know, making sure your windows and doors fit tightly.

Ken:

You don't have cracks around them. Window screens, don't have any holes in there so they can't make their way in through that. You know, cracks, crevices, foundation, pipes, wires going into the house, chimney, your siding, eaves, soffits are in good condition. They don't have holes in them. They're like door sweeps, making sure those are intact.

Ken:

You don't have gaps. Lot of times you see gaps on the edges of the doors, they can get in, through that. So if you're kind of sealing up the house the best you can, which is a lot of times easier said than done. If you live in an area where where you just have a really high, you know, pest pressure, you're probably never going to seal up your house well enough to keep them all out. But you can you can do a good job of keeping probably more out than you already are.

Ken:

You know, go up into the attic and make sure there's no, you know, holes and stuff in the soffit that they can get up into your attic and things like that.

Chris:

Yeah. I I will say we did get new windows at least on the front of the house and a new front door a few years ago, and that has made a ton of difference. Those openings in our homes are just a really good vector for them to get into our house. So we have we have done a lot of sealing of these these different cracks, little crevices that they could be getting into. We've learned that if you're using, like, a foam, expanding foam sealer around a door jam or a window jam, you wanna make sure that it is made for that setting because some of those expanding foams, they can maybe expand a little bit too good.

Chris:

So it usually has to be labeled for, you know, use around doors or windows. Because sometimes if they expand too much, they could maybe bend that jam a little bit or make it so that that that that door jam can't expand and contract with the temperature variations and moisture variations variations that we get here in Illinois. So I would say that was the big thing that's really helped us out. There's one other thing that I have to do, and that is to replace all of the air seals around our old doors because I can see light coming through on some parts. All I have to do is go to the hardware store and buy new weather stripping.

Chris:

That's all I gotta do, and it's been couple years. So it's on me, everyone, but, that's one another easy fix. It's not that difficult.

Ken:

Yeah. I know how that goes. And then doing that stuff, you know, making it preventing those insects from getting it's gonna help with keeping air either warm or cold air, depending on the time of year inside your house as well. So you get some energy efficiency there as well. And and if you're using cock, get one that can kind of, like, is flexible, can expand and contract as well as isn't gonna it isn't real brittle.

Chris:

Mhmm.

Ken:

It ain't gonna break on you when things swell or shrink?

Chris:

Another question I do get quite a bit as these insects are just kind of crawling all over the outside of the house is so it's my wife, she'll say, can't we just spray the our house to to keep them away? So what about perimeter sprays? Because if we would call a pest control company, that's what they would do. They come out. They do a perimeter spray.

Chris:

Is that going to solve our problem, Ken?

Ken:

Solve? Probably not. So you can put down the exterior sprays, but you got to get it on before they move inside. So you're doing that early. Those don't, you know, last forever.

Ken:

And and these things are mobile. So unless you're coating the entire side of your house, which I don't know if the label would allow you to do that. Usually these are just around, you know, the base of buildings, not dousing your siding, with it. So could you? Yeah.

Ken:

Is it gonna help? Maybe a little bit, but

Chris:

Help you feel better maybe.

Ken:

Save your save yourself some money. Now now things like spiders and millipedes and stuff like that are crawling in your house, maybe not necessarily up the siding and stuff, maybe help with that. But again, it is probably gonna be of limited help with some of these real mobile insects that can fly and, you know, get in through your roof.

Chris:

And even if they get, maybe it would be a lethal dose, maybe a sublethal dose. A lot of times they're still gonna maybe make their way into your house, and then they die in your wall cavity in your attic. And now you just have a bunch of dead bugs in your house. So, which can be food for other pests that might also wanna live there.

Ken:

You know, your dermestid beetles moving in.

Chris:

Mhmm. Yes.

Ken:

Yeah. That can then move to your carpeting and and all kinds of other things.

Chris:

Yep. So I I typically don't suggest perimeter sprays, but if that's what people wanna do, sometimes it just helps them feel better about the situation.

Ken:

Yes. Yeah. You can do it. Would I do it? No.

Ken:

And like when they get inside, yeah, you're not using once they get inside, they're don't use insecticides to manage them with when they get inside, you know, that could be, you know, sweeping them up if they're not moving a whole lot. You can use a vacuum cleaner. You probably wanna be careful with that if it's one where, you know, it's sucking through the impeller, you know, blending them into a nice stink bug or a lady beetle or box elder bug smoothie there, and that's not gonna smell very good. Even like a shop vac where, you know, you've got it's not it's being bypassed that that impeller and stuff. As they're getting whipped around there, they're going to release that stink.

Ken:

And you probably don't want to smell it every time you vacuum. So but as I tell people, you know, if you can get a cheap handheld vacuum, that's just going to be your insect vacuum. Another option would be to put like a panty hose over the hose of a vacuum cleaner, rubber band that on there so you're sucking them into that panty hose and you can just tie that off and and get rid of it. But don't don't get them in ideally don't get them into the vacuum cause they're gonna get blended up. That stink's gonna be in the bag and the filters.

Ken:

And every time you use that, you're gonna be smelling that for a while.

Chris:

Yeah. You definitely don't wanna be smashing them, because everything we've just said. Also, the the lady beetle will stain. It they leave behind a kind of like a coloration that will stain surfaces.

Ken:

You know, with the brown marmorated stink bugs, I do believe they are attracted to lights. So if you have issues with them, you know, leave a light on in one room, you can draw them all in there and then collect them that way. Yeah. Potentially.

Chris:

You know, I actually if we have pizza, sometimes I'll leave the empty pizza box slightly open or a jar. They that they are they're attracted to that situation. I once left it we once had a pizza party outside, left the pizza box outside. It was full of stink bugs. You just I just scraped them off into some bucket of soapy water.

Chris:

Done. Like, it was a pretty easy control method. And I think there's some probably DIY traps that people have posted online. I'm sure success with those varies sort of depends. I think probably a lot on the particular insect that you're trying to attract in that trap, but also some of the conditions that you have.

Chris:

What's the temperature? How much sunlight? You know, the color of the particular trap. So I think there's lot more things maybe we we might know. I don't know about them.

Chris:

Or maybe you know about them, Ken, but there's probably more study that we need to do in terms of some of these these traps trapping devices that I I see and hear about online.

Ken:

You know, for brown marmorated stink bug, there are traps. Those are usually more for like egg, for crop fields and stuff. But I have seen mention of of some traps for them. Because brown marmorated stink bugs will also do a should have mentioned this in the beginning, they have a they'll produce an aggregation pheromone, so they'll release this chemical which will draw more brown marmorated stink bugs in. So I know some of those traps utilize that.

Ken:

So there are are some traps available for brown marmorated stink bug. How effective they are, I'm not sure. And how practical they would be for a homeowner is is another question too.

Chris:

Well, that was a lot of great information about insects, namely the big three that are wanting to get into our house this time of year in the fall, the brown marmorated stink bug, the multicolored Asian lady beetle, and the box elder bug. Well, the Good Growing podcast is a production of University of Illinois Extension, edited this week by me, Chris Enroth. A special thank you to Ken. Thanks for hanging out with me and and and learning me all of the the good tips and tricks of of these these three insects. I don't really have to worry about box elder bugs.

Chris:

I do have multicolored Asian lady beetles, but as I've said, brown marmorated stink bug, boy, that's like enemy number one in my house right now.

Ken:

Yeah. I'll start paying attention to the south side of my house. See what pops up here soon. Remember for the other ones, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, if you're cold, they're cold. Let them inside.

Chris:

Yep. We need a t shirt or hat or something that says that. And

Ken:

let's do this again next week.

Chris:

Oh, we shall do this again next week. Well, with the cold and maybe the rain, hopefully, there'll be a little bit more hope in the near future. Tree leaves will start turning. I actually think I got the the fall foliage map emailed to me the other day and it has begun. Whether it's fall color or just leaf scorched, tree leaves are falling right now.

Chris:

So what do we do with all those leaves? We're gonna talk about that next week on the show. There's a lot of uses for them. Well, listeners, thank you for doing what you do best and that is listening or if you watched us on YouTube watching. And as always, keep on growing.