Kill Boxelder Bugs

 

DIANE: From November through approximately March, I get an infestation of boxelder bugs.

TOM: OK.

DIANE: And since they can’t be killed I need some ideas for how to keep them out.

TOM: Do you have a lot of trees around your house?

DIANE: You know, we had them all taken out. I live near an irrigation canal.

TOM: OK.

DIANE: I had them all taken out behind my house but my neighbors do have them.

TOM: Well, sometimes you have to sort of reach beyond your house to control the boxelder bugs and actually treat the trees that surround it. When you have as many as you have, you’re probably going to need a residual insecticide; one that is actually sprayed on the surfaces as well as inside the exterior walls. And the way the insecticides work is basically the bugs have to sort of march through it, they get it on their bodies and then they take it back and because they’re very social insects they pass it to each other.

 

You can only sort of kill them yourself if you actually see them and a soap solution works well but it’s only going to kill them if you happen to hit them, so if you open up a section of your house and you see a lot of them you can spray them down with a three to four-percent mix of water and soap; but, otherwise, you really need to have a professional pest control applicator to come in and apply the right kind of insecticides. These insecticides are getting a lot smarter these days in that they only work for the insect that they’re designed to kill and so that’s why you really need to rely on an expert at this point when you have an infestation at this level; so they stop taking over your house.

DIANE: Right, sounds great.

TOM: Diane, good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.