New York City-Ah, autumn. The best time to pick pumpkins, watch the leaves change in Central Park, and wear sweaters and jackets.

What bothers and disgusts many New York City residents is that this is also the time of the year when bed bugs come uninvited. These bugs are not interested in your latest pumpkin spice recipe, but they are eager to establish a winter camp in your warm and comfortable home.

So far this year, the brown mole bug has been found in 47 states-including New York City.

You will recognize these shield insects by their marbling or stripes-ornamentation-appearance.

See also: 2021 New York Pumpkin Field Farm Guide

The problem is not just how unwelcome they look in your apartment. Bed bugs are greedy eaters, and they can do something with those piercing mouthparts that suck apples, peaches, or pear orchards. It's not pretty. Many other crops are also at risk of bed bug damage.

There is not much data available on bed bugs in New York City. According to reports, these bugs have caused serious agricultural and nuisance problems throughout the state.

In order to prevent further infestation, states including New York introduced the samurai wasp (Trissolcus japonicus) from the same area as the bug in the world. They also hitchhiked to North America, most likely from bed bug eggs.

According to entomologists at Michigan State University, this wasp is about the size of a sesame seed and can lay eggs in bed bug eggs. It has proven to be a promising biological control agent against brown lacewing bugs.

On the family side, the best way to fight off bed bugs is to arm yourself with weather strips, caulk, and tape to make your home a fortress. Seal the surrounding gaps and cracks where doors, windows, chimneys and utility pipes cut into the outside. Any openings large enough for bed bugs to crawl through should be sealed.

If you find them inside, the best way is to gently sweep them into a bucket and fill it with a few inches of soapy water. You can vacuum with a vacuum cleaner, but perhaps as a last resort, because it will trigger the notorious odor of bed bugs and make your vacuum cleaner smell unpleasant.

Some companies recommend a special bed bug vacuum cleaner-an inexpensive handheld model used only for housework. This bag should be thrown in a thick disposable garbage bag away from the house.

Poison can quickly kill bed bugs, but it can also cause their stench. Occupational extinction is another option.

Or, if you can tolerate the idea of ​​living with bed bugs in your home, you can leave them alone.

Their mouthparts-small shields about half an inch long and wide, curiously tucked between their legs when they are not piercing and sucking plant sap-are not suitable for biting. Bed bugs can't sting you.

They do not build nests, lay eggs or reproduce indoors. They don't eat anything or anyone in your house. They just moved in to ease the burden for a few months-scientifically speaking, they entered a dormant phase called diapause.

You are unlikely to even know they are there unless you do something to disturb them.

But if you leave them alone, they will crawl back outside in the spring.

Not every homeowner has bed bug horror stories like Pam Stone and Paul Zimmerman. They found that when the cool autumn air came to South Carolina, 26,000 bed bugs invaded their homes. They left the door to the second deck outside the bedroom open, and the bed bug broke in as if they had the place.

Stone said the couple's experience was narrated funny by Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker, "like a horror movie."

They exist on every visible surface, as well as many invisible surfaces. Of course, squashing them is not the answer, because bed bugs emit an unpleasant smell only when they are threatened. But when the couple took some outside, more bed bugs flew in.

Finally, after 45 minutes, they thought their DIY extinction was successful. No. When it flew across the room to join the cronies hidden on the back of the photo, they heard a buzzing sound.

This situation continued for several days, and Stone and Zimmerman found them in the strangest place.

Stone is an actress, comedian and horse trainer. When she found her saddle crawling with them, she jumped off the horse as if she had been ejected.

Your home may not be invaded by thousands of bed bugs like Stone and Zimmerman. But The New Yorker reported that a wildlife biologist in Maryland, an entomologist in Virginia, and a bank employee in West Virginia reported that the shield threat had a greater scale of infestation—according to an estimate, a There are about 1 million people in the area.

When bed bugs feed on crops, damage can range from bruises and blemishes to miscarried sweet corn kernels and changes in the sugar content of certain fruits.

Bed bugs can damage ornamental trees and fruits and vegetables. The threat they pose is so great that the US Department of Agriculture funded the "Stop Brown Slugs" strike force. This is a team of 50 researchers from 18 land-grant universities who closely track the migration of invading, fast-moving pests.