MASSACHUSETTS — One of the upsides to the approaching end of summer is the corresponding end to bugs that add misery to your life — but Massachusetts residents need to take the steps now to stop them from crawling inside their homes at the first hint of cool weather.
We’re talking brown marmorated stink bugs, various sorts of beetles, boxelder bugs, cluster flies and other opportunistic insects looking to freeload off you until spring.
That ticket to hiding places inside your home will go nowhere special for them if you take steps now to plug the places they crawl in. And one other dandy benefit is, the work you’re doing now will also help deter mice, which no one other than perhaps the family cat wants to cohabitate with, either.
And if you happen to see a spotted lanternfly while you’re working outside, squish it, document it and let agricultural officials know. As Patch previously reported, this pest is every bit as destructive as stink bugs, despite the species’ much better looks. Don’t be beguiled by that.
As with stink bugs, the serious economic threat they pose is no joke. Spotted lanternflies, prolific in the Northeast, have been confirmed in more than a dozen states and reported in several others. This year, they've most commonly been reported in Worcester County and in the western part of the state.
Below are some common pests you can stop from getting in your house right now:
Stink bugs, an odoriferous brigade of smelly brown bugs, are on the move right now, just itching to set up a winter camp in your cozy home in a dormant phase known as diapause. First detected in the United States 20 years ago, they’ve been reported in all but a couple of High Plains states, according to the Stop BMSB website, which discusses their severe threat to fruit and vegetable crops.
Despite having piercing, sucking mouthparts — tiny shields about a half-inch long and wide, which they curiously tuck between their legs when they’re not piercing and sucking the juice from plants — they can’t bite you. They can’t sting you, and they won’t reproduce.
But pee-yew, do stink bugs smell bad if you smash them. Hence, their name. So don’t do that. And they can be pretty destructive in other ways.
Scientists have waged all-out war against stink bugs, with good reason. What they can do with those piercing, sucking mouthparts to an apple, peach or pear orchard isn’t pretty and can wipe out a grower’s entire crop.
What to do: Your best defense against stink bugs is to arm yourself with weather-stripping, caulking and tape and make your home a fortress. Seal up gaps and crevices around foundations and any area where doors, windows, chimneys and utility pipes are cut into the exterior. Any opening large enough for a stink bug to crawl through should be sealed.
The best thing to do if you find them inside is gently sweep them into a bucket, then fill it with a couple of inches of soapy water. You could vacuum them up, but perhaps as a last resort because it will trigger stink bugs’ notorious odor and make your vacuum cleaner smell bad.
Poison can quickly kill the stink bugs, but that will also trigger their stench. Professional extermination is another option.
Or, if you can bear the thought of living communally with them inside your home, you could just leave them alone and hope no one frightens them and stirs up a stinky ruckus. They don’t nest or lay eggs. They don't feed on anything or anyone in your house. They’re just there taking a load off for a few months, resting up.
Come spring, they’ll crawl right back outside to take a bite out of your garden, and the war on stink bugs will begin anew.
The multicolored Asian lady beetle can be a real stinker, too. It oozes a bad-smelling orange liquid from its leg joints.
Generally considered beneficial insects, they feed on plant pests — especially aphids, which they gobble up like steak. But they’re also troublemakers and can affect the quality of your life when large numbers of them invade buildings, often emitting a noxious odor and the orange staining fluid before dying.
What to do: Stop them before they get in your house. Beetles come in a variety of colors — from pale tan to a brilliant red-orange — and can have no spots, many spots, or large or small spots. To correctly identify Asian lady beetles, look for black-and-white markings directly behind the head.
In the fall, large swarms of these beetles collect on the sunlit side of buildings before moving into their hibernation sites. To control them, apply an insecticide approved for outdoor use. You should also caulk places where the beetles can get inside — cracks and other spaces where the beetles can find easy passage, but also places where a pipe, conduit telephone or cable TV wire goes through the siding. Check attic windows and repair them if necessary, and make sure the weather seal is tight on basement windows.
Despite your best efforts, a few may sneak in. Don’t use insecticides, even those approved for indoor use. Instead, suck them up using a hand-held or other vacuum with a bag that can be emptied.
If you made your home a fortress against Asian lady beetles, you should be good to go in your battle against western conifer seed bugs — unless you have loosely hung vinyl siding, and no amount of caulking is going to keep these insects out of your home.
You’re likely to find these bugs in areas with evergreen trees old enough to produce cones, because they like to feed on the gooey goodness inside the conifer seeds. They’re native to the pine forests of western North America, but have migrated east and are found in great abundance in the Northeast after hitching a ride on trains and in Christmas trees.
They closely resemble stink bugs but have wider hind legs.
Western conifer seed bugs also have the potential to bite humans with their piercing, sucking mouthparts. It was probably an accident or a fluke, according to researchers in Budapest, Hungary, but a bite by one of these bugs resulted in a fairly painful irritation and a lesion that lasted 48 hours, and the area the bug chomped remained red for about a month.
But don’t worry too much about this.
What to do: Deal with it? Once they’re inside walls, there’s not much you can do. It’s likely you’ll continue to see them throughout the winter. Insecticides approved for indoor use can be expensive, and it’s nearly impossible to treat every surface. These bugs are lethargic, so you should be able to vacuum them up.
Did you know that in some parts of the country, boxelder bugs are known as Democrat bugs, a term of denigration? Just a little trivia about these rather attractive bugs — they’re dark gray or black, and their red-edged wings form a V-shape in the middle of their backs. They are found wherever boxelder trees are nearby; and in the fall, they look for dry, protected sites, including attics and wall cavities, to spend the winter.
They’re harmless. They don’t chew on you, your food or your clothes. They don’t lay eggs. Like the western conifer seed bugs, they just hang out in your home until it’s warm enough to venture outside again.
What to do: Your best weapon of defense is a caulking gun here, too. Once they’re in, even aggressive and costly insecticide applications may not be effective because it is nearly impossible to treat every hidden area that may be harboring insects.
Sealing cracks around electrical outlet boxes, switches and light fixtures, and around window and baseboard molding on the inside walls will help keep the bugs trapped within the walls. In older homes with double-hung windows equipped with pulleys, insects commonly enter living areas through the pulley opening. Masking tape applied over the opening will keep insects from entering through this route. Vacuuming up the sluggish, slow-moving bugs works, too.
Cluster flies look a lot like the common house fly, but have a patch of yellow hairs under their wings. They get in your house by squeezing through cracks around windows and doors, loosely hung siding, soffit vents, louvers and other entry points — and they live up to their name and come into your home in clusters.
If they’re in your home, they’re likely to remain active throughout the winter months. They’re harmless enough. They don’t bite. They don’t transmit disease. They don’t feed or lay eggs during this time.
But they are, after all, flies, and no one wants them buzzing around.
What to do: Get a flyswatter. Indoor aerosol insecticides are effective, too. Cluster flies are slow movers, so the vacuum cleaner is an effective weapon. Winterization maintenance actions like those advised for other fall invaders can help keep them out, but once they’re in, they’re in.
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