BOXELDER BUGS

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Box Elder bugs do not bite, but their piercing-sucking mouthparts can sometimes puncture skin, causing slight irritation.   Their droppings make quite a mess and these pests can accumulate in great numbers in your home if left unchecked.
Warm temperatures (found in buildings such as your home) interfere with their natural cycles and biology, causing them to reproduce year-round in unwanted areas -- your home!   The boxelder bug is a common pest over much of the United States.  Adults are about 1/2 inch long, bright red or black in color with narrow reddish lines on their back.   These insects pests feed principally by sucking juices from the boxelder tree, but are sometimes found on many other plants.  In most cases, boxelder bugs cause no major damage inside homes, but their droppings stain curtains and other resting sites.   This bug also emits a foul odor when crushed.
Adult boxelder bugs will enter homes in the Fall, seeking winter shelter.  They will over-winter in protected areas, often in wall voids or in attics.  They will then emerge in the spring to seek out host trees on which to feed and lay eggs.  

For larger infestations, use your vacuum cleaner to help eliminate the boxelders you see inside your home.  This will be a great tool to use along with pesticide applications, but not a total substitution.  A good residual spray that is labeled for both inside homes, exterior of homes, trees and shrubs is Tempo WP.
Spray Tempo WP (using a garden sprayer such as our Chapin Sprayer) along baseboards or other areas where Boxelders are seen.  The most important aspect of indoor elimination and prevention of Boxelder bugs is dusting cracks and crevices where these pest like to spend the winter.  The best insecticide dust to use is Delta Dust.  This odorless product is easily applied to cracks, crevices and voids using a hand bellows duster.
Use Delta Dust as often as you like, both as a preventative and curative control method for insect pests.  Delta Dust will not only kill boxelder bugs and other insects, it makes any treated area unappealing to future infestations of insect pests.