October 10, 2025 • 40 mins
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
--
You can find us on most podcast platforms.
iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-growing/id1446630377
Tunein - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Gardening/Good-Growing-p1187964/
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/202u3siWExE1tTqrVgtmCR
Vurbl - https://vurbl.com/station/good-growing-4pljnNlUtyG/
Listen notes - https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/good-growing-chris-enroth-cHLPMWpvEOG/
Ivy - https://ivy.fm/podcast/good-growing-167902
Castbox - https://castbox.fm/channel/Good-Growing-id4302614?country=us
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:05):
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you from MacOmb, Illinois, and we have got a
great show for you today. Oh, Iwas sleeping the other day and
something started crawling on myface and I swatted at it. Got a
face full of stinky bugness. Sowe're gonna be talking about
(00:28):
some of those insects that arewanting to be coming to our
house, especially those darnstink bugs that are really
liking my house this year.
But you know I'm not doing thisby myself. I am joined as always
every single week byhorticulture educator Ken
Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey,Ken.
Ken (00:44):
Hello, Chris. No. I haven't seen too many stink bugs on our
house yet, but we're in themiddle of town. So don't usually
have as many as some people do.
Chris (00:57):
Yep. Well, we are on the margin of town. We are actually
the county line is in ourbackyard. So we have woods, we
have fields, we have neighbors,we have all kinds of fun things
that that might draw in someinsects. You should come over
and visit, Ken.
I think you'd really have a goodtime.
Ken (01:16):
May have to do that. Mhmm.
Chris (01:19):
Well, you know hey. Congratulations on the rainfall.
Did you get any rain? Is is itis it raining right now in
Jacksonville? Or
Ken (01:27):
It's not raining right now. It was at 02:30, but it was this
morning when I got up and whenwe went to school. I looked at
the weather app. I think we gotabout half an inch of rain.
Although it seems like it wasmore than that because looking
at the fairgrounds here, there'swater, standing water in some of
the ditches.
Chris (01:45):
Mhmm.
Ken (01:46):
I'm not sure exactly how much we got, but weather apps is
about half an inch.
Chris (01:52):
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 ourbackyard. So or or maybe it's
just been so long. I don't knowwhat it means to have, like,
rainfall. Any little bit seemslike a lot now. But, yeah, I did
(02:13):
water.
I went out and I watered part ofmy lawn for the last few days
because we do we have a pin oakand we have this part of our
lawn that we use quite a biteven in the winter, and I know
that if I don't keep some ofthis grass alive, it's just
gonna become a mud pit, and Iwanna get my pin oak some water.
(02:34):
It's it's near the house, andwhile I would never have planted
this tree this close to thehouse, I don't wanna have to cut
it down. So I'm gonna keep checkkeep, I'm gonna take care of
this tree. And pin oaks,sometimes they need some water,
so I did this for the rain.
Ken (02:51):
So last last week on Friday, did quite a bit of
watering out of Lukeman in hopesof getting some cover crops in.
So all morning, I was draggingaround hoses and moving
sprinklers and stuff. And thenFriday afternoon, we got some
pop ups. It's actuallyhomecoming for Jacksonville.
They had to cancel the paradebecause there's thunder in the
area and stuff.
(03:12):
And the it's it wasJacksonville's third celebrating
Jacksonville's Two HundredthAnniversary. So they had the
Budweiser Clydesdales in town.We went to go see them. They we
didn't get them out of thetrailer because it was raining
and stuff. After we left, therain finally cleared up and they
got him out.
But yeah, it was it was a bit ofa bummer, but Saturday was a big
(03:33):
celebration. You know, that wasthat was nice weather for that.
Chris (03:36):
Well, that's good.
Ken (03:37):
Yes.
Chris (03:38):
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. Sohappy to have it.
Ken (03:48):
Yeah. I would definitely take the rain over seeing the
Gladsnails walking aroundpersonally. And maybe in the
minority there, but
Chris (03:56):
Hey. It helps the water bill. Well, Ken, now is the time
of year where I think the sayingthat you have popularized, I've
not heard anyone say this butyou, if you're cold, they're
cold. Things are starting tocome inside right now. Crops are
coming out of the field.
(04:16):
Trees are starting to shed theirleaves. It's finally gotten some
we've gotten some rain, and it'scooled off a little bit. And I'm
seeing brown marmorated stinkbug, seeing lady beetles, I'm
seeing all kinds of littlecritters. I wanna get into my
house. So I think what we'regonna do, we're gonna go through
kind of the the big three.
(04:37):
There's three main ones that wetypically get. There are some
others, though, that we wouldsee. But I would say my main
one, which could we, like, justsort 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.
(04:58):
They there's something about methat they really like, I'm
assuming. So they're everywhere.They're all over my house to
trying to get in. So brownmarmorated stink bug. You said,
Ken, you haven't seen many ofthem.
Ken (05:11):
Yeah. At least not congregating on our house. Yeah.
We've we've seen occasionally inin the vegetable garden and
stuff, you know, they get ontomatoes. So they're you know,
brown marmorated stink bug iskind of one of those, you know,
double whammy.
They're agronomic or or plantpests. So, you know, a lot of
our tree fruit, they can causeissues on that. They have those
piercing, sucking mouthpart,they'll stick that in that.
(05:33):
Whatever they're feeding, suckthe contents out so you can get
some, you know, spotting, somedead spots on plants, on fruit,
you know, whether it's apples,peaches, tomatoes, things like
that. So they can be issuesthere.
And then I think most people areprobably more familiar with
their or kind of the nuisancewhere they're coming indoors
(05:54):
looking for somewhere tooverwinter. And so these are
brown marmorated brown mermaidstink bug. These are an invasive
species. They're native to Asia.First found in The US late
nineties, something like '98 orsomething like that in
Pennsylvania.
And they've pretty much spreadacross majority of The United
(06:16):
States at this point. It's 45,46 states, something like that.
I think in 2020 was the lastnumbers I saw, so it could be
more than that, more than thatnow. But there when are so with
a lot of these insects, as theday has started getting shorter,
the night's getting longer. I'mnot sure which one's actually
(06:37):
triggering it.
But as as we're getting more asdays are getting shorter, that
kind of triggers a lot of theseinsects to start looking for
somewhere to overwinter so theycan go into a dipause, basically
kind of suspended animationwhere everything kind of really
slows down and they wait out thewinter. So in in kind of more
northern climates and inIllinois, it's usually day
(06:59):
length because they're generallydoing this during the winter. So
brown marmorated stink bug,that's what they're doing this
time of year. Days are gettingshorter. Temperatures are
cooling off.
That's driving them to findsomewhere to overwinter. A lot
of times it's our houses sothey're in out of the way areas
where It's gonna kinda keep themconsistently cool. They're not
gonna be they really wantsomewhere where they're gonna
have these wide temperaturefluctuations. So maybe under
(07:22):
leaf litter, tree bark, or homestrying to get underneath the
siding, wind up in your attic,things like that. There is one
paper, so I can find it here.
I'm doing some reading beforethis. There was a guy in
Virginia, Maryland out inMaryland, Was just collecting
(07:44):
all the brown marmorated stinkbugs from his house from it was
a hundred and eighty one dayperiod from, like, January to
January 1 to 06/30/2011,collected 26,000 brown
marmorated stink bugs from hishouse. And what did they say?
(08:08):
13,000, about 50% of them, werefound in in the attic and 40%,
about 10,500 or so, or in theSecond First And Second Floors,
kind of the, quote, unquote,living area. There's I believe
it.
There could be you know, I'dwhen I saw that I was I was
(08:30):
shocked that there was that manybecause, you know, you've seen
pictures of them, it doesn'tseem like there's 20,000 of them
on there. But there can be a lotof them, potentially. That's
probably a little bit of anextreme case, but
Chris (08:42):
I remember the pictures from Pennsylvania, though. They
they had them, like, sweepingthem out of their house. They
were it seemed excessive, and Iwondered when they get here to
Illinois, that sounds like it'dbe really bad. And it's never I
don't think I ever gotten tonecessarily that level here. But
I bet you I got got couplethousand that have decided my
(09:05):
attic, you know, my garageespecially.
You know, every spring when wehave to start baseball again, we
have to pull all of the stinkbugs out of the baseball mitts
because they're just jam packedin there. I think I might have
scarred one of my children whenthey stuck their hand in there,
(09:26):
and they just just just stinkbugs all over the place. So so
yeah, they there's a lot of themin Pennsylvania. They've made
their way here. I definitelyhave noticed more damage on my
tomatoes at this time of yearnow that they're around.
They get these little soft spotson them, and you can see the
little pinpricks where they'vestabbed their piercing sucking
(09:48):
mouthpart in them, and it's justthese little soft spots. For the
big tomatoes, can just cut thatout. Most of the fruit is fine,
but I definitely yeah. Seen someof that damage. They really like
to tuck themselves in somewhere.
We were able to like I have thescreen door maybe it was sort of
just sort of slightly open orslightly shut where they could
(10:12):
get between the screen door andthe glass of the glass door and
they just all sort of like justthat's where they started going.
I think because you know theycould get somewhere sort of
tight where they could sort ofhunker down And there's that.
There's the the the patioumbrella when that's closed.
(10:32):
Right now this time of year andI open it, it's just rain stink
bugs. So I I would say theydefinitely are able to get into
my attic.
We don't have the most secure ofof of attic space, and then from
there they come in down throughthe light light fixtures into
(10:52):
the living space of the house.So some of our older windows
also, they're able to getthrough those. I can definitely
tell which windows need to bereplaced in my house because
they typically have the moremost stink bugs around them. So
so yeah, I guess, Ken, some ofthe ways to to differentiate
because stink bug, it's a broadterm. We are specifically
(11:14):
talking about brown marmoratedstink bug.
I think I've been looking atthese guys so much so
frequently, I just know whatthey look like. They have the
white banding on their antennae.They don't have the pointed
shoulders like certain stinkbugs do. They're more rounded.
And that modeled camouflageappearance of their of their
(11:35):
body, they this allows them toblend in pretty well out in the
natural setting.
And then of course they have thewhite tan brown triangular pet
and all along the the back edgeof their body. They're they they
can't be mistaken, I think, fora lot of other stink bugs out
there, though. Some do lookpretty closely similar.
Ken (11:56):
Yeah. We do have some native stink bugs. We've got a
native, you know, brown stinkbug that looks fairly similar,
but doesn't have the banding onthe antenna and that pattern on
the abdomen that we have nativegreen stink stink bugs that are
green. So but those usually arenot coming indoors. Those are
typically more, you know, inyour leaf litter, hunter tree
bark and stuff.
(12:16):
It's yeah. The brown marmoratedare the ones coming to our
house. It's not that we reallywant the other sting bugs
feeding on our crops, but theydon't those populations don't
really seem to get as as high asbrown marmorated. Because brown
marmorated is introduced, it'sbeen kind of released from its
natural enemies, so to speak.There another is at least one
(12:37):
parasitoid wasp, the samuraiwasp, that was actually imported
into The US.
They were testing to see if itwas going to be kinda specific
enough that it's not gonna wipeout some of our native species.
But they found it, popping up intwo different sites in The US,
completely distinct, you know,groups. So they were not
(12:58):
related. So somehow they made ithere on their own. So now those
are are kinda spreading andthey're behind think they're
being released in the areaswhere they found them, maybe not
necessarily areas where theyhaven't been found yet.
But the kind of hope is thatthose will spread and help keep
those help suppress some of thatbrown marmorated stink bug
population because I thinkthey're fairly effective in
(13:18):
there. I remember at their eggparasitoids, they're laying the
wasp was laying its egg and thebrown marmorated stink bug eggs.
Then those wasps are then eatingthose.
Chris (13:29):
I don't Ken, for some reason, I sort of blanked out
and I just pictured a cartoonwasp with samurai clothes on.
We're gonna have to do a deepdive on this particular wasp,
maybe on a future show. Samuraiwasp, I love the sound of that.
So future show possibility.
Ken (13:49):
Yo. That's that's about the extent of my knowledge right
there.
Chris (13:53):
Mhmm. Well well, there's more than just brown marmorated
stink bug and and we are goingto get into more tips, tricks
for keeping them out of ourhomes towards the end of the
show. Don't forget, we alwaysput in little tags in our show
description that gives you atimestamp of when we talk about
what, so just check our shownotes if you're you don't wanna
(14:13):
hear, the descriptions of theseparticular insects. Because
next, we have one that I thinkis near and dear to a lot of
people, the ladybug. But it'snot just the ladybug, is it,
Ken?
It is a particular type ofladybug or lady beetle. How I
guess, what do you call it?
Ken (14:33):
Both. Both. Both. Yeah. Should be lady beetle.
Mhmm. But so lady beetles is twowords because they're true
beetles. Ladybug is one wordbecause they're not true bugs.
Chris (14:44):
That's right.
Ken (14:44):
You're useless random. Use a trivia for today.
Chris (14:49):
Yes. I got one. Good. I love it.
Ken (14:52):
You're on Jeopardy. Remember who told you?
Chris (14:54):
Mhmm.
Ken (14:56):
So this one is the the multicolored Asian lady beetle.
Recently, I've heard a lot ofpeople referring to them as
Japanese beetles Yes. Whichalways 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.
But it's so multi colored Asianlady beetle, Asian lady beetle,
(15:16):
sometimes Japanese beetle. It'sgot it's got a lot of different
common names.
Chris (15:21):
Mhmm.
Ken (15:21):
That's one of the issues with common names, but Yep.
Harmonia aceritis.
Chris (15:26):
There you go. We actually, I was doing a class
just this morning and someoneasked what do they do about
Asian beetles? And I went intomulticolored Asian beetle. And
they said, no. Japanese beetle.
Or, like like, we've determinedit was Japanese beetle on tree
on tree. So, yes, common namescan be tough.
Ken (15:48):
So so this one, this is another, like, as the name
implies, not native to NorthAmerica. So, again, native to
Asia. This is actually one thatwas back in the day, back in the
nineteen teens, was actuallyattempted to be introduced. So
first attempt was in 1916 inCalifornia in hopes of using as
(16:11):
a biocontrol agent for aphids inpecan trees because this is more
of a a lot of times it was morein trees in a lot of cases. And
multiple different times,throughout the decades, into the
sixties and eighties, releasestrying to get them established,
but they never did, for whateverreason.
But then for some reason, in1988, in Louisiana, there's a
(16:35):
population that got established.There's some debate as to
whether or not that was a anintentional 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 nowthey have, again, rapidly spread
across The US, Canada. I don'tknow if they're in all all Lower
(16:57):
48, but it wouldn't surprise meif they were. Anyway, these, you
know, these are the ones sothese are they're bigger than
the number of native most of ournative lady beetle species,
about a quarter inch long.
And again, the combination,multicolored. There's a lot of
different variety. And then wecan throw a picture up, of what
(17:20):
they look like. They can bekinda orangish yellow to orange
to red, to black, and they canhave no spots, they can have up
to 19 spots, the spots can bered. So if it's a black body,
can have red spots or orangespots.
If it's the red or orangecoloration, they're black spots.
So there's a lot of variabilitywithin these insects, which a
(17:44):
lot of insects we don'tnecessarily see a lot of
variability. It's kind of, youknow, this is what they look
like. There's not a lot ofvariability. One way, a lot of
time, for most of them, theykind of have an M type pattern
on the the pronotum or part ofthe thorax, but there are some
of the color morphs that don'thave that.
(18:05):
But if you've got a larger ladybeetle that does not smell good,
more than likely it's gonna be aa multicolored Asian lady
beetle. And kind of the the sameidea with them, you know, as
temperatures start coolingdaylight, days start getting
shorter. Again, they're lookingfor somewhere to overwinter. So,
(18:30):
you know, there are again, a lotof times in their in their
native range, lot of timesthey're more in, like, cliff
faces, rock faces, stuff likethat. And majority of Illinois,
we do not have that.
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
(18:51):
times if you're kinda cocoed outin the country and you're the
the lone building for out there,the isolated object with high
color contrast is gonna be veryattractive to them. Usually the
south and west exposure, samething with brown marmorated
stink bug is where they usuallystart congregating because it's
warmer. And again, they'retrying to find somewhere kind of
protected to overwinter so theycan enter dipause and kind of
(19:15):
ride out the winter.
Chris (19:16):
The other thing that I'm often asked about multicolored
Asian lady beetle is becausethey're an invasive lady beetle,
we have our native species. Isthere any conflict there, Ken?
Ken (19:27):
Yeah. So they're feeding on the same things, aphids, mites,
soft bite insects, things likethat. And they they can be quite
voracious. What was it? They caneat three, four hundred aphids
during their development.
So they're eating a lot of food.So there there's a kind of
(19:48):
potential that they are pushingout our native species. There's
some research out there thatkind of shows maybe our native
populations were already indecline before they showed up.
But they are certainly nothelping matters at all. I would
say that there's probably a goodchance.
They're definitely competingwith our native species for
those food resources. Andthere's probably the potential
(20:10):
yet that they can now competeand maybe push out some of our
native lady beetle species.
Chris (20:16):
And are these the ones that we would get if we would
order them online, multicoloredAsian lady beetles, that's what
the companies would send us?
Ken (20:23):
I think a lot of times those are the convergent lady
beetle that you're necessarilythese were the those are you
kind of collected from the wildMhmm. And stuff and then
shipped. Like, we're notcompletely unrelated, like, when
you get buying praying mantids,usually that's Chinese praying
mantid is the eggs they'resending you of that, not the
native species. The
Chris (20:47):
other thing that I'm well versed in, so growing up, we had
a home that was very often youknow, we had a lot of times
paper wasps would would findtheir way in our house. But then
lady beetles, the multicoloredAsian lady beetle, we have a lot
of that. I do know that thewasps would sting and the lady
beetles would bite. And it's notreally the lady beetle bites
(21:10):
nothing I would say hurts alltoo 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? Andyou, like, grab it and you pull
off a lady be like, well, thatkinda hurt.
But it never necessarily left awelt for me personally, but they
they do bite, and they do have aa pretty bad odor, I would say.
(21:33):
So, yeah, that's just some otheridentifying characteristics for
folks. They'll bite you and theystink.
Ken (21:43):
Yeah. And I think with you know, for for some people, can
cause allergies. I think brownmarmorated stink bug is the same
thing. So there are people thatare sensitive to them as well.
Chris (21:55):
Okay. But unlike brown marmorated stink bug, we at
least do have the positivebenefit of them. They're they're
they're predators for a lot ofour soft bodied insects, namely
like aphids on several cropsthat that we use.
Ken (22:10):
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 ifyou live in a forested area,
that's a good chance of why youhave, would have so many of them
there because they like trees aswell.
Chris (22:29):
And I guess we have one more insect that we would like
to present before we get to someof the things that we can do to
keep them out of our house. Thebox elder bug, which this is an
insect I've known about for along time. I've heard about it.
I've I think I've seen itprobably even as a young child,
but I haven't really seen manyof them lately until just the
(22:53):
other day. I came across actualbox elder tree.
The box elder is a species ofmaple, and the the box elder bug
was crawling all over this tree.There was just hundreds, maybe
thousands of them crawling allover this tree onto a fence
post, which then led into an oldbarn where I'm guessing they
(23:16):
were gonna be spending thewinter. So it seems like there's
a specific relationship betweenthe box elder bug, which looks
seems to be I think it's likewhat a soft bodied beetle, and
then or is it a bug? True bug.
Ken (23:31):
It's a true bug.
Chris (23:32):
It's a true bug. Okay. So it's long, slender, and it kinda
has these orange and red blackto black markings. Sort of
reminds me of a milkweed bug.They have very similar
characteristics in terms oftheir their shape and their
coloration.
But, yeah, there's they there'sa relationship between those
(23:53):
two. Right? The box elder bugsonly go after box elder trees.
Is that correct?
Ken (23:59):
More or less. Yeah. So the box elder and some maples. I've
I've read ash as well, whichprobably isn't a food source for
a lot
Chris (24:09):
of them anymore. Not many. Nope.
Ken (24:12):
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 yourmilkweed bugs, kissing bugs, get
sometimes confused with as well.These are true bugs. Again, they
have that piercing sucking mouthpart. And like I said, box
elder, maples, they're feedingon the seeds.
That's kind of their primaryfood source. So I don't know
(24:35):
about you, but the maple treesthat I have my in my backyard
produce far more seeds than Iwant. And those seedlings pop up
everywhere. So I would not beupset at all if I had a large
population of black silver bugson my maple trees.
Chris (24:49):
I'll I'll send them your way. I wonder if if the reason
why we don't see them as muchanymore, box elder, the tree
used to be more frequentlyplanted, I think, in home
landscapes than it is today. I Ialmost don't see it at all in
nurseries anymore, but I thinkthey used to be far more common.
I wonder if just because there'sjust fewer box elder trees out
(25:10):
there, do we have fewer boxelder bugs?
Ken (25:13):
There's there's a box elder one that has separate male and
female.
Chris (25:16):
I bet Google knows.
Ken (25:17):
Yes, it's dioecious with male and female flowers on
separate trees. So if you don'thave 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 boxelder bugs because you don't
have their food source, theseeds. So that could be one
reason why You could haveboxelder, but if it's a male.
And I think a lot of places,mean, a lot of people, you know,
(25:38):
if you have the separate maleand female trees, a lot of
people are going for the males,so you don't have seed
production. That's true.
Is one reason
Chris (25:46):
why Which
Ken (25:47):
is one reason why the steer eyes people have more allergies
nowadays because you have moremale trees putting more pollen
into the environment. They'rethe one pollinated plants.
Chris (25:57):
That's true. I think across all species, the
landscape industry has beenselecting male trees in that
that dioecious category. They'vebeen going for the male ones
over the female because fruit ismessy according to some people.
I love fruit. Give me a femaleGinkgo any day.
I'll I'll take it.
Ken (26:18):
Slice perfume.
Chris (26:19):
It is. Yeah.
Ken (26:23):
So but, yeah, I don't think we mentioned, but box seller is
a native. Box seller bugs are anative species, so this is not
introduced. They've they've beenhere for as long as we've been
here and longer. Mhmm. Sothey're they're they're supposed
to be here.
Again, same idea there. Youknow, they're congregating,
they're looking for somewhere tooverwinter that maybe end up
(26:44):
being on your house. You know,they're looking for out of the
way areas to ride out thewinter. So if you've got
boxelder, maple trees, maybeash, there's a chance you're
going to have them. If you don'thave those, more than likely
you're not going to have boxelder bugs in your landscape.
Yeah.
Chris (27:04):
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. Butinsects don't necessarily bother
me because we're also gettingother things, spiders, you know,
centipedes, crickets. So thereare other insects coming into
our house, and I welcome themwith open arms. The rest of my
(27:28):
family, not so much.
So I guess, Ken, for the sake ofpeace in my own home, what
should I do to keep theseinsects out? Namely for me, the
brown marmorated stink bugbecause there's probably
different strategies here.
Ken (27:43):
Yeah. I think it's important to point out that for
these things, when they'reoverwondering, they're not going
to reproduce. So if you got20,000 moving in, you're gonna
have 20,000 moving out. Probablyless because some are gonna die.
But you're not gonna end upwith, you know, a 100,000
because they're so they'rethey're not gonna reproduce.
They're not really feeding.They're just, you know, they're
(28:04):
more or less hibernating,diapause and hibernating. A
little bit different, butthey're they're just sitting
there riding out the winter. Youknow, when they get indoors into
our living areas, because theydon't have anywhere to eat, you
know, their metabolism isspeeding up. A of times they'll
die because they burn throughtheir fat reserves.
So really, they really want tostay, you know, in that attic,
(28:26):
you know, behind the siding,areas where they're not gonna
warm up and gonna break, thatdormancy and stuff. So that
being said go ahead.
Chris (28:36):
No. I yeah. I was just saying the other ones that are
active, like some of thespiders, they like going in the
basement where there's higherhumidity typically. So if you
have active moving insects inyour house, like downstairs,
dehumidifying that spaceprobably would help drying out
those insects or at least makingit less habitable for them. But
(28:57):
not necessarily for the brownmarmorated stink bugs that are
just looking for a place tochill for a little Sleep.
Ken (29:04):
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 inthe first place. So depending on
where you're at, it may be toolate or go out as soon as you
listen to this and do it toprevent more from getting in.
So, you know, making sure yourwindows and doors fit tightly.
(29:26):
You don't have cracks aroundthem. Window screens, don't have
any holes in there so they can'tmake their way in through that.
You know, cracks, crevices,foundation, pipes, wires going
into the house, chimney, yoursiding, eaves, soffits are in
good condition. They don't haveholes in them. They're like door
(29:47):
sweeps, making sure those areintact.
You don't have gaps. Lot oftimes 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 bestyou can, which is a lot of times
easier said than done. If youlive in an area where where you
just have a really high, youknow, pest pressure, you're
(30:08):
probably never going to seal upyour house well enough to keep
them all out. But you can youcan do a good job of keeping
probably more out than youalready are.
You know, go up into the atticand make sure there's no, you
know, holes and stuff in thesoffit that they can get up into
your attic and things like that.
Chris (30:27):
Yeah. I I will say we did get new windows at least on the
front of the house and a newfront door a few years ago, and
that has made a ton ofdifference. Those openings in
our homes are just a really goodvector for them to get into our
house. So we have we have done alot of sealing of these these
different cracks, littlecrevices that they could be
(30:50):
getting into. We've learned thatif you're using, like, a foam,
expanding foam sealer around adoor jam or a window jam, you
wanna make sure that it is madefor that setting because some of
those expanding foams, they canmaybe expand a little bit too
good.
So it usually has to be labeledfor, you know, use around doors
(31:14):
or windows. Because sometimes ifthey expand too much, they could
maybe bend that jam a little bitor make it so that that that
that door jam can't expand andcontract with the temperature
variations and moisturevariations variations that we
get here in Illinois. So I wouldsay that was the big thing
that's really helped us out.There's one other thing that I
have to do, and that is toreplace all of the air seals
(31:36):
around our old doors because Ican see light coming through on
some parts. All I have to do isgo to the hardware store and buy
new weather stripping.
That's all I gotta do, and it'sbeen couple years. So it's on
me, everyone, but, that's oneanother easy fix. It's not that
(31:59):
difficult.
Ken (32:01):
Yeah. I know how that goes. And then doing that stuff, you
know, making it preventing thoseinsects from getting it's gonna
help with keeping air eitherwarm or cold air, depending on
the time of year inside yourhouse 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
(32:21):
contract as well as isn't gonnait isn't real brittle.
Chris (32:26):
Mhmm.
Ken (32:27):
It ain't gonna break on you when things swell or shrink?
Chris (32:32):
Another question I do get quite a bit as these insects are
just kind of crawling all overthe outside of the house is so
it's my wife, she'll say, can'twe just spray the our house to
to keep them away? So what aboutperimeter sprays? Because if we
(32:53):
would call a pest controlcompany, that's what they would
do. They come out. They do aperimeter spray.
Is that going to solve ourproblem, Ken?
Ken (33:02):
Solve? Probably not. So you can put down the exterior
sprays, but you got to get it onbefore they move inside. So
you're doing that early. Thosedon't, you know, last forever.
And and these things are mobile.So unless you're coating the
entire side of your house, whichI don't know if the label would
allow you to do that. Usuallythese are just around, you know,
(33:23):
the base of buildings, notdousing your siding, with it. So
could you? Yeah.
Is it gonna help? Maybe a littlebit, but
Chris (33:34):
Help you feel better maybe.
Ken (33:37):
Save your save yourself some money. Now now things like
spiders and millipedes and stufflike that are crawling in your
house, maybe not necessarily upthe siding and stuff, maybe help
with that. But again, it isprobably gonna be of limited
help with some of these realmobile insects that can fly and,
you know, get in through yourroof.
Chris (33:58):
And even if they get, maybe it would be a lethal dose,
maybe a sublethal dose. A lot oftimes they're still gonna maybe
make their way into your house,and then they die in your wall
cavity in your attic. And nowyou just have a bunch of dead
bugs in your house. So, whichcan be food for other pests that
might also wanna live there.
Ken (34:16):
You know, your dermestid beetles moving in.
Chris (34:18):
Mhmm. Yes.
Ken (34:19):
Yeah. That can then move to your carpeting and and all kinds
of other things.
Chris (34:25):
Yep. So I I typically don't suggest perimeter sprays,
but if that's what people wannado, sometimes it just helps them
feel better about the situation.
Ken (34:36):
Yes. Yeah. You can do it. Would I do it? No.
And like when they get inside,yeah, you're not using once they
get inside, they're don't useinsecticides to manage them with
when they get inside, you know,that could be, you know,
sweeping them up if they're notmoving a whole lot. You can use
(34:57):
a vacuum cleaner. You probablywanna be careful with that if
it's one where, you know, it'ssucking through the impeller,
you know, blending them into anice stink bug or a lady beetle
or box elder bug smoothie there,and that's not gonna smell very
good. Even like a shop vacwhere, you know, you've got it's
(35:17):
not it's being bypassed thatthat impeller and stuff. As
they're getting whipped aroundthere, they're going to release
that stink.
And you probably don't want tosmell it every time you vacuum.
So but as I tell people, youknow, if you can get a cheap
handheld vacuum, that's justgoing to be your insect vacuum.
Another option would be to putlike a panty hose over the hose
(35:40):
of a vacuum cleaner, rubber bandthat on there so you're sucking
them into that panty hose andyou can just tie that off and
and get rid of it. But don'tdon't get them in ideally don't
get them into the vacuum causethey're gonna get blended up.
That stink's gonna be in the bagand the filters.
And every time you use that,you're gonna be smelling that
for a while.
Chris (36:00):
Yeah. You definitely don't wanna be smashing them,
because everything we've justsaid. Also, the the lady beetle
will stain. It they leave behinda kind of like a coloration that
will stain surfaces.
Ken (36:19):
You know, with the brown marmorated stink bugs, I do
believe they are attracted tolights. So if you have issues
with them, you know, leave alight on in one room, you can
draw them all in there and thencollect them that way. Yeah.
Potentially.
Chris (36:34):
You know, I actually if we have pizza, sometimes I'll
leave the empty pizza boxslightly open or a jar. They
that they are they're attractedto that situation. I once left
it we once had a pizza partyoutside, left the pizza box
outside. It was full of stinkbugs. You just I just scraped
them off into some bucket ofsoapy water.
(36:56):
Done. Like, it was a pretty easycontrol method. And I think
there's some probably DIY trapsthat people have posted online.
I'm sure success with thosevaries sort of depends. I think
probably a lot on the particularinsect that you're trying to
attract in that trap, but alsosome of the conditions that you
(37:16):
have.
What's the temperature? How muchsunlight? You know, the color of
the particular trap. So I thinkthere's lot more things maybe we
we might know. I don't knowabout them.
Or maybe you know about them,Ken, but there's probably more
study that we need to do interms of some of these these
traps trapping devices that I Isee and hear about online.
Ken (37:36):
You know, for brown marmorated stink bug, there are
traps. Those are usually morefor like egg, for crop fields
and stuff. But I have seenmention of of some traps for
them. Because brown marmoratedstink bugs will also do a should
have mentioned this in thebeginning, they have a they'll
produce an aggregationpheromone, so they'll release
this chemical which will drawmore brown marmorated stink bugs
(37:58):
in. So I know some of thosetraps utilize that.
So there are are some trapsavailable for brown marmorated
stink bug. How effective theyare, I'm not sure. And how
practical they would be for ahomeowner is is another question
too.
Chris (38:15):
Well, that was a lot of great information about insects,
namely the big three that arewanting to get into our house
this time of year in the fall,the brown marmorated stink bug,
the multicolored Asian ladybeetle, and the box elder bug.
Well, the Good Growing podcastis a production of University of
Illinois Extension, edited thisweek by me, Chris Enroth. A
special thank you to Ken. Thanksfor hanging out with me and and
(38:39):
and learning me all of the thegood tips and tricks of of these
these three insects. I don'treally have to worry about box
elder bugs.
I do have multicolored Asianlady beetles, but as I've said,
brown marmorated stink bug, boy,that's like enemy number one in
my house right now.
Ken (38:57):
Yeah. I'll start paying attention to the south side of
my house. See what pops up heresoon. Remember for the other
ones, spiders, centipedes,millipedes, if you're cold,
they're cold. Let them inside.
Chris (39:10):
Yep. We need a t shirt or hat or something that says that.
And
Ken (39:17):
let's do this again next week.
Chris (39:20):
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 nearfuture. Tree leaves will start
turning. I actually think I gotthe the fall foliage map emailed
to me the other day and it hasbegun. Whether it's fall color
or just leaf scorched, treeleaves are falling right now.
(39:42):
So what do we do with all thoseleaves? We're gonna talk about
that next week on the show.There's a lot of uses for them.
Well, listeners, thank you fordoing what you do best and that
is listening or if you watchedus on YouTube watching. And as
always, keep on growing.
Welcome to the Good Growing podcast. I am Chris
Enroth, horticulture educatorwith University of Illinois
Extension coming at you from MacOmb, Illinois, and we have got a
great show for you today. Oh, Iwas sleeping the other day and
something started crawling on myface and I swatted at it. Got a
face full of stinky bugness. Sowe're gonna be talking about
(00:28):
some of those insects that arewanting to be coming to our
house, especially those darnstink bugs that are really
liking my house this year.
But you know I'm not doing thisby myself. I am joined as always
every single week byhorticulture educator Ken
Johnson in Jacksonville. Hey,Ken.
Ken (00:44):
Hello, Chris. No. I haven't seen too many stink bugs on our
house yet, but we're in themiddle of town. So don't usually
have as many as some people do.
Chris (00:57):
Yep. Well, we are on the margin of town. We are actually
the county line is in ourbackyard. So we have woods, we
have fields, we have neighbors,we have all kinds of fun things
that that might draw in someinsects. You should come over
and visit, Ken.
I think you'd really have a goodtime.
Ken (01:16):
May have to do that. Mhmm.
Chris (01:19):
Well, you know hey. Congratulations on the rainfall.
Did you get any rain? Is is itis it raining right now in
Jacksonville? Or
Ken (01:27):
It's not raining right now. It was at 02:30, but it was this
morning when I got up and whenwe went to school. I looked at
the weather app. I think we gotabout half an inch of rain.
Although it seems like it wasmore than that because looking
at the fairgrounds here, there'swater, standing water in some of
the ditches.
Chris (01:45):
Mhmm.
Ken (01:46):
I'm not sure exactly how much we got, but weather apps is
about half an inch.
Chris (01:52):
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 ourbackyard. So or or maybe it's
just been so long. I don't knowwhat it means to have, like,
rainfall. Any little bit seemslike a lot now. But, yeah, I did
(02:13):
water.
I went out and I watered part ofmy lawn for the last few days
because we do we have a pin oakand we have this part of our
lawn that we use quite a biteven in the winter, and I know
that if I don't keep some ofthis grass alive, it's just
gonna become a mud pit, and Iwanna get my pin oak some water.
(02:34):
It's it's near the house, andwhile I would never have planted
this tree this close to thehouse, I don't wanna have to cut
it down. So I'm gonna keep checkkeep, I'm gonna take care of
this tree. And pin oaks,sometimes they need some water,
so I did this for the rain.
Ken (02:51):
So last last week on Friday, did quite a bit of
watering out of Lukeman in hopesof getting some cover crops in.
So all morning, I was draggingaround hoses and moving
sprinklers and stuff. And thenFriday afternoon, we got some
pop ups. It's actuallyhomecoming for Jacksonville.
They had to cancel the paradebecause there's thunder in the
area and stuff.
(03:12):
And the it's it wasJacksonville's third celebrating
Jacksonville's Two HundredthAnniversary. So they had the
Budweiser Clydesdales in town.We went to go see them. They we
didn't get them out of thetrailer because it was raining
and stuff. After we left, therain finally cleared up and they
got him out.
But yeah, it was it was a bit ofa bummer, but Saturday was a big
(03:33):
celebration. You know, that wasthat was nice weather for that.
Chris (03:36):
Well, that's good.
Ken (03:37):
Yes.
Chris (03:38):
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. Sohappy to have it.
Ken (03:48):
Yeah. I would definitely take the rain over seeing the
Gladsnails walking aroundpersonally. And maybe in the
minority there, but
Chris (03:56):
Hey. It helps the water bill. Well, Ken, now is the time
of year where I think the sayingthat you have popularized, I've
not heard anyone say this butyou, if you're cold, they're
cold. Things are starting tocome inside right now. Crops are
coming out of the field.
(04:16):
Trees are starting to shed theirleaves. It's finally gotten some
we've gotten some rain, and it'scooled off a little bit. And I'm
seeing brown marmorated stinkbug, seeing lady beetles, I'm
seeing all kinds of littlecritters. I wanna get into my
house. So I think what we'regonna do, we're gonna go through
kind of the the big three.
(04:37):
There's three main ones that wetypically get. There are some
others, though, that we wouldsee. But I would say my main
one, which could we, like, justsort 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.
(04:58):
They there's something about methat they really like, I'm
assuming. So they're everywhere.They're all over my house to
trying to get in. So brownmarmorated stink bug. You said,
Ken, you haven't seen many ofthem.
Ken (05:11):
Yeah. At least not congregating on our house. Yeah.
We've we've seen occasionally inin the vegetable garden and
stuff, you know, they get ontomatoes. So they're you know,
brown marmorated stink bug iskind of one of those, you know,
double whammy.
They're agronomic or or plantpests. So, you know, a lot of
our tree fruit, they can causeissues on that. They have those
piercing, sucking mouthpart,they'll stick that in that.
(05:33):
Whatever they're feeding, suckthe contents out so you can get
some, you know, spotting, somedead spots on plants, on fruit,
you know, whether it's apples,peaches, tomatoes, things like
that. So they can be issuesthere.
And then I think most people areprobably more familiar with
their or kind of the nuisancewhere they're coming indoors
(05:54):
looking for somewhere tooverwinter. And so these are
brown marmorated brown mermaidstink bug. These are an invasive
species. They're native to Asia.First found in The US late
nineties, something like '98 orsomething like that in
Pennsylvania.
And they've pretty much spreadacross majority of The United
(06:16):
States at this point. It's 45,46 states, something like that.
I think in 2020 was the lastnumbers I saw, so it could be
more than that, more than thatnow. But there when are so with
a lot of these insects, as theday has started getting shorter,
the night's getting longer. I'mnot sure which one's actually
(06:37):
triggering it.
But as as we're getting more asdays are getting shorter, that
kind of triggers a lot of theseinsects to start looking for
somewhere to overwinter so theycan go into a dipause, basically
kind of suspended animationwhere everything kind of really
slows down and they wait out thewinter. So in in kind of more
northern climates and inIllinois, it's usually day
(06:59):
length because they're generallydoing this during the winter. So
brown marmorated stink bug,that's what they're doing this
time of year. Days are gettingshorter. Temperatures are
cooling off.
That's driving them to findsomewhere to overwinter. A lot
of times it's our houses sothey're in out of the way areas
where It's gonna kinda keep themconsistently cool. They're not
gonna be they really wantsomewhere where they're gonna
have these wide temperaturefluctuations. So maybe under
(07:22):
leaf litter, tree bark, or homestrying to get underneath the
siding, wind up in your attic,things like that. There is one
paper, so I can find it here.
I'm doing some reading beforethis. There was a guy in
Virginia, Maryland out inMaryland, Was just collecting
(07:44):
all the brown marmorated stinkbugs from his house from it was
a hundred and eighty one dayperiod from, like, January to
January 1 to 06/30/2011,collected 26,000 brown
marmorated stink bugs from hishouse. And what did they say?
(08:08):
13,000, about 50% of them, werefound in in the attic and 40%,
about 10,500 or so, or in theSecond First And Second Floors,
kind of the, quote, unquote,living area. There's I believe
it.
There could be you know, I'dwhen I saw that I was I was
(08:30):
shocked that there was that manybecause, you know, you've seen
pictures of them, it doesn'tseem like there's 20,000 of them
on there. But there can be a lotof them, potentially. That's
probably a little bit of anextreme case, but
Chris (08:42):
I remember the pictures from Pennsylvania, though. They
they had them, like, sweepingthem out of their house. They
were it seemed excessive, and Iwondered when they get here to
Illinois, that sounds like it'dbe really bad. And it's never I
don't think I ever gotten tonecessarily that level here. But
I bet you I got got couplethousand that have decided my
(09:05):
attic, you know, my garageespecially.
You know, every spring when wehave to start baseball again, we
have to pull all of the stinkbugs out of the baseball mitts
because they're just jam packedin there. I think I might have
scarred one of my children whenthey stuck their hand in there,
(09:26):
and they just just just stinkbugs all over the place. So so
yeah, they there's a lot of themin Pennsylvania. They've made
their way here. I definitelyhave noticed more damage on my
tomatoes at this time of yearnow that they're around.
They get these little soft spotson them, and you can see the
little pinpricks where they'vestabbed their piercing sucking
(09:48):
mouthpart in them, and it's justthese little soft spots. For the
big tomatoes, can just cut thatout. Most of the fruit is fine,
but I definitely yeah. Seen someof that damage. They really like
to tuck themselves in somewhere.
We were able to like I have thescreen door maybe it was sort of
just sort of slightly open orslightly shut where they could
(10:12):
get between the screen door andthe glass of the glass door and
they just all sort of like justthat's where they started going.
I think because you know theycould get somewhere sort of
tight where they could sort ofhunker down And there's that.
There's the the the patioumbrella when that's closed.
(10:32):
Right now this time of year andI open it, it's just rain stink
bugs. So I I would say theydefinitely are able to get into
my attic.
We don't have the most secure ofof of attic space, and then from
there they come in down throughthe light light fixtures into
(10:52):
the living space of the house.So some of our older windows
also, they're able to getthrough those. I can definitely
tell which windows need to bereplaced in my house because
they typically have the moremost stink bugs around them. So
so yeah, I guess, Ken, some ofthe ways to to differentiate
because stink bug, it's a broadterm. We are specifically
(11:14):
talking about brown marmoratedstink bug.
I think I've been looking atthese guys so much so
frequently, I just know whatthey look like. They have the
white banding on their antennae.They don't have the pointed
shoulders like certain stinkbugs do. They're more rounded.
And that modeled camouflageappearance of their of their
(11:35):
body, they this allows them toblend in pretty well out in the
natural setting.
And then of course they have thewhite tan brown triangular pet
and all along the the back edgeof their body. They're they they
can't be mistaken, I think, fora lot of other stink bugs out
there, though. Some do lookpretty closely similar.
Ken (11:56):
Yeah. We do have some native stink bugs. We've got a
native, you know, brown stinkbug that looks fairly similar,
but doesn't have the banding onthe antenna and that pattern on
the abdomen that we have nativegreen stink stink bugs that are
green. So but those usually arenot coming indoors. Those are
typically more, you know, inyour leaf litter, hunter tree
bark and stuff.
(12:16):
It's yeah. The brown marmoratedare the ones coming to our
house. It's not that we reallywant the other sting bugs
feeding on our crops, but theydon't those populations don't
really seem to get as as high asbrown marmorated. Because brown
marmorated is introduced, it'sbeen kind of released from its
natural enemies, so to speak.There another is at least one
(12:37):
parasitoid wasp, the samuraiwasp, that was actually imported
into The US.
They were testing to see if itwas going to be kinda specific
enough that it's not gonna wipeout some of our native species.
But they found it, popping up intwo different sites in The US,
completely distinct, you know,groups. So they were not
(12:58):
related. So somehow they made ithere on their own. So now those
are are kinda spreading andthey're behind think they're
being released in the areaswhere they found them, maybe not
necessarily areas where theyhaven't been found yet.
But the kind of hope is thatthose will spread and help keep
those help suppress some of thatbrown marmorated stink bug
population because I thinkthey're fairly effective in
(13:18):
there. I remember at their eggparasitoids, they're laying the
wasp was laying its egg and thebrown marmorated stink bug eggs.
Then those wasps are then eatingthose.
Chris (13:29):
I don't Ken, for some reason, I sort of blanked out
and I just pictured a cartoonwasp with samurai clothes on.
We're gonna have to do a deepdive on this particular wasp,
maybe on a future show. Samuraiwasp, I love the sound of that.
So future show possibility.
Ken (13:49):
Yo. That's that's about the extent of my knowledge right
there.
Chris (13:53):
Mhmm. Well well, there's more than just brown marmorated
stink bug and and we are goingto get into more tips, tricks
for keeping them out of ourhomes towards the end of the
show. Don't forget, we alwaysput in little tags in our show
description that gives you atimestamp of when we talk about
what, so just check our shownotes if you're you don't wanna
(14:13):
hear, the descriptions of theseparticular insects. Because
next, we have one that I thinkis near and dear to a lot of
people, the ladybug. But it'snot just the ladybug, is it,
Ken?
It is a particular type ofladybug or lady beetle. How I
guess, what do you call it?
Ken (14:33):
Both. Both. Both. Yeah. Should be lady beetle.
Mhmm. But so lady beetles is twowords because they're true
beetles. Ladybug is one wordbecause they're not true bugs.
Chris (14:44):
That's right.
Ken (14:44):
You're useless random. Use a trivia for today.
Chris (14:49):
Yes. I got one. Good. I love it.
Ken (14:52):
You're on Jeopardy. Remember who told you?
Chris (14:54):
Mhmm.
Ken (14:56):
So this one is the the multicolored Asian lady beetle.
Recently, I've heard a lot ofpeople referring to them as
Japanese beetles Yes. Whichalways 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.
But it's so multi colored Asianlady beetle, Asian lady beetle,
(15:16):
sometimes Japanese beetle. It'sgot it's got a lot of different
common names.
Chris (15:21):
Mhmm.
Ken (15:21):
That's one of the issues with common names, but Yep.
Harmonia aceritis.
Chris (15:26):
There you go. We actually, I was doing a class
just this morning and someoneasked what do they do about
Asian beetles? And I went intomulticolored Asian beetle. And
they said, no. Japanese beetle.
Or, like like, we've determinedit was Japanese beetle on tree
on tree. So, yes, common namescan be tough.
Ken (15:48):
So so this one, this is another, like, as the name
implies, not native to NorthAmerica. So, again, native to
Asia. This is actually one thatwas back in the day, back in the
nineteen teens, was actuallyattempted to be introduced. So
first attempt was in 1916 inCalifornia in hopes of using as
(16:11):
a biocontrol agent for aphids inpecan trees because this is more
of a a lot of times it was morein trees in a lot of cases. And
multiple different times,throughout the decades, into the
sixties and eighties, releasestrying to get them established,
but they never did, for whateverreason.
But then for some reason, in1988, in Louisiana, there's a
(16:35):
population that got established.There's some debate as to
whether or not that was a anintentional 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 nowthey have, again, rapidly spread
across The US, Canada. I don'tknow if they're in all all Lower
(16:57):
48, but it wouldn't surprise meif they were. Anyway, these, you
know, these are the ones sothese are they're bigger than
the number of native most of ournative lady beetle species,
about a quarter inch long.
And again, the combination,multicolored. There's a lot of
different variety. And then wecan throw a picture up, of what
(17:20):
they look like. They can bekinda orangish yellow to orange
to red, to black, and they canhave no spots, they can have up
to 19 spots, the spots can bered. So if it's a black body,
can have red spots or orangespots.
If it's the red or orangecoloration, they're black spots.
So there's a lot of variabilitywithin these insects, which a
(17:44):
lot of insects we don'tnecessarily see a lot of
variability. It's kind of, youknow, this is what they look
like. There's not a lot ofvariability. One way, a lot of
time, for most of them, theykind of have an M type pattern
on the the pronotum or part ofthe thorax, but there are some
of the color morphs that don'thave that.
(18:05):
But if you've got a larger ladybeetle that does not smell good,
more than likely it's gonna be aa multicolored Asian lady
beetle. And kind of the the sameidea with them, you know, as
temperatures start coolingdaylight, days start getting
shorter. Again, they're lookingfor somewhere to overwinter. So,
(18:30):
you know, there are again, a lotof times in their in their
native range, lot of timesthey're more in, like, cliff
faces, rock faces, stuff likethat. And majority of Illinois,
we do not have that.
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
(18:51):
times if you're kinda cocoed outin the country and you're the
the lone building for out there,the isolated object with high
color contrast is gonna be veryattractive to them. Usually the
south and west exposure, samething with brown marmorated
stink bug is where they usuallystart congregating because it's
warmer. And again, they'retrying to find somewhere kind of
protected to overwinter so theycan enter dipause and kind of
(19:15):
ride out the winter.
Chris (19:16):
The other thing that I'm often asked about multicolored
Asian lady beetle is becausethey're an invasive lady beetle,
we have our native species. Isthere any conflict there, Ken?
Ken (19:27):
Yeah. So they're feeding on the same things, aphids, mites,
soft bite insects, things likethat. And they they can be quite
voracious. What was it? They caneat three, four hundred aphids
during their development.
So they're eating a lot of food.So there there's a kind of
(19:48):
potential that they are pushingout our native species. There's
some research out there thatkind of shows maybe our native
populations were already indecline before they showed up.
But they are certainly nothelping matters at all. I would
say that there's probably a goodchance.
They're definitely competingwith our native species for
those food resources. Andthere's probably the potential
(20:10):
yet that they can now competeand maybe push out some of our
native lady beetle species.
Chris (20:16):
And are these the ones that we would get if we would
order them online, multicoloredAsian lady beetles, that's what
the companies would send us?
Ken (20:23):
I think a lot of times those are the convergent lady
beetle that you're necessarilythese were the those are you
kind of collected from the wildMhmm. And stuff and then
shipped. Like, we're notcompletely unrelated, like, when
you get buying praying mantids,usually that's Chinese praying
mantid is the eggs they'resending you of that, not the
native species. The
Chris (20:47):
other thing that I'm well versed in, so growing up, we had
a home that was very often youknow, we had a lot of times
paper wasps would would findtheir way in our house. But then
lady beetles, the multicoloredAsian lady beetle, we have a lot
of that. I do know that thewasps would sting and the lady
beetles would bite. And it's notreally the lady beetle bites
(21:10):
nothing I would say hurts alltoo 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? Andyou, like, grab it and you pull
off a lady be like, well, thatkinda hurt.
But it never necessarily left awelt for me personally, but they
they do bite, and they do have aa pretty bad odor, I would say.
(21:33):
So, yeah, that's just some otheridentifying characteristics for
folks. They'll bite you and theystink.
Ken (21:43):
Yeah. And I think with you know, for for some people, can
cause allergies. I think brownmarmorated stink bug is the same
thing. So there are people thatare sensitive to them as well.
Chris (21:55):
Okay. But unlike brown marmorated stink bug, we at
least do have the positivebenefit of them. They're they're
they're predators for a lot ofour soft bodied insects, namely
like aphids on several cropsthat that we use.
Ken (22:10):
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 ifyou live in a forested area,
that's a good chance of why youhave, would have so many of them
there because they like trees aswell.
Chris (22:29):
And I guess we have one more insect that we would like
to present before we get to someof the things that we can do to
keep them out of our house. Thebox elder bug, which this is an
insect I've known about for along time. I've heard about it.
I've I think I've seen itprobably even as a young child,
but I haven't really seen manyof them lately until just the
(22:53):
other day. I came across actualbox elder tree.
The box elder is a species ofmaple, and the the box elder bug
was crawling all over this tree.There was just hundreds, maybe
thousands of them crawling allover this tree onto a fence
post, which then led into an oldbarn where I'm guessing they
(23:16):
were gonna be spending thewinter. So it seems like there's
a specific relationship betweenthe box elder bug, which looks
seems to be I think it's likewhat a soft bodied beetle, and
then or is it a bug? True bug.
Ken (23:31):
It's a true bug.
Chris (23:32):
It's a true bug. Okay. So it's long, slender, and it kinda
has these orange and red blackto black markings. Sort of
reminds me of a milkweed bug.They have very similar
characteristics in terms oftheir their shape and their
coloration.
But, yeah, there's they there'sa relationship between those
(23:53):
two. Right? The box elder bugsonly go after box elder trees.
Is that correct?
Ken (23:59):
More or less. Yeah. So the box elder and some maples. I've
I've read ash as well, whichprobably isn't a food source for
a lot
Chris (24:09):
of them anymore. Not many. Nope.
Ken (24:12):
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 yourmilkweed bugs, kissing bugs, get
sometimes confused with as well.These are true bugs. Again, they
have that piercing sucking mouthpart. And like I said, box
elder, maples, they're feedingon the seeds.
That's kind of their primaryfood source. So I don't know
(24:35):
about you, but the maple treesthat I have my in my backyard
produce far more seeds than Iwant. And those seedlings pop up
everywhere. So I would not beupset at all if I had a large
population of black silver bugson my maple trees.
Chris (24:49):
I'll I'll send them your way. I wonder if if the reason
why we don't see them as muchanymore, box elder, the tree
used to be more frequentlyplanted, I think, in home
landscapes than it is today. I Ialmost don't see it at all in
nurseries anymore, but I thinkthey used to be far more common.
I wonder if just because there'sjust fewer box elder trees out
(25:10):
there, do we have fewer boxelder bugs?
Ken (25:13):
There's there's a box elder one that has separate male and
female.
Chris (25:16):
I bet Google knows.
Ken (25:17):
Yes, it's dioecious with male and female flowers on
separate trees. So if you don'thave 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 boxelder bugs because you don't
have their food source, theseeds. So that could be one
reason why You could haveboxelder, but if it's a male.
And I think a lot of places,mean, a lot of people, you know,
(25:38):
if you have the separate maleand female trees, a lot of
people are going for the males,so you don't have seed
production. That's true.
Is one reason
Chris (25:46):
why Which
Ken (25:47):
is one reason why the steer eyes people have more allergies
nowadays because you have moremale trees putting more pollen
into the environment. They'rethe one pollinated plants.
Chris (25:57):
That's true. I think across all species, the
landscape industry has beenselecting male trees in that
that dioecious category. They'vebeen going for the male ones
over the female because fruit ismessy according to some people.
I love fruit. Give me a femaleGinkgo any day.
I'll I'll take it.
Ken (26:18):
Slice perfume.
Chris (26:19):
It is. Yeah.
Ken (26:23):
So but, yeah, I don't think we mentioned, but box seller is
a native. Box seller bugs are anative species, so this is not
introduced. They've they've beenhere for as long as we've been
here and longer. Mhmm. Sothey're they're they're supposed
to be here.
Again, same idea there. Youknow, they're congregating,
they're looking for somewhere tooverwinter that maybe end up
(26:44):
being on your house. You know,they're looking for out of the
way areas to ride out thewinter. So if you've got
boxelder, maple trees, maybeash, there's a chance you're
going to have them. If you don'thave those, more than likely
you're not going to have boxelder bugs in your landscape.
Yeah.
Chris (27:04):
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. Butinsects don't necessarily bother
me because we're also gettingother things, spiders, you know,
centipedes, crickets. So thereare other insects coming into
our house, and I welcome themwith open arms. The rest of my
(27:28):
family, not so much.
So I guess, Ken, for the sake ofpeace in my own home, what
should I do to keep theseinsects out? Namely for me, the
brown marmorated stink bugbecause there's probably
different strategies here.
Ken (27:43):
Yeah. I think it's important to point out that for
these things, when they'reoverwondering, they're not going
to reproduce. So if you got20,000 moving in, you're gonna
have 20,000 moving out. Probablyless because some are gonna die.
But you're not gonna end upwith, you know, a 100,000
because they're so they'rethey're not gonna reproduce.
They're not really feeding.They're just, you know, they're
(28:04):
more or less hibernating,diapause and hibernating. A
little bit different, butthey're they're just sitting
there riding out the winter. Youknow, when they get indoors into
our living areas, because theydon't have anywhere to eat, you
know, their metabolism isspeeding up. A of times they'll
die because they burn throughtheir fat reserves.
So really, they really want tostay, you know, in that attic,
(28:26):
you know, behind the siding,areas where they're not gonna
warm up and gonna break, thatdormancy and stuff. So that
being said go ahead.
Chris (28:36):
No. I yeah. I was just saying the other ones that are
active, like some of thespiders, they like going in the
basement where there's higherhumidity typically. So if you
have active moving insects inyour house, like downstairs,
dehumidifying that spaceprobably would help drying out
those insects or at least makingit less habitable for them. But
(28:57):
not necessarily for the brownmarmorated stink bugs that are
just looking for a place tochill for a little Sleep.
Ken (29:04):
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 inthe first place. So depending on
where you're at, it may be toolate or go out as soon as you
listen to this and do it toprevent more from getting in.
So, you know, making sure yourwindows and doors fit tightly.
(29:26):
You don't have cracks aroundthem. Window screens, don't have
any holes in there so they can'tmake their way in through that.
You know, cracks, crevices,foundation, pipes, wires going
into the house, chimney, yoursiding, eaves, soffits are in
good condition. They don't haveholes in them. They're like door
(29:47):
sweeps, making sure those areintact.
You don't have gaps. Lot oftimes 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 bestyou can, which is a lot of times
easier said than done. If youlive in an area where where you
just have a really high, youknow, pest pressure, you're
(30:08):
probably never going to seal upyour house well enough to keep
them all out. But you can youcan do a good job of keeping
probably more out than youalready are.
You know, go up into the atticand make sure there's no, you
know, holes and stuff in thesoffit that they can get up into
your attic and things like that.
Chris (30:27):
Yeah. I I will say we did get new windows at least on the
front of the house and a newfront door a few years ago, and
that has made a ton ofdifference. Those openings in
our homes are just a really goodvector for them to get into our
house. So we have we have done alot of sealing of these these
different cracks, littlecrevices that they could be
(30:50):
getting into. We've learned thatif you're using, like, a foam,
expanding foam sealer around adoor jam or a window jam, you
wanna make sure that it is madefor that setting because some of
those expanding foams, they canmaybe expand a little bit too
good.
So it usually has to be labeledfor, you know, use around doors
(31:14):
or windows. Because sometimes ifthey expand too much, they could
maybe bend that jam a little bitor make it so that that that
that door jam can't expand andcontract with the temperature
variations and moisturevariations variations that we
get here in Illinois. So I wouldsay that was the big thing
that's really helped us out.There's one other thing that I
have to do, and that is toreplace all of the air seals
(31:36):
around our old doors because Ican see light coming through on
some parts. All I have to do isgo to the hardware store and buy
new weather stripping.
That's all I gotta do, and it'sbeen couple years. So it's on
me, everyone, but, that's oneanother easy fix. It's not that
(31:59):
difficult.
Ken (32:01):
Yeah. I know how that goes. And then doing that stuff, you
know, making it preventing thoseinsects from getting it's gonna
help with keeping air eitherwarm or cold air, depending on
the time of year inside yourhouse 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
(32:21):
contract as well as isn't gonnait isn't real brittle.
Chris (32:26):
Mhmm.
Ken (32:27):
It ain't gonna break on you when things swell or shrink?
Chris (32:32):
Another question I do get quite a bit as these insects are
just kind of crawling all overthe outside of the house is so
it's my wife, she'll say, can'twe just spray the our house to
to keep them away? So what aboutperimeter sprays? Because if we
(32:53):
would call a pest controlcompany, that's what they would
do. They come out. They do aperimeter spray.
Is that going to solve ourproblem, Ken?
Ken (33:02):
Solve? Probably not. So you can put down the exterior
sprays, but you got to get it onbefore they move inside. So
you're doing that early. Thosedon't, you know, last forever.
And and these things are mobile.So unless you're coating the
entire side of your house, whichI don't know if the label would
allow you to do that. Usuallythese are just around, you know,
(33:23):
the base of buildings, notdousing your siding, with it. So
could you? Yeah.
Is it gonna help? Maybe a littlebit, but
Chris (33:34):
Help you feel better maybe.
Ken (33:37):
Save your save yourself some money. Now now things like
spiders and millipedes and stufflike that are crawling in your
house, maybe not necessarily upthe siding and stuff, maybe help
with that. But again, it isprobably gonna be of limited
help with some of these realmobile insects that can fly and,
you know, get in through yourroof.
Chris (33:58):
And even if they get, maybe it would be a lethal dose,
maybe a sublethal dose. A lot oftimes they're still gonna maybe
make their way into your house,and then they die in your wall
cavity in your attic. And nowyou just have a bunch of dead
bugs in your house. So, whichcan be food for other pests that
might also wanna live there.
Ken (34:16):
You know, your dermestid beetles moving in.
Chris (34:18):
Mhmm. Yes.
Ken (34:19):
Yeah. That can then move to your carpeting and and all kinds
of other things.
Chris (34:25):
Yep. So I I typically don't suggest perimeter sprays,
but if that's what people wannado, sometimes it just helps them
feel better about the situation.
Ken (34:36):
Yes. Yeah. You can do it. Would I do it? No.
And like when they get inside,yeah, you're not using once they
get inside, they're don't useinsecticides to manage them with
when they get inside, you know,that could be, you know,
sweeping them up if they're notmoving a whole lot. You can use
(34:57):
a vacuum cleaner. You probablywanna be careful with that if
it's one where, you know, it'ssucking through the impeller,
you know, blending them into anice stink bug or a lady beetle
or box elder bug smoothie there,and that's not gonna smell very
good. Even like a shop vacwhere, you know, you've got it's
(35:17):
not it's being bypassed thatthat impeller and stuff. As
they're getting whipped aroundthere, they're going to release
that stink.
And you probably don't want tosmell it every time you vacuum.
So but as I tell people, youknow, if you can get a cheap
handheld vacuum, that's justgoing to be your insect vacuum.
Another option would be to putlike a panty hose over the hose
(35:40):
of a vacuum cleaner, rubber bandthat on there so you're sucking
them into that panty hose andyou can just tie that off and
and get rid of it. But don'tdon't get them in ideally don't
get them into the vacuum causethey're gonna get blended up.
That stink's gonna be in the bagand the filters.
And every time you use that,you're gonna be smelling that
for a while.
Chris (36:00):
Yeah. You definitely don't wanna be smashing them,
because everything we've justsaid. Also, the the lady beetle
will stain. It they leave behinda kind of like a coloration that
will stain surfaces.
Ken (36:19):
You know, with the brown marmorated stink bugs, I do
believe they are attracted tolights. So if you have issues
with them, you know, leave alight on in one room, you can
draw them all in there and thencollect them that way. Yeah.
Potentially.
Chris (36:34):
You know, I actually if we have pizza, sometimes I'll
leave the empty pizza boxslightly open or a jar. They
that they are they're attractedto that situation. I once left
it we once had a pizza partyoutside, left the pizza box
outside. It was full of stinkbugs. You just I just scraped
them off into some bucket ofsoapy water.
(36:56):
Done. Like, it was a pretty easycontrol method. And I think
there's some probably DIY trapsthat people have posted online.
I'm sure success with thosevaries sort of depends. I think
probably a lot on the particularinsect that you're trying to
attract in that trap, but alsosome of the conditions that you
(37:16):
have.
What's the temperature? How muchsunlight? You know, the color of
the particular trap. So I thinkthere's lot more things maybe we
we might know. I don't knowabout them.
Or maybe you know about them,Ken, but there's probably more
study that we need to do interms of some of these these
traps trapping devices that I Isee and hear about online.
Ken (37:36):
You know, for brown marmorated stink bug, there are
traps. Those are usually morefor like egg, for crop fields
and stuff. But I have seenmention of of some traps for
them. Because brown marmoratedstink bugs will also do a should
have mentioned this in thebeginning, they have a they'll
produce an aggregationpheromone, so they'll release
this chemical which will drawmore brown marmorated stink bugs
(37:58):
in. So I know some of thosetraps utilize that.
So there are are some trapsavailable for brown marmorated
stink bug. How effective theyare, I'm not sure. And how
practical they would be for ahomeowner is is another question
too.
Chris (38:15):
Well, that was a lot of great information about insects,
namely the big three that arewanting to get into our house
this time of year in the fall,the brown marmorated stink bug,
the multicolored Asian ladybeetle, and the box elder bug.
Well, the Good Growing podcastis a production of University of
Illinois Extension, edited thisweek by me, Chris Enroth. A
special thank you to Ken. Thanksfor hanging out with me and and
(38:39):
and learning me all of the thegood tips and tricks of of these
these three insects. I don'treally have to worry about box
elder bugs.
I do have multicolored Asianlady beetles, but as I've said,
brown marmorated stink bug, boy,that's like enemy number one in
my house right now.
Ken (38:57):
Yeah. I'll start paying attention to the south side of
my house. See what pops up heresoon. Remember for the other
ones, spiders, centipedes,millipedes, if you're cold,
they're cold. Let them inside.
Chris (39:10):
Yep. We need a t shirt or hat or something that says that.
And
Ken (39:17):
let's do this again next week.
Chris (39:20):
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 nearfuture. Tree leaves will start
turning. I actually think I gotthe the fall foliage map emailed
to me the other day and it hasbegun. Whether it's fall color
or just leaf scorched, treeleaves are falling right now.
(39:42):
So what do we do with all thoseleaves? We're gonna talk about
that next week on the show.There's a lot of uses for them.
Well, listeners, thank you fordoing what you do best and that
is listening or if you watchedus on YouTube watching. And as
always, keep on growing.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.