Hot, dry conditions ideal for boxelder bug infestations

They’re creepy, they’re crawly and they’re taking over Marilee Sharpe’s northwest Calgary yard.

Sharpe and her husband have lived at their Dalhurst Crescent home for nearly 40 years. However, it wasn’t until last year that they started noticing that they had a boxelder bug infestation.

“Oh, it’s awful. I hate it, I really hate it,” said Sharpe.

“This year it’s just all the way up to here and even beyond. I’ve seen them around the back of the house. I think they’re just travelling around on the stucco in the hot — they love the hot days.”

She said the black and orange bugs are all over her yard, throughout her flowerbeds and even throughout the bark mulch in her garden, feeding on seeds from the Manitoba maple tree in front of her home.

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According to Orkin, boxelder bugs are also known as maple bugs. Their website states these bugs will primarily “suck the sap out of the seed pods of female boxelder trees, but have been known to infest maple and ash trees, as well as fruit trees, including cherry, plum, peach, and apple.”

Colin Hayles of Golden Acre Home & Garden said the reason so many Calgarians are in a battle against the bug is because right now the Manitoba maple trees are stressed due to the hot, dry conditions over the past two seasons and they have begun to propagate.

He’s calling it a perfect storm for the boxelder bug.

“The conditions have been favourable for them to breed and it’s been favourable for their food source to be prolific. So you take in those two factors and its not surprising that we’re seeing this infestation,” Hayles said.

Hayles said during the fall, other pests such as rabbits, voles, aphids and spider mites are also known to be an issue. But the boxelder are bigger than aphids and spider mites, which is why everyone is noticing them.

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He added the bugs will try and invade homes during the fall to avoid cooler temperatures and emerge in the spring.

“As long as there’s a food source and as long as it’s the right condition, so as long as its warm and dry, they’re just going to keep breeding,” he said.

In order to get rid of the infestation, Hayles recommended people use an insecticide such as diatomaceous earth or pyrethrin. As well, remove as much of their food source as possible.

He advised to refrain from using home remedies such as dish soap and water, as the wrong mixture ratio won’t work. And if the mixture is sprayed on plants, it could disrupt the photosynthesis process.

Hayles also recommended not to squish or step on them, as they will leave a red stain and a bad odour.

“With boxelder bugs, where there’s one there’s normally more. They do breed and you can get those masses, so its better to nip them in the bud,” said Hayles.

Meanwhile, Sharpe said she will try just about any thing not to see another boxelder bug.

“They say that they’re not harmful, they don’t bite, they don’t cause problems, they don’t get into your food. But no thank you, I don’t want them, period,” she says.