To every thing, there is a season.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
Back on October 30, 2016, in blog installment 334, I described the two types of bugs that had invaded my house in Oregon. Now, some five weeks later, I offer a follow-up report. To begin with, I have discovered their names: The slightly larger, "squarer" of the two is known as the brown marmorated stink bug. Native to Asia, the first sightings of the creature in Oregon were in 2004 -- in Portland. Now the creature has spread all over the Willamette Valley of Oregon and seems to be displacing the second, slightly smaller bug, which is known as the box elder bug (bolsea rubrolineata). Now December has come -- and with it a dramatic drop in the number of these two creatures who
love to find their way under the aluminum siding of my house. I have learned that neither of these
creatures eats wood. Nor do they breed inside houses. They feed on box elder, ash, and maple trees,
all of which can be found in the vicinity of my house. It is also in these trees that they produce their
young, who also feed on the same trees.
A quick pinch to the head dispatches the creatures before they can excrete the foul-smelling liquid for which they are well known. A vacuum cleaner comes in very handy as an efficient means for cleaning up the creatures. You should always make sure that the contents of the bag for the vacuum cleaner are burned so that the creatures do not merely go somewhere else. Flushing brown marmorated stink bugs and box elder bugs down the toilet is also an option that I have exercised on many an occasion. I generally collect the creatures in a jar that I keep in the refrigerator until I have collected some 40 or 50 of them before I flush them down the toilet, for I am always trying to keep from wasting water. These two bugs are a bit of a nuisance, but they pose no threat to humans. So I will just continue to try and find ways to hold them at bay during hose times of the year when they make their presence felt. Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.