Why am I seeing Asian Lady Beetles and Boxelder Bugs in Spring?

Around this time every year, we start seeing an increase of phone calls and website submissions regarding Asian Lady Beetles and Boxelder Bugs. While these little guys cause no harm to you or your house, that doesn’t mean they are welcomed with open arms. There’s a reason they start showing up around this time of year inside your house, and honestly, they’re kind of just lost.

If preventative measures were not taken in the fall to help protect against these guys, they will likely start showing up in your house around this time of year. You will especially find them in rooms that have the most sun exposure. Dave Kusnierek, District Service Manager and Certified Entomologist, explains, “In the Fall, Asian Lady Beetles and Boxelder Bugs land on the sunny sides of your house and then make their way into the walls and window casings via any cracks or crevices they can find. They hang out there until the sun warms the structures they are within causing them to ‘wake up’ and start wandering around. This is when you will likely start seeing them in your living room because, between the two choices of inside or outside, your house is looking much cozier in spring.”

Successful treatment for these pests is performed in Fall. In winter or early spring when they start appearing in large numbers within your home, reduction services can be performed. Residential Service Consultant, Katrina Jaehnert, explains, “This is done in the interior to help alleviate activity levels within the home. It is important to note that this will not eliminate them completely. Once Asian Lady Beetles and Boxelder Bugs settle in the cracks of your home, there’s not too much you can do, but we will recommend that you are set up for preventative treatment in the Fall to prevent this from reoccurring the following year.” Treatment for Asian Lady Beetles and Boxelder bugs is included in Batzner’s pestfree365 program, among other pests. For more information, call our office at 866-591-3519 or get a free estimate online today.

5 Tips to Prevent Fall Invaders, Including Spiders, Centipedes and Earwigs

Those of us in the pest control industry consider occasional invaders to be some of the creepiest of the crawlies. You’ve probably seen them scurrying across your bathroom or living room floor at one time or another. Most commonly, occasional invaders include centipedes, millipedes, earwigs and Asian lady beetles, among others.

These pests are referred to as occasional, or fall, invaders because they sporadically enter homes or businesses through cracks or crevices, most commonly in the fall. They’ll usually seek shelter indoors when the weather becomes too hostile outside for them to survive. You’ll typically find them by themselves or in small numbers near food sources, in basements, or other cool, damp places.

Occasional invaders aren’t necessarily a health or structural concern, however, they are definitely nuisance bugs; biting, pinching, eating houseplants, damaging fabrics. The main concern for a home or business owner may be food contamination, so be sure to take proper precautions if you believe one of these pests has taken up residence in your food.

Here are Batzner’s five tips to prevent occasional invaders:

  1. Caulking and sealing entry points such as windows and doors. This eliminates some of the most common entry points for occasional invaders.
  2. Don’t forget to vacuum! You can use your vacuum in two capacities here: to clean up any dead bugs which may be attractive to pests, or to clean up any occasional invaders you spot in your home. Just be sure to clean out the vacuum right away!
  3. Make your landscaping less pest friendly. Remove leaf piles, overgrown bushes or trees, and mulch around the perimeter of your home. These are great places for these pests to live.
  4. Repair screens on windows and doors. Similar to caulking and sealing, these are also common entry points for occasional invaders, so it’s a good idea to make sure there is no damage to your screens.
  5. Seal all food containers. It seems obvious, but if a pest has no access to food, they are less likely to stay.
  6. If you believe you’ve spotted some of these occasional invaders, utilize the prevention tips above to limit the infestation. However, if you’re continually noticing these pests, it’s a good idea to consider Batzner’s year-round pestfree 365 program to keep pests at bay.

Call Batzner at 866-591-3519 or fill out a form online for more information today!

Prevent Asian Lady Beetle and Boxelder Bug Infestations – Service Required Before First Frost

Fall invaders probably aren’t the first pests that come to mind when you think of a pest infestation. Occasional, or fall, invaders are a group of insects that invade structures occasionally, often finding themselves inside your home. You’ll start to see this happening when weather conditions become threatening to their survival. The occasional invaders that get several complaints filed against them around this time of year, and in spring, are the Boxelder Bugs and Asian Lady Beetles.

As autumn approaches, these fall invaders are looking for a cool, dry place to hit snooze during the winter. In September and October, they tend to assemble themselves on the exterior walls of sunny, south-facing buildings seeking out warmth. Once they land on buildings, they make their way through tiny cracks and crevices looking for protected places to hibernate. Their favorite locations include cracks around windows and door frames, behind fascia boards, and behind exterior siding. Structures with many cracks make this very easy for them and are most vulnerable to infestation.

As temperatures warm in late winter and early spring, they start to wake up from hibernation. This usually occurs on the sunnier, southwest side of homes. Still sleepy from their winter naps, some fall invaders unintentionally make their way inside your home, emerging from behind baseboards, walls, attics, and suspended ceilings. This is why even though Frosty the Snowman may still be standing strong outside, pests can mysteriously appear in your living room in the middle of winter.

So why do you find piles of dead fall invaders collecting in your window sill over winter? Well, once inside your home, the pests realize “Hey, this isn’t right!” They will naturally gravitate towards the light, which is mostly likely going to be the closest window. Since the temperature in your home is cozier than the temperature outdoors, their metabolism starts to gear up for summer. A high metabolism combined with no source of food causes them to quickly use up their winter reserves and die. If you see any still alive, you can return them to the outdoors where cooler temperatures will slow down their metabolism until spring.

The best way to control Asian Lady Beetle and Boxelder Bugs invasions is to seal up and repair any cracks and crevices around windows, eaves, doors, insulation and siding in the fall. Pay close attention to places where pipes and wires enter your home. Batzner Pest Control offers a fall service that creates a protective barrier to treat the cracks and crevices the fall invaders are attracted to, controlling and minimizing the population. This service must be applied before the first frost, so call now (866-591-3519 ) or contact us online to ensure you don’t have fall invaders waking up in your home. If you are already on our pestfree365 program, the Asian Lady Beetle and Boxelder Bug treatment is included. You’re all set!