Box Elder Bug - Boisea trivittata

	Box Elder Bug - Boisea trivittata Hemiptera / Heteroptera (True Bugs) /Rhopalidae (Scentless Plant Bugs) Live adult eastern boxelder bugs photographed in the wild at DuPage County, Illinois, USA.

One most often hears of this (actually quite beautiful, in my humble opinion) bug as an insect pest. I used to have them on my house by the thousands, and quite a few of them found their way indoors where I would have to leave the vacuum cleaner handy for weeks. The trouble with vacuuming the bugs is, pretty soon your vacuum starts to stink! Anyway, not that I advocate mass murder, here is an easy and cheap method for "discouraging" them using your house as their winter palace:

Mix a little liquid dish soap - any brand will do - with water. Just a small amount of soap is needed. Put this mixture in a spray bottle ( a good one with a stream setting will help you reach bugs even on the second story) and just spray the little buggers where they sit (outdoors, of course, you nut). Just enough to get them wet - and they die. Boom. Kaput. Adios. Bye bye box elder bugs.

Not that I advocate wanton killing. But I look at it this way: if there is a fly in my house bothering me, I will swat the poor unfortunate. But only after trying my best to shoo it out the door. Same with spiders. I'll pick them up carefully if I reliably determine the captured arachnid has no chance of actually touching my skin, or clothing, or running away and hiding; I cannot withstand my arachnophobia and death must be dealt. I have no "moral" compunction in being the vehicle for another sentient creature's ultimate and final demise if dire circumstances warrant.

Box Elder bug

Similarly, I have no problem letting advertisers of "extermination" services place ads on my pages. Recently, I was assailed (rather rudely) by an amalgamation of readers of a particular blog (which will remain unnamed), the author of which had written a piece denigrating my liberal advertising display policies. She had insinuated I was hypocritical in "promoting" the killing of innocent organisms, and (I think her real main objection was) trying to earn money from doing so.

I replied, "There are many people in the world who have desperate need of exterminators, be it cockroaches (I cannot fathom sharing my abode with these horrid, disgusting creatures), or ants (not so bad; ants aren't repulsive but must be deterred from walking my countertops), or termites (those bastards will eat your Jacuzzi room), and now, the 800 lb. gorilla of BEDBUGS (no explanation needed), and why should I not facilitate people finding help?

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This adult female boxelder bug is using her proboscis to extract nectar from an aster wildflower. She uses the sugars contained in nectar to fuel her egg-laying apparatus. Adult female box elder bugs lay eggs on the host trees in the springtime, and the nymphs emerge within a few days. The nymphs are smaller, wingless versions and show more red than adults. These nymphs develop through several instars into adults during the summer, then mate and lay eggs which hatch into the nymphs of the second generation.

In the summer, box elder bugs normally feed on the leaves, flowers, and seed pods of the box elder or silver maple. The bugs cause little damage to trees. Box elder bugs also feed on the nectar of various wildflowers, as is evidenced by the photo documentary here. Nymphs complete their growth near the end of August and early September, then begin migrating to their overwintering sites. The adult bugs are attracted to warm, sunny walls of buildings after the weather has begun to cool. They can often be found in congregations of thousands of bugs on a single building, with more flying in all day as they seek a place to spend the winter.

An obvious way to avoid infestations by this pest is to get rid of nearby female boxelder trees. If this species is to be planted as an ornamental or shade tree, male trees should be planted. They are propagated by cuttings from staminate trees.

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