Submitted by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County
(Oneida County, NY – March 2013) Once the daylight hour’s start getting longer it seems visitors just start coming out of the woodwork
Ants- live in large colonies underground, in rotting wood, or in moist, protected places—under bricks or patio stones, for example. Carpenter ants are more neighborly. They’ll set up shop in your home if water or water-damaged wood is nearby.
Hard-working ants tirelessly clean up dead insects and dropped crumbs. The problem comes when they start cleaning your house too. Most will grab a crumb and head back outside to feed their friends, but carpenter ants prefer to build at the source and will excavate your walls to be near water.
Do two things to keep these tiny cleaning ladies out. First, make it hard for them to get in. Use screens and door sweeps. Trim branches that touch your house. Seal holes in your siding (like where pipes go through the wall). Second, no free lunch! Keep the counters clean, the floors swept, spilled sweets cleaned up, food put away. Fix leaking pipes. Meanwhile, keep an eye on bathroom and kitchen walls, the trim around doors and windows, and the wall near appliances that use water—you’re most likely to find carpenter ants there. But they’ll even colonize a leaky roof.
Give baits time to work. Don’t wipe up around bait stations—ants follow each other’s scent trails back to the nest, taking bait with them to feed their fellows.
Ladybugs- These spotted ladies are becoming somewhat of a major nuisance to homeowners because of their habit of invading houses and buildings in large numbers in the fall, and appearing again on warm, sunny days in February and March. Despite its annoyance value, H. axyridis (Asian Ladybug) preys upon many species of injurious soft-bodied insects such as aphids, scales, and psyllids, and is considered beneficial to growers and agriculturists. Asian lady beetles don’t sting, carry human disease or eat wood, clothing, food or houseplants. They have been reported to bite, but it is rare and harmless.
Insecticides are not recommended for controlling populations of H. axyridis. The best technique for managing lady beetles is first to prevent their entry into houses and other buildings by sealing cracks and openings around windows, doors, siding, and utility pipes with a quality silicone or silicone-latex caulk. Similarly, repair door and window screens or other openings to the outdoors using regular window screening (about 18 X 16 mesh size). If beetles still gain entry into living spaces, it is recommended that you remove and dispose of them using a broom and dustpan, or vacuum cleaner, and releasing them outdoors. When using a broom and dustpan, gently collect the beetles to avoid alarming them. If alarmed, they may discharge a yellow fluid that can stain walls, paint, and fabrics, and that has an unpleasant odor.
The Lost Ladybug-The nine-spotted ladybug was once so common that a fifth grader successfully lobbied for it to become the New York State insect. But introduced species, it seems, have moved in and are eating the nine-spot’s lunch. In fact, New York State went 29 years without seeing a nine-spotted ladybug, and researchers believed it to be locally extinct. In 2011 a photograph was sent to Dr. Losey, a Cornell professor and the director of the Lost Ladybug Project, who confirmed that it was a indeed the nine-spotted ladybug. The photograph was from Quail Hill Farm in Amagansett. This discovery marked not only the first sighting in decades of the nine-spotted ladybug in New York, but one of the first in the entire Eastern U.S.
Visit www.lostladybug.org/index.php for more information about the Lost Ladybug Project.
Boxelder bugs-The adult boxelder bug is about 1/2 inch in length, and brownish-black in color, with red stripes on the thorax and wing margins. The body is also bright red.
The boxelder bug may be a pest of outdoor trees as well as a household nuisance. It is the latter that is of most concern to homeowners. The bugs overwinter as adults and nymphs in protected dry places, often in wall voids or attics of houses and buildings. During warm days in the fall and again in the spring, the bugs become active and invade homes, creating a nuisance. They do not feed while indoors.
Building surfaces that are exposed to the sun and stay warm longer may be made less desirable by shading them. Aggregations of the bugs may be washed from the sides of buildings with a strong spray of water. They will return however, if the site is still warm. Covering firewood may prevent the bugs from accumulating there.
Indoors, vacuuming up the bugs and discarding the contents of the vacuum bag when finished is a good, effective, housekeeping method. (If bugs are left inside the vacuum they may crawl out in the storage place.) During active periods you may have to vacuum daily. Closing up the routes of entry the bugs use by caulking or screening is a more permanent solution.