Time For Home Defense

[Cyndi B.]

The crops are coming out and so are the Asian Beetles and Box Elder. Found the Home Defense spray. Tried to spray but was immediately swarmed upon. Will plan an attack when it cools down later.

[peterh]

Those are insects that emit a swarming pheromone that attracts nearby bugs of the same species to the area. Spraying will only temporarily stop them or cause them to move to another, nearby location.

A better solution is to chemically inactivate the pheromone they're laying down on your walls by spraying them with a solution of bleach and dish soap (not dishwasher detergent, use something like Dawn or Palmolive), 1c Bleach and a tablespoon of dish soap to 5 gallons water. You can use a lawn sprayer to apply it. Let it sit for a full day (and sunny days work best), then rinse the wall down.

Now the bugs will find a new place to swarm.

[BAMA & Pachyderm Posse]

Doz it work on love bugs ?

[papa-t]

I was thinking of flame thrower; but I guess the mixture would work well too. LOL

[Cyndi B.]

Peterh:

We have used soap (came out and my husband was hosing down my newly cleaned windows). The Home Defense gets them when they get into the house and they are not crawling all over. I will have to try to soap thing again since I haven't been able to wash the windows lately.

[peterh]

Answering the love bug question: Probably not. Love bugs don't have a known aggregation pheromone, but are attracted to certain colors, surface temperatures, and to hydrocarbons.

I worked with stink bug alarm pheromones - the stink in the stink bug - looking for the gene that produces the diesel-fuel-like oil the alarm pheromone is suspended in while working on my biology/chemistry degree. Alder bugs are a close relative of the stink bug . . . and it was actually a discovery by another student, who found alder-bugs made very small quantities of diesel, that got me going on them.