Thank you so much for this tip we have been dealing with these bugs for 2 yrs now and they just cover the side of the house and the garage. We have tried everything and this has worked great.

Having a real nasty problem with them this year, in the countryside north of Madison. Trying everything to get rid of these b*****ds, but my house was built in the 70s so theres a few gaps where they can get into my house and I can’t do a lot about it. Any thoughts on dealing with them once they come inside?

I have an indoor infestation of Box Elder Beetles. After reading the information published here, I decided to try the cures offered.

Regarding laundry detergent: Any brand will probably do the job. I used the cheapest thing I had in the house, a no name brand, totally generic. Results: The beetles, when dropped into a solution of water and detergent died within approximately 30-40 seconds.

I also tried Simple Green. The results were the same, but more expensive.

After testing detergent, I tried dish washing liquid. I used Sun and Earth, an organic, non harmful to the environment product. It worked as well as the detergents. This product is safe to dispose of into the garden, or on the lawn. It is environmentally friendly.

My tests were conducted by the immersion technique. I don’t know what the ratio of water to product used would be for spraying.

As to having these pests in the home: This isn’t for everyone, but I have been hand picking them from the window area where they congregate, and from the floor, plus any other surface I can reach. I had been squashing in a tissue, but not being squeamish about these things, I just started pinching them between my fingers. It’s a very fast thing; they are gone before they know what’s hit them. After trying the liquid solution, I am keeping a container handy in areas where they congregate, and just dropping them into it.

Obviously you don’t store the corpses. I just fish them out after a catch of 10 or so. As I mentioned, I’m not squeamish.

By the way, I haven’t noticed any foul odor from hand killing them. The more of these things you kill in your home, the greater your advantage you will be in controlling future indoor generations. I am dealing with two sets of young now.

I have so many of these that I will try anything

They’ve moved south, we have them in Cincinnati and have for the past two years. We’re going to clean these suckers now…literally.

Holy moly. Glad you gave a solution. I’ll stock up on some soap.

I\’m in WV and these bugs were bad a few years ago and then I didn\’t see them for a while. well this year they\’re back and bad as ever!

I have them here in Pittsburgh. And as everyone has said, they are almost impossible to get rid of. Superbugs, if you will? I also found that mixing Ortho bug killer that is plant friendly works also. It is in heavy doses. But Raid and other things seem not to work. Has anyone found something that they will carry to the nest and kill the pack?

I like the detergent idea..I will try

I live in Idaho and when I was a kid we had a tree that was always covered with them. As an adult, I moved back into that childhood house for a while and they were still there and going strong. They swarm all over the outside walls but we had very few indoors. We would go to the biggest group and smash as many as we could at once. They would flee but after a short time more would be back and we\’ld do it again. It was very messy but seemed to be effective after a while. This is good info because we never could get all of them. I just wanted to let everyone know that Idaho has them, too.

Hi. Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
I am from Namibia and also am speaking English, give true I wrote the following sentence: “Accept visa and mastercard: hanis was many to be damaged, and was told about her academia on the biggest response in herself, to which she became that it was her polling, but that she’s unlikely with it.”

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ANY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW MUCH DETERGENT I WOULD USE TO ONE GALLON OF WATER?

Glad to find this article. We are all way in Merritt, British Columbia, Canada. My Cottonwood tree and side of our deck was infested with them. I tried insecticidal soap, which was effective on some, but not so environmentally friendly. I’m happy to find that simple soap and water will do away with these bugs. Hoping now they won’t find their way into the house.
Thanks.

I have been killing these critters all year and wiped out some huge swarms of the tiny newborns this spring, so this fall I haven’t had as bad a problem with them, but they are still pretty bad. I switched to lemon JOY dish soap that I buy for $1.00 per bottle at the local dollar store. Dawn or any other liquid soap will work. For those worried about plant or environmental damage, just be sure the soap is a non-phosphorus variety, which most are. The ORTHO sprayer connected to your garden hose does a great job and clears large areas in seconds. Set it to 2 oz per gallon or just until the spray creates suds. It has never killed trees, grass or shrubs (arbor vitae) so get out and kill those little b*****ds!

dont kill the elders, they are peaceful. if they are coming inside in mass, find their entrance and block it and let them stay outside or where they were…
killing that many elder souls mite set off some voodoo..
while promoting violence with soap will surely seal your deal~

LONG LIVE THE BOX ELDER!

we rented this house and there was’nt that many bugs until the summer came and they were every ware i ask the land lord what kind spray to use and she told me but thats not working so i am going to try the soap. hope it works.

We rent a place as well and the main reason we rented was because of the big fenced in yard for the kids. Well they are too scared to be out there because of the bugs flying everyone. They always seem to smack me in the face. We did the soap thing and got rid of what seemed like a million. Then winter came and now winter is almost over and wouldn’t you know it they are back. Must be early hatchers so I am gonna hose it down again. The landlord has cut all the trees down so it must be a neighboring house, but my entire deck and house and patio door were covered in them last year. Trying desperately to avoid it happening again this year. I put regular dawn dish soap in a couple of squirt bottles and water and let the kids squirt away then I finish the job with a hose. It does work. I guess I was just hoping for a more permanent solution.

Amazing. used a spray bottle and generic dish soap.. started spraying and they started coming out (and dying) by the hundreds!