Thank you for the information…We have billions of these things on our property,so…I am assuming that we will smell like a laundermat for awhile.

Box Elder bugs seems to have years when they are really bad and appear in large numbers, while other years they are rarely seen.
The years 2006 and 2007 were very bad for us in central Wisconsin, but 2008 has been much better. The Asian Ladybug also seems to run in cycles.
It’s either due to weather conditions or a general breeding cycle.

I have these in my home! They were coming up in drove in teh spring and I tried to get them all but they have made it in and I am tryign to find a way to get rid of them. You are DEAD ON about the laundry detergent. In my basement by the washe ron the floor today I saw several dead ones where I had spilled some detergent!

Does anyone know if this would be effective in the yard? I have them all over my property, on the ground. They fly in the air. I have livestock, and am wondering if this would be safe to spray on trees and areas where horses could possibly graze on. I also have cats. Have had many exterminators out, unfortunately, they either won\’t spray grounds, or it doesn\’t work. Am concerned about spraying anything that might harm animals. Help please

Insects breath through little holes in their sides. The soap solution stops up these breathing holes and the insect dies from lack of air. Any soap residue on the leaves of the plants will make any chewing insect have a very bad stomach ache until it rains and washes the soaap off,

We have Box Elders down south as well though it doesn\’t seem to be quite as bad as you guys and gals have it in Wisconsin. The soap generally suffocates the bugs.

Wow! I am pretty far away from you guys. Im all the was in Oregon. I had been trying to figure out what these beetles were. We got them about 2 or 3 years ago and they have been a huge pain. They are everywere and get inside all the time. Thank you for you tip. Ill be sure to try it out

I live in Sacramento, California. We have had pest control here 3 times, does no good. These beetles are everywhere!! 2 diiferent sizes of small ones and the adults everywhere.

We’re new here in Barron, Wisconsin and the oustide of our house was COVERED in HORDES of these black and red bugs. I remembered them from childhood in North Dakota and told my husband that I thought they were called Box Bugs. Boy, was he happy when he found this site! He rapidly threw together an empty spray bottle with Dawn dishsoap and water and went to town. Nothing amuses a guy like killing mass amounts of insects in a matter of seconds.

They are in Oklahoma as well! I noticed a couple and before I knew it there were hundreds in my backyard. I’m going to go kill them now!

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 bastards!

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!

Im going to try that today I have so many its crazy. When you walk in the house they come in with you. When we take the trash out their on your clothes its a mess. I almost got bug spray so now Im going to hold off on that and try the soap. I hope it works cause Im getting to the point I want to move. In oct its lady bugs and in the summer time its these bugs.

I am in Virginia and I have lived in my house for over a year and last year we did not have this problem but this year they are coming out in big numbers I was constantly spraying my poarch off but they would come right back…thanks for this article we tried the soap yesterday and just waiting to see if it\’s effective!

We live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This is the first I’ve ever heard of these bugs. I saw them this morning swarming my yard! I found this site and followed the advice! I used one or two squirts of Dawn Pure Essentials in a 5 gallon bucket of water from the garden hose. Then I just splashed everything with it. Walk, house,drive, grass, trees, plants etc. They died by the hundreds. Thank you so much for the great advice!

THAY!, Thith workths Thwell!

I find you don’t need allot of soap to do the trick, I go on a daily hunt to find where they congregate…..Millions gone every day….
This only works at the time of spraying them, for a more permanent solution go to the feed store and ask to search the bug spray MSDS sheets carried by the supplier and look for a product containing the primary ingredient Deltamethrin, of course it is toxic but so are the bugs…..this should continue to kill them for a longer period, supposedly a year….

Daniel

PS….
Some are under the impression that they can just spray the house and kill the bugs, the soap methode MUST be sprayed directly on the bugs….. It will not kill any returning bug.

Raid won’t work on these buggers – only the soap & water mixture seems to work by quickly suffocating them.

Dishsoap & Water in a spray bottle worked great for me too – sprayed directly on the bugs.
HOWEVER, even though these are all over my neighbourhood (in Brantford, ON Canada), there seems to be a lot more on my house. Coincidentally, I am the only one attempting to get rid of them…
Is it possible that as they die, they give off a scent or something, so that their friends come too???

I use Dawn dishwashing detergent. Dawn has a surfactent quality that coat them without having to foam. we use it in the fire department to fight chemical fires also.

We have them in northern NY also, i can’t stand them, they give me the willies, i had a warm day and i went to open the glass sliding doors, and it was covered with them ugh, my granddaughter and i sucked them up in the vaccum. gives me the creeps.

My comment is a question: we have been squishing these bugs all winter long. Is there a way to eliminate them from the house in the winter utilizing your detergent method? Also, will they move outside in the summer? Thank you for your help.
BEYOND FRUSTRATED IN MINNESOTA

We have had the infestation of these bugs for the past two years. They were clustering around the the backdoor and on the patio. Last evening, I used the soap and water, within 5 minutes a few hundred bugs were crawling out from under the siding and jumping into the solution and gone within a few minutes. I did it again today and still had at least 50 do the same thing. Thank you from Johnson City, TN.

thanks for the tip> I live in Michigan and just today i walked out and there had to be 1000′s on the brick on the bottom of the house-(i have crawl space). This is the earliest i’ve seen them- but i sprayed them with dish soap and the piles of bugs were dead within minutes.

UGH!! We are infested with these damn things. We’re in Upstate NY and they are much worse than last year when we first noticed them. I’ll will definitely be trying the soap mixture. We live in an old house (1890) so there’s lots of cracks for them to get in. The situation has really become intolerable.

Just moved to Wisconsin from Indiana in August and saw them for the first time right after we moved. There were hundreds clustered on a tree at a pumpkin patch we took the kids to and it creeped me out to no end. The house we’re buying seems to be attracting them and I sought solace and a remedy here on the net. Thanks so much for the soap/water solution.
As for those asking about getting rid of the ones inside your house, the most effective way, as stated somewhere above is to use your vacuum/shop vac/dustbuster and vacuum them up and dump them in to a soap water solution to kill them so they don’t breed. As far as getting them out of your vents, my only suggestion is to either wait them out and vacuum them up as they come out, or have someone from an AC company come clean out your vents and do a once or twice over in your house with your vacuum.

Okay, thanks Heather – I’ll give it a shot!

It’s so weird… it’s like they appear out of nowhere. Anyways… I WILL WIN!!! Haha

Thanks for the tip. I wondered what these little pesks were. We have tried bug spray to no avail. We decided since they did not cause harm, we almost felt bad killing them. However, they are so bad this year (we live in NY along Lake Erie) they will just have to go.

I’m in Texas and just found an infestation in my front yard. Thank you so much for the tip. I think they were in my neighbors yard a couple of years ago. Don’t know why it took them so long to make it over here, but here’s where it ENDS! Muhahaha! (evil laugh)

Thanks so much, will try this. I believe we got ours with the pine needle mulch we put in the garden and under the trees. We are in NC, so I guess they are travelling south.

Thought I was going to FLIP OUT….can’t stand bugs…..I’m a Yankee living in North Georgia and never seen such a bug. Neighbor who has been in Georgia his whole life had no clue…Home Depot same thing. I tried Miatholon and then kept crawling….Home Depot was shocked. I always heard about dish soap…cheapest and safest for plants. Can’t wait to go out there and battle these buggers in AM….They are crawling on my house….I thought they were from the pine straw that was just delivered???? But no matter where they came from…sounds like they are infesting the country…thanks for the help…dish soap better be the answer!

Thank you, thank you for the quick and easy fix. These bugs are relentless, and they like to fly onto you too. That way they can get in the house. It worked great, they are extemely tenacious bugs. My aunt has vinyl siding, boy did they get a rude awakening. Bless you!!

I live in portland ,oregon,and I just tried your solution,now I didi this in the morning when the bugs are not as noticeable because the sun hasn,t come out but for few I could find it worked great+ I sprayed any bug I could find and IT killed flys, spiders and who knows what the bugs were,obviously means we don,t have to spend all that $ on insectisides I guess our ansesters were right about finding simple solutions to lifes problems

I love your wp theme, exactly where do you down load it through?

This really works, my Preschooler likes to help spray them too. This is more cost efficient than having to pay an exterminator, who would probably just use pesticides.

We are in Georgia and I have just now noticed all these things on our garage and our front door steps. Thanks for the detergent idea and all this useful information! My 10 year old daughter found this site in researching the critters for me! Apparently they are all over the United States!

I live in West Virginia also and my back yard was covered they are all over the side of the house, outbuildings, and trees! They did’nt bother me outside but now that it’s getting cold outside they are trying to take over my house! Today when I was cleaning them out of my windows I found eggs attatched to my shades so they will multiply inside!!! I will definetly try the soap! Thanks everyone for the info! Tired of having the CRITTERS crawling on me I think they migrate towards body heat too!!!!