Cork Beetles

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JunkDawgs

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Anybody have any experience with Cork Beetles? They look like lightning bugs and have a reddish X on their back. These things are a nightmare! It started out as a few of them, but they mate and then their little babies spawn and look like little fire ants and before long they are full grown and mating again. We are using some store bought stuff to prevent them from them getting in the hosue, but how do I get rid of them?
 
Thank you for the link, lot of good information. I had been reading a lot about them over the last week, at which time I had been trying a variety of different methods to get rid of the little buggers; however, I eventually sought out a professional. I would manage to prevent them from coming in the home, but then they would just find an untreated spot and gravitate there and so on. The problem with these lil guys is they breed in minutes and babies spawn incessantly. Fortunately, I bartered with a guy in my networking group and he took care of them with a very mild insecticide.
 
well these are some unique beetles I never heard abt. Try to have some experts advice if your issue is still not solved.
 
Update on the BoxElder Bugs. After the treatment, the bugs started dying off. I've had a few show up since the treatment, but they too die soon thereafter because once they come in contact with the mild insecticide they will get the treatment on their antennae and since they use their antennae to feed themselves it will eventually kill them. Pretty detailed there, but the short of it is, just hire a professional on these guys for a little over $100 and you'll be set. Try to do it yourself with a bottle of Round Up, they'll just find a new place to breed and keep on coming.
 
Box elder bugs are... bugs, not beetles. Of the order Hemiptera. They do little damage, but are annoying as all getout, covering sunny walls, getting into houses when weather gets cool, and if you smush um they leave a red smear. A wall crawling with all sizes of them looks real creepy.

If you spray them with a mild soap and water solution, they keel right over. The dried soap solution kills those that come along later.
Round Up is a plant killer, it has little effect on insects. However you may have solved your problem, if you have box elder trees, you have box elder bugs. To a lesser extent they feed on ash and maples. But box elder tree= box elder bugs.

Keep an eye out,Junk, they hide in siding and work their way in, to get away from cool weather. They "hibernate" for a while, then when it gets cold enough to turn on heat, they think its spring and move towards warmth.

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Box elder bugs are... bugs, not beetles. Of the order Hemiptera. They do little damage, but are annoying as all getout, covering sunny walls, getting into houses when weather gets cool, and if you smush um they leave a red smear. A wall crawling with all sizes of them looks real creepy.

If you spray them with a mild soap and water solution, they keel right over. The dried soap solution kills those that come along later.
Round Up is a plant killer, it has little effect on insects. However you may have solved your problem, if you have box elder trees, you have box elder bugs. To a lesser extent they feed on ash and maples. But box elder tree= box elder bugs.

Keep an eye out,Junk, they hide in siding and work their way in, to get away from cool weather. They "hibernate" for a while, then when it gets cold enough to turn on heat, they think its spring and move towards warmth.

Thanks for the follow up; your second picture is what inspired me to hire a professional! haha We've had good results and still warm weather so it leads me to believe I may be good, but time will tell as, like you said, the cold weather will force them to find new quarters.
 
"second picture" Box elder in neighbors yard , 10 feet south of my sunny brick wall. All other walls of house brown, south wall looks like red barn, except....its moving... I try not to go over there unless i have to, creeps me out. Caulked the 2 windows real real real good. Spray the creepy wall and tree with dish soap in hose end sprayer once a month or so, or when layer just gets to creepy. As long as that tree is there, bugs be boogalooin', boogiein' down and and orgyin' on my wall.

BTW I looked thru all my field guides and Googled tha interweb for "cork beetle" closest I came was a "cork fly" used by fly fishermen to imitate a beetle. Strange world. How did you hear "cork beetle" from "box elder bug"? Mebbe you got some them lil guys down your ear. Ohhhhh creeped maseff out again.
 
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It's kind of funny that the word Cork Beetle is in the Title post and I ended up being completely wrong about the word! haha I'm a fireman and my wife called me while on shift and she originally called them cork beetles so before going to the web myself I went to the Forum looking for a fix, but I guess it helps when you have the right word and perform your due diligence first. (Yeah, I blamed it on my wife)

We haven't had too much trouble lately, a stray one here and there but I appreciate the advice and will keep it in mind if they start to come out and party.
 
"if they start to come out and party. " Them "cork beetle" orgies is somethin no one should have to see.
Just so happens, last week had to rent a sewer machine to clear box elder roots. another "benefit" of Acer genus of trees, intrusive roots. As I am working, plumber pulls up at neighbor's house. I had installed clean out back there after couple of times dealing with neighbors roots. For years tried to convince him that tree had to go.
He had no clean outs, not even out front to main. I finished my job. Next door is plumber on roof trying to go down main, then bricks ripped from wall, hole knocked in stack, then jack hammers inside tearing up slab. My job cost $40 rental, his ?
Two days ago box elder stacked in his front yard. Them bugs come out of my walls to boogie next spring, they gonna wonder if they in same place they was this fall.

So, you haul junk? Seems all firemen I know have second job, one installed my trailer hitches. Guy can carry a air filled pig bladder down a mowed lawn, a woman can read a few lines without stuttering while shaking her assets, they get paid gazillions. makes you wonder where our priorities are. Help! I'm dying! Call a rock star! My kids can't read, send a politician! ( My wife's a teacher. BTW I tried to blame something on her once.)
 

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