Box Elder bugs

The box elder bugs are crazy this year. Finally had enough and mixed up some Tempo. Overnight they are gone.

One million on the outside of my house. It's icky like a honey beehive box.

Tempo is AWESOME.. Nothing eats Box Elder bugs and wasps. Better living through chemistry

Can you spray tempo with pets around? I got them BB up the arse around my garage but my dogs lives in the garage when iam gone at work.

scrotcaster said:

Can you spray tempo with pets around? I got them BB up the arse around my garage but my dogs lives in the garage when iam gone at work.

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Yes. You can spray Tempo in your house if you desire. Once it dries it's completely safe.

Whisky said:

Yes. You can spray Tempo in your house if you desire. Once it dries it's completely safe.

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Our barn cats eat the dead BB killed from Tempo, they are still fine... unfortunatly

Plain old soapy water sprayed directly on box elder bugs will do them in, plugs up their breathing thing and they die. Lived in an old house years ago where you could throw a cat out of and not leave a scratch. Box elders were awful, put a light right over kitchen sink filled with soapy water and leave light on over night. There would be hundreds of dead box elder bugs in the sink in the morning, pull the plug drain and Lysol spray the sink and was go to go until the next night.;:;barf

Tempo does the job but damn spendy,feedmill in town put me on "Bug Max" does the same job as tempo for half the price,mix up a half gallon and spray around the house foundation out to 10',no need to spray the house down,works great! HATE THEM LITTLE BASTARDS.

snow said:

Tempo does the job but damn spendy,feedmill in town put me on "Bug Max" does the same job as tempo for half the price,mix up a half gallon and spray around the house foundation out to 10',no need to spray the house down,works great! HATE THEM LITTLE BASTARDS.

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Bugmax and alot of box store type products will stain vinyl siding.

Tempo is $50 a bottle but will mix about 15 gallons of spray. One gallon of bug max is about $20.

IMO tempo is worth its weight in gold, $50 is dirt cheap imo

as much as the bugs are kinda a pain to see i just let them be. as far as i know box-elder bugs are harmless so i let them alone. im also the guy who leaves those big garden spiders alone too though, other than looking absolutely disgisting they are fly and bug killing machines

Seems like they have a short life span and a long cycle in between , They were thick here only one fall a few years back and now we seldom see one. Same with the ladybugs or Asian beetles that infested us one year.

BEB suck, especially if you have any cracks or openings they can sneak into when the weather gets cold. Garden spiders are awesome and I often catch crickets for mine, fun to watch them wrap up the bugs. I especially like the big black/yellow ones, but dont see them around nearly as much as I used to back in the day, late 80's and 90's...

Im not sure what kind of spiders they are but I always have a couple gigantic brown ones In the bushes in behind my house. There was one thats body alone was slightly smaller in diameter than a quarter. I too would feed it crickets. Pretty cool to watch how they spin them with their legs. When the wife acts up I theaten to throw one in her hair. Not gonna lie if one of them junped into my hair Id run down the street screaming like Trump gave me the octopus.

My grandpa always said that alot of boxelders in the fall meant a mild winter

Box Elder Bugs are harmless!! The only problem is that which ("You") deem a problem. They over winter as adults and are simply looking for the warmest, most protected habitat to survive the winter. Oftentimes it is homes that offer the perfect place to survive winters fury. I have thousands of them hanging around on and in my house. Unless they are inside, I pay them no mind. They will be gone once it gets cold and when it warms up, will be just as gone. Spending money controlling something that is of no harm is just plain silly. Spray if you want, but the results will be the same as if you do nothing at all. JMHO though.

KDM, PhD, Entomology NDSU 2005

I have white steel siding KDM I have to disagree with you. The brown stains they leave all over the outside of my house and inside are bothersome to clean. The stains are caused by box elder bugs, they are the enemy...

I agree I can't kill them all but it makes me very happy when there are piles of dead ones.

Since your a PHD can you tell me any negative effects of Tempo ??

if I remember the recipe right I think dad would mix 1/4 cup dawn to 2 gallons of water , maybe 1 gallon in the spray jug and hose them down it worked good and was cheap

LBrandt said:

Plain old soapy water sprayed directly on box elder bugs will do them in, plugs up their breathing thing and they die. Lived in an old house years ago where you could throw a cat out of and not leave a scratch. Box elders were awful, put a light right over kitchen sink filled with soapy water and leave light on over night. There would be hundreds of dead box elder bugs in the sink in the morning, pull the plug drain and Lysol spray the sink and was go to go until the next night.;:;barf

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Ditto on the soap because it smells good and kills those little buggers

huffranger said:

I have white steel siding KDM I have to disagree with you. The brown stains they leave all over the outside of my house and inside are bothersome to clean. The stains are caused by box elder bugs, they are the enemy...

I agree I can't kill them all but it makes me very happy when there are piles of dead ones.

Since your a PHD can you tell me any negative effects of Tempo ??

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Tempo uses beta cyfluthrin which is a pyrethroid insecticide. Like any insecticide, this product can cause some issues to humans if directly exposed. However, the LD 50 is between 500-800 mg/kg which is not a very toxic material and only warrants a CAUTION label. When you get down around LD 50's of 50 mg/kg or less, then you have to be VERY CAREFUL when using that product. It will have DANGER labels. If used according to the label and you wear reasonable protective clothing and common sense there really shouldn't be any negative effects. However, MORE IS BETTER isn't a smart thing when it comes to insecticides. Stay Safe!!

We sell Talstar One in the quart bottle, its a lot cheaper than Tempo.

Talstar P (also known as Talstar, Talstar One or Talstar Professional) Multi-Insecticide with bifenthrin is one of the most trusted and widely-used insecticides by pest control professionals today, and now available to you for DIY pest control.
The name Talstar P/Talstar One means one professional solution for everything: Talstar insecticide kills over 75 insect pests and can be used for indoor pest control, outdoor pest control, food handling areas, turf and ornamental treatments, in the yard as a yard spray to treat fleas or other yard pests, and even for termite control.
Talstar has a long residual, so it keeps on killing pests for over three months after you've sprayed it. Plus, Talstar One is odorless, dries clear, leaves no stains, is non-irritating to the skin, and won't break down easily with rainfall. For termites, ants, mosquitoes, roaches, beetles, spiders, and everything in-between, Talstar insecticide is simply fantastic. 1 Qt. concentrate yields 32-96 finished gallons. Application of Talstar P requires a sprayer.


[h=3]How Talstar Pro (Talstar One) Works[/h]Talstar P is a liquid concentrate insecticide which contains bifenthrin, a synthetic pyrethroid. Pyrethroids work by disrupting an insect's nervous system causing a weakened state followed by death. Talstar P does not provide an instant knockdown of pests, rather, pests pick up the residual active ingredient by contact. Talstar P is a repellent insecticide since it acts quickly enough that social insects such as ants cannot create a pheromone trail. This means that Talstar P will be most effective as a barrier with a thorough application. Talstar P residual can last up to 3 months.
[h=3]Target Insects[/h]Talstar P (Talstar One) controls over 75 different pests -- everything from stink bugs, bed bugs, spiders, mosquitoes, cockroaches, ticks and fleas to pillbugs, chinch bugs, earwigs, millipedes, Dichondra Flea Beetles, spittlebugs and more. It is very effective on Japanese Beetles, clover mites, ants, termites, spiders, scorpions, roaches, army worms, mealybugs, mites, grasshoppers, pillbugs, cutworms, sod webworms, weevils, leaf miners, box elder bugs, bees, wasps, sowbugs, crickets, and turf and ornamental pests. Please see below for complete list.
INSECTS CONTROLLED: Adelgids, American Dog Tick, Annual Bluegrass Weevil, Ants, Aphids, Armyworms, Bagworms, Banks Grass Mite, Bedbugs, LadyBeetle, Bees, Beet Armyworm, Beetles, Billbugs (adult), Biting Flies, Black Turfgrass Ataenuis, (Adult), Black Vine Weevil, Boxelder Bugs, Brown Soft Scales, Broad Mites, Budworms, California Red Scale, Carpenter Ants, Centipedes, Chiggers, Chinch Bugs, Cicadas, Cigarette Beetles, Citrus Thrips, Clover Mites, Cockroaches, Crane Flies, Crickets, Cutworms, Dermestid Beetles, Diaprepes, Dichondra Flea Beetles, Earwigs, Elm Leaf Beetles, European Red Mite, Fall Webworms, Fire Ants, Firebrats, Fleas, Flea Beetles, Flies, Flour Beetles, Fungus Gnats (adults), Gnats, Grain Weevils, Grasshoppers, Gypsy Moth Caterpillars, Hornets, Imported Fire Ants, Indian Meal Moths, Japanese Beetles, Lace Bugs, Leaf Feeding Caterpillars, Leafhoppers, Leafrollers, Lesser Grain Borers, Mealybugs, Merchant Grain Beetles, Midges, Millipedes, Mites, Mole Cricket, Mosquitoes, Moths, Old House Borers, Orchid Weevil, Pecan Leaf Scorch Mite, Pillbugs, Pine Shoot Beetle, Plant Bugs, Powder Post Beetles, Psocids, Psyllids, Rice Moths, Sawfly larvae, Sawtoothed Grain Beetles, Scale Crawlers, Scorpions, Silverfish, Sod Webworms, Sowbugs (Pillbugs), Spider Mites, Spiders (including Black Widow, Brown Recluse and Hobo Spiders), Spittlebugs, Springtails, Stored Product Pests, Tent Caterpillars, Termites, Thrips, Ticks (including Brown Dog Ticks), Tip Moths, Tobacco Moths, Treehoppers, Twig Borers, Warehouse Beetles, Vinegar (Fruit) Flies, Wasps, Weevils, Whiteflies, Wood-infesting beetles
[h=3]Target Uses[/h]Talstar P is an ideal broad-spectrum insecticide for prevention, maintenance, or active infestations of over 75 pests. Talstar P provides a long-lasting barrier around the perimeters of structures for crawling insects such as ants, beetles, and roaches; protects ornamental plants from hazardous pests like mealybugs; helps control nuisance flying insects such as mosquitoes; protects lawns from turf pests such as chinch bugs; and even has an expanded label to include treatment of stink bugs. See below for complete list of approved usage sites.
ACTIVE INGREDIENT: Bifenthrin - 7.9%