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calendar   Thursday - September 02, 2010

Buggin Out

image



I hate you stinkbugs
Oh yes I do
I will Drione™ your ass
And Sevin™ too
I’ll watch your death throes
And think it’s swell
Oh stinkbugs
Burn in Hell




It’s that time of year again. At the end of the summer the little bastards seem to swarm, hanging out on outside walls and windows. Are they getting ready to breed? I don’t know. I don’t care. But I do know that they’re beginning to look for sheltered nooks and crannies to overwinter in. And our condo has vinyl siding, which seems to be made up of nothing but nooks and crannies.

I stepped out on the front balcony tonight and the little horrors were all over me. They are pretty heavy bugs, and each one is about the size of a dime. So you can really tell when they land on you. And their wings rustle with a deep drone ... brrrrrrr ... sounds like they’re the size of sparrows when you have one in your room at night. Ick. And they fly at night too. And they stink. P. U. Not just when they sense danger. All the time, but even worse when they get upset.

So I got out the Drione™ puffer and went at it. Did all the corners, all the little openings on the edges, all around the slider frame and underneath the toe kick. And while I was at it I must have squashed 3 dozen. You have to take that Drione™ dust on faith. It’s not a knockdown poison. You puff some out, the bugs walk through it, and within minutes - or hours, or a day or two - they curl up and die. But the poison powder also has a stimulator in it, so when the bugs get in it they get hyperactive. This makes them die faster, in theory. All I know is that suddenly they were all over the place. I’m expecting a crunchy carpet of corpses by tomorrow. At which point I’ll probably spray Sevin in the grooves for the sliding door’s glass. Hell, I’ll put up duct tape, sticky side out, if I have to. It’s war.

Yuck.

UPDATE: Use the right tools to do the right job. But first, know your enemy.



Stink bugs come in several varieties. There is the green stink bug, the southern green stink bug, the brown stick bug, and now we have the lousy Chinese import Halyomorpha halys, the East Asian Brown Marmorated stink bug. And it’s accidental introduction point was Allentown PA, not too far away, just 9 years ago. They have quickly spread all across the northern parts of America, right out to the Pacific Coast. That’s the kind that I have here, and they are tougher to kill than the green varieties. The good news is that around here they only breed once, or at most twice, a year. Unlike the dixieland stink bugs that can breed 5 times a year. The bad news is that they destroy crops, especially fruit, and do a bang up job on several kinds of ornamental shrubs too. The icky news is that like all stink bugs, they love to sneak into your attic and hide out over the winters. In flocks. Swarms. Satanic multitudes.

“marmorated” refers to their coloring. It means “veined or streaked like marble” and is similar to “brindled”. These particular bugs here are gray-brown, but are darker in the middle and have white spots out at the edges. So, marmorated they may be, but they still have to die.


image

the marmorated stink bug, another crappy import from China




A whole bunch of internet research shows me that straight up pyrethrins like Drione™ are not the best solution. Oh they work, but you shouldn’t drive screws with a hammer. Find a screwdriver. Looks like the screwdriver of choice is bifenthrin. It’s a synthetic pyrethroid that is non-toxic to people and pets when dry. Bifenthrin is a long term residual and is one of the best termite control agents on the market. It does a great job on cockroaches too. Farmers spray their crops with the stuff. Landscapers use it to control bugs in your lawn. For stink bugs, several studies have shown that a dilute strength of around 0.06% will kill these bastards with a 95% confidence level. That statistical talk for “git ‘er done”. And you get exactly that dilution when you mix an ounce of Bifen I/T in a gallon of water.

But there may be an even better way. Recent research has shown that a combination of bifenthrin and imidacloprid is far more effective than either one used alone. Imida-what? Imidacloprid is an acetamiprid. Who? It’s a neonicitinoid. What? Dammit, speak English!!  It’s synthetic tobacco juice, m’kay? Tobacco juice has been used as a pesticide ever since some colonial American took a chaw of ‘baccy and spit the juice on a bug, which up and died.

Both neonicitoids and pyrethrins kill bugs by short circuiting their central nervous systems. So they go crazy until they collapse. And twitch to death. Cool. But because bugs are much simpler life forms than pets and people, theses insecticides don’t have much effect on us. Imidacloprid is classified by the EPA as a Group E pesticide which means no evidence of carcinogenicity has ever been found. Farmers use the stuff all the time to control chewing pests that eat their crops. As far as I can tell, right now there are no pesticides on the market that combine both these ingredients, but patents have been applied for and efficacy results are turning up. So it’s really just a matter of time.

The Asian stink bug (Halyomorpha halys), also commonly known as the brown marmorated stink bug, is an insect pest that can be a significant problem in back yards and gardens. Originally from Asia as its name suggests, the Asian stink bug can damage and kill plants and may destroy fruit crops. It can also produce a horrible odor when disturbed or crushed. To protect your vegetables, flowers and shrubs, get rid of this pest if it’s infesting your property.

It has now been unexpectedly found that an insecticidal composition containing bifenthrin and acetamiprid, results in high knockdown and mortality rates when applied to general household pests. A preferred liquid insecticide composition ... is comprised of from 0.001% by weight to 0.12% by weight of bifenthrin and from 0.001% by weight to 0.20% by weight of acetamiprids .

Sweet. I like high knockdown rates. Spray ‘em and watch ‘em drop. Time for me to go out on the balcony and count the casualties. The war goes on.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 09/02/2010 at 08:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Environment •  
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