Kudzu Bugs: A New Pest In East Tennessee

We’ve talked in previous posts about pests that have come to the United States from other countries and then created problems for our ecosystems. Pests that may be only an inconvenience in their countries of origin can be devastating when they arrive in areas that do not have the proper predator balance for them. Unfortunately, we have seen another non-native species, the kudzu bug, rise up in the Southeast in the last five years, and it’s time for Tennessee homeowner to brace for impact.

Kudzu bugs are also known as lablab bugs and globular stink bugs. They arrived in Georgia in 2009 and spread through several counties that year. Now, in 2013, they can be found in most of the states in the Southeast, including Alabama, both Carolinas, Mississippi, Virginia, northern Florida, and Tennessee.

Like the brown marmorated stink bug, kudzu bugs have straw-like mouth parts, which they use to suck liquids out of plant stems. Based on their name, you might be inclined to call them beneficial since they do, in fact, eat kudzu and significantly hinder its growth. However, their second-favorite food is soybeans, which makes up an enormous part of the U.S. farming economy. In just a few short years, they have already demonstrated their ability to cause devastating damage to crops, and they are a huge point of concern for local entomologists and pest professionals alike.

Even if you’re not a farmer, kudzu bugs are likely to be a hindrance for you. Just like stink bugs, lady bugs, and boxelder bugs, adult kudzu bugs move indoors when the weather first starts to cool off, and they overwinter in attics and wall voids. Light-colored houses are more at risk for invasion (they have a particular affinity for white), and they are most likely to enter homes after sunning themselves on south or west walls on chilly fall days. They then emerge in the spring when the weather warms up to eat, mate, and lay their eggs. Unfortunately, overwintering pests are not blessed with spectacular senses of direction, and kudzu bugs can end up inside your home instead of leaving through the crack they used as an entrance. And, you guessed, just like the other bugs listed above, they emit a smelly, staining liquid when they are agitated or smashed that can be very problematic in a home.

I write about overwintering pests every year to try to warn as many homeowners as possible because we are now in the season when you need to take action to keep these pests out of your home. Check your weather stripping, ridge vents, and the holes around your utility entrances. Make sure to keep those well-sealed so you’re not presenting easy entrance points for pests. If you do not want to have a professional pest treatment, consider getting a hose attachment that will allow you to spray your home with very soapy water. This is a short-term treatment (since both sun and rain dissipate soap very quickly), but if you do it every few days, you may deter these bugs from sunning on your siding. If you do want a professional treatment, call Russell’s Pest Control before the weather turns truly cold. We can use a backpack sprayer to treat the outside of your home to make sure that our products get into the small cracks that the kudzu bugs, stink bugs, and lady bugs are most likely to find appealing.

Contact us if you’d like more information. We’ll keep you informed as we find out more about this new type of invader.

The Three-Part Flea Treatment: Part 3

We have arrived at the end of our three-part flea series. If you missed the first two articles about what you need to do before a flea treatment and what will be going on during a flea treatment, you can visit those posts to get the full story. Let us now discuss what you need to do after a flea treatment to ensure that the family of fleas is fully eradicated and does not re-infest your home.

You might remember from our previous discussions about flea biology that young fleas can be very difficult to eliminate. Insect eggs are so tiny, but they’re surprisingly durable. It’s very difficult to get a pest control product through the walls of an egg. Additionally, flea pupae are like little fortresses. All told, there are two phases of the flea life cycle that are quite a challenge to eliminate. This means that we have to get clever and turn their habits against them to fully stop a flea infestation.

Do you remember that flea pupae are motion-activated? The fleas inside their cocoons will wait to emerge until they feel vibrations nearby. Since most of the fleas hatched and grew up in a sunning spot that is much-frequented by your cat Whiskers, the fleas assume that the vibration is Whiskers returning to lie down. They quickly emerge so that they can have immediate access to a host. Luckily for us, vacuums provide all of the vibration needed to stimulate the waiting pupae. The vacuum tricks the fleas into emerging at the wrong time. They are then exposed to the product that the technician used to treat the carpet, and they are also at risk of being sucked into the vacuum.

Because the adult fleas were probably laying eggs for several days, you’ll need to vacuum every day for at least two weeks to ensure that you stimulate all of the pupae as soon as they develop. You must also empty the vacuum cleaner in an outside trashcan every day. As we’ve said before, vacuum suction does not kill most pests; it is simply a way to gather many of them together and move them outside.

If you vacuum every day for at least two weeks, you should be happily rid of your flea problem in no time at all. This is another example of how pest control is always a joint effort between an experienced technician and a willing homeowner. A professional flea treatment is much less effective without the daily vacuuming by the homeowner.

Thanks for joining us as we’ve walked through the process of keeping Whiskers and your home flea-free.

The Three-Part Flea Treatment: Part 2

In our last post, we discussed what you need to do to prep for a flea treatment before the technician arrives. Now let’s discuss what will be happening during the treatment.

First, let’s cover your job during this time. You remember how we said that you should reward yourself with a smoothie after all of your hard work? You should enjoy some downtime since you need to be out of the house for four hours. Well, on your way to your favorite smoothie joint, you should drop Whiskers off at the pet groomer. It is imperative that you have your pet treated for fleas before reintroducing him into your treated home. Unfortunately, popping on a flea collar won’t cover it. When pets are not properly treated for fleas, the flea treatment on the home is largely negated. Make sure that Whiskers is squeaky clean before bringing him back in the house.

You may remember from our previous post about flea biology that the fleas’ life cycle can make controlling them a challenge, particularly their pupae, which are highly-resistant to pest control products. In fact, they have some instincts that would be really cool if they weren’t so annoying. So, while Whiskers is reveling is his bath, our technician is at the house, executing a multi-tiered approach to flea control. Of course, specific treatment plans vary, depending on each customer’s circumstances, but our main plan is to treat carpeted areas and any necessary furniture with two types of products. The first product is designed to knock down the adult population quickly to interrupt the breeding cycle. The second is intended to keep the larvae and pupae from developing correctly. This means that they won’t be able to make successful transitions into adulthood, which again interrupts the breeding cycle. For this, we often use products called IGRs (Insect Growth Regulators). These are specifically designed to affect insect growth (often in the way they shed their skins), which means that they do not negatively affect humans, dogs, and cats. This is a great tool in a pest professional’s arsenal.

Now, you may be wondering why you need to be out of the house for four hours since that’s not typical during a regular pest control treatment. Of course, anyone can have an allergy to some ingredients, so it can be wise to keep everyone away since we often have to treat large areas at a time. However, we mostly recommend that four-hour time block because the products we use are slick. If you get them on your socks from the carpet and then walk to the hardwood, you could slip, and we don’t want that to happen. So don’t worry; we’re not bombing your house with pesticides.

Next time, we’ll discuss what you need to do after the flea treatment is complete and wind this series down. As always, you can contact us if you want more information!