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please help me!!!
please help me!!!
Posted by DESPERATE! Potato bug invasion!??
from pa
on 2002-03-16 10:08:40
please help me... i will check back for responses often, as i can not receive email messages at work as much! thanks in advance for any advice you may have!! :-)
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Potato bugs or Lady Beetles
Are you sure these are Colorado Potato Beetles, which should not be out and about yet (too cold for them), or might these be those Asian Lady Beetles that find our homes and offices nice places to hibernate and then when it gets a bit warm and they wander out if the wall cavities, usually into our living spaces, and crawl and fly around and while they do no harm can be somewhat disturbing.
Posted by Kimm from 4a/5b-MI on 2002-03-17 07:21:50
Other than probably vacumming those you can find the only real solution is to have building maintenance work at sealing any and all points of entry outside so they can't get in next fall when they are looking for someplace to spend the winter. Any pesticide that might get into the wall cavities where these are is going to be so toxic that it would present health problems to you.-
i'm sure, they're potato bugs
hello kimm...NO, i'm SURE these are potato bugs and there is a real infestation problem, they are everywhere, did sprinkle some diazanon that i found around the crack of the foundation...uh oh???
Posted by desperate!!! from pa on 2002-03-17 08:20:31
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Potato bugs?
Potato bugs are pretty specific about where they will go and mostly that's to potato plants since that is what they eat and they normally are not found unless temperatures are pretty warm, like when potato plants are up and growing really well. Are there fields of potatoes around your area from whence these guys might be coming?
Posted by Kimm from 4a/5b-MI on 2002-03-18 08:05:28-
hmmmm??
wait, i;m confused now.
Posted by desperate from pa on 2002-03-18 09:08:53
my office is literally less than 50 feet from the highway. no potatoes at all! these are the little brown "potato" bugs that as a kid i used to pick up and hold all the time (funny~) they have a hard exterior and roll up into a ball when you touch them...potato bugs--right? those little bugs are all over the place- maybe because it's warm in the office, but i suspect that there was moisture at one time and maybe that is attracting them? like i said, i sprinkled the rest of the diazanon i found--did i put all of us in more danger now? now i'm getting worried, would we have to evacuate the building? oh no.-
Ahhh, now I know
Pill bugs, Sow bugs, Wood Lice, Isopoda asellidae, a very common helper in the garden that digest organic matter so it doesn't pile up and cover us.
Posted by Kimm from 4a/5b-MI on 2002-03-19 08:10:17
These guys like a moist environment and feed on organic matter so if you have tons of them in your office there is a moisture and organic matter problem that needs attention, someplace. The only reason these guys will come in a building is because there are conditions they like so someone needs to find those conditions, moisture and food, and eliminate them and the pill bugs (the sow bugs are cousins really and don't curl up when disturbed) will leave.
Probably something you really don't care to know is that these huys are realated to lobster ans crawfish.-
yuck!
Posted by not so desperate now from pa on 2002-03-20 09:52:21
ok kimmm--that was the info i figured
but have now had confirmed, so what
else is living between those walls?!
so, it is the whole food chain i
need to take into consideration and
find the source. if i plant some
flowers around the area would it
encourage the bugs to move away from
the foundation of the building? that
would be too easy.
well, thanks a lot for your help,
and now i wish it was only ladybugs i
could live with them.
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Others
There are a few others that like the same conditions, earwigs, ants, actually just about any of the insects that like moist conditions and live on organic matter. Depending on what the walls are constructed of correcting the conditions that exist and make the area a nice homey place for them should be the first step. All of the insects that would live there do have a place in nature, outside, in the garden, just not in our living (or working) spaces. As long as the conditions are to their liking they will be there. If the walls are wood frame the presence of these guys could indicate there are others more destructive that you are not seeing. If the walls are concrete or concrete block the presence of these buggers indicates something is failing. either way what the conditions need to be determined and corrected to eliminate them.
Posted by Kimm from 4a/5b-MI on 2002-03-21 07:19:06
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