JoAnne Skelly: Pests inside and out

I received numerous suggestions on controlling ground squirrels. Mark recommends clumps of cat urine from the litter box as a repellant. Nancy resorted to trapping them in live traps and then putting them, trap and all, into a large tote filled with water. She then placed the dead squirrels at the edges of the various areas she wanted to protect. She reported that the rest of the clan got the message and left.

However, a different issue has arisen for a reader in Sparks. False chinch bugs invaded April’s yard and house. They started by swarming the back deck and then, unfortunately moved inside the house. She said within a few hours the windows and door frames were covered with them. After several days, the swarm outside moved on, but thousands remained inside her home.

She initially tried taping up any cracks in the windows to prevent more from entering, vacuuming them up, and using Castile soap to eliminate them. Yet, there still seems to be an endless number of bugs that no amount of vacuuming controls. She is concerned about her house plants being infested and ruined while also providing the chinch bugs with a food source to keep reproducing. She wonders if they will ever be able to get rid of them, since she is seeing nymphs in addition to the flying adults. She asked if I could offer any other solution.

False chinch bugs are approximately 1/8 inch long. Their numbers are highest after wet, cool springs. As young spring growth increases so do the bugs, which feed primarily on weeds. Both nymphs and adults have piercing sucking mouthparts with which they suck out plant juices. Once their weedy food sources dry out or die, they move to irrigated crops and landscapes.

In normal years, they do not pose a real threat to plant health. But this year, their sheer numbers are alarming. It even appears the ground is moving. Fortunately, the mass migration usually lasts only a week. Having them inside the house though is a major nuisance. I suggested to April that she continue her diligent vacuuming, but she may also want to consider placing yellow sticky traps in her house plants to catch the bugs.

The traps are available commercially or she can make her own. Directions are online. Another option is to wash all the houseplants thoroughly with water and isolate all of them in a room without bugs. The bugs die out without a food source. She can then move the houseplants back when the bugs are gone.

For more information on false chinch bugs go to U.C. Davis’s Integrated Pest Management site at https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74153.html.

JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator Emerita at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu.