SPOKANE, Wash. – If you live in the Inland Northwest, you may have noticed a bunch of tiny brown or black bugs in and around your home–more so than you might be used to seeing this time of year–which are proving to be quite the nuisance for many people around the region.
“I’ve never seen a bug like them before,” said Mazie Castagnetta. “It slowly just became multiple–and I was killing 10, 20, 30, even 40 a day.”
Castagnetta and her roommates in North Spokane have had it with the pesky pests.
“They were crawling across my bed, and that’s when I said, ‘I can’t take this anymore, I’m sleeping at a friend’s house,'” she said.
She called her landlord, who bug sprayed their windows and doors.
“They don’t bite, they don’t really ‘bug’ you, but there are a lot of them, and they just crawl between my two windows,” Castagnetta said. “It’s kind of annoying coming home and there’s bugs on my wall, and bugs on my bed.”
Castagnetta and her roommates aren’t alone. Dozens of people on NonStop Local’s social media accounts commented they’re dealing with the bugs too.
They’re smaller and look a little different than stink bugs, so the question many are asking: what are they? It turns out the types of trees by your home can determine how likely you are to have them, and what kind.
“They could be elm seed bugs, box elder bugs or maybe the western conifer seed beetle,” said John Kaney, a technician with ProSite Pest Control in Spokane. “They don’t cause any harm to the public, so they’re mostly just a nuisance pest.”
A nuisance is right, especially if you have trees or leaves really close to your home.
“It just gives them a super easy access point to get on the house,” Kaney said, when touring a site they treated for the bugs. “Also you can see the windows aren’t sealed very tightly and they don’t have screens on them.”
Both the Washington State University-Spokane County Extension Master Gardener Program and Kaney say these “seed bugs” are usually around in the summertime, but this year’s earlier record heat likely played a role in the spike we’re seeing right now.
“I think it just makes like a perfect breeding ground for them, just to kind of explode their populations and start getting into the homes,” he said.
If they do make their way inside your home, Kaney says it’s safe to squish them.
“They do kind of have a little odor to them when you squish them, kind of like a stink bug,” Kaney said. “I’d say a vacuum is probably your best bet.”
There are some easy things you can do outside your home, too.
“Trimming down the trees around the house, picking up leaves and pine needles and stuff like that,” Kaney said. “Then I’d also recommend reaching out to your local pest control professional.”
In Castagnetta’s case, so far reaching out to her landlord has made a difference.
“Every day I’m wiping my window sill, spraying, making sure it’s all clean, vacuuming them up, but I haven’t seen as many,” she said.
The Washington State University-Spokane County Extension Master Gardener Program has more information on seed bugs, which can be accessed by clicking here.
