Battling Boxelders around St. Michael a Rite of Spring

It seems spring has officially sprung.

Some of the visual proof can be pleasing to the eye and ear: a few kids riding by on bikes, a robin in a nearby tree, or flocks of geese making their way back north.

Others, like the scene on the side of my house, aren’t.

This is the time of year when boxelder bugs leave their winter homes–namely around your foundation or (eek) in your siding, and flock to sunny spots like the exteriors of homes with southern or western exposure, according to University of Minnesota entomologists Jeffrey Hahn and Mark Ascerno.

Then, as the weather cools, the bugs seek out cracks and spaces around a home, sometimes getting inside and congregating near a sunny window.

Boxelder bugs don't bite but can cause a nuisance—such as the stains their excrement can leave on surfaces.

• The University of Minnesota offers tips on dealing with boxelder bugs gathering in or outside your home.
• Boxelderbugs.net also provides tips on the best pesticides and natural solutions for bug control.

While we, at St. Michael Patch, encourage everyone to try to “stay green” and go for that old soap and water approach, we realize that doesn’t always work. So, if you choose to use pesticides, just be sure where the runoff is headed, and try to keep it out of storm drains and other areas that feed the local water supplies.

Then you can go back to enjoying the better signs of spring…like those tapped maple trees just ready to give us sap for syrup-making.