Irritating Insects

Fall can be a particularly irritating time when it comes to bugs, as often times you will see many taking up residence in your toasty home. In fact, sometimes it can feel like an all-out invasion. Arm yourself with knowledge of these pests with entomologists Angie Ambourn and Val Cervenka. 

Smarty Plants is a podcast of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Visit www.mda.state.mn.us/plants-insects/smarty-plants for more episodes. Look for a new episode of Smarty Plants every month.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Smarty Plants. We're a Minnesota Department of Agriculture podcast with the goal of informing citizens about invasive species that affect our environment and agricultural resources. My name is Eidan Silver and I will be your host. This episode we're shifting our focus away from plants and to bugs. Pests are a thorn in the side of any Minnesotan trying to enjoy some peace in the outdoors, but they can also have dramatic effects on local ecosystems and on agriculture. With us today to discuss the fall pest invasion are Angie Stravenka. Thank you both for making the time to speak with us. Angie is an entomologist with the MDA plant protection division. She's worked with the MDA for 10 years now and holds a bachelor's degree in biology as well as a master's in entomology from the University of Minnesota entomology department. She's worked in entomology for over 20 years in Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and now Minnesota where she currently supervises a team of 10 invasive species specialists. Welcome Angie, we're so happy to have you with us today. Thank you. Val spent five years with the MDA Plant Protection Division and was a forest entomologist with the DNR's Forestry Division for 16 years before retiring last year. She has bachelor's degrees in entomology and horticulture and a master's in entomology, all from the University of Minnesota. Val also previously worked as a forensic entomologist and worked in the former UMN yard and garden clinic helping homeowners with house and garden pets. Welcome Val and thank you for joining us. Thanks Eidan. Alright, I know we touched a little bit on your bios, but I would also love to hear a little bit from each of you. So Val, I know there are a lot of different things that you can do within the fields of entomology, but I did not think forensics was one of them. So could you maybe elaborate a little bit on what forensic entomology is? Sure. Forensic entomology is where we use the biology of insects that are attracted to mammal decomposition, so mammals includes humans. Um, to learn how long that something has been dead. So for example, um, if somebody is found, um, dead outside, insects will be attracted to the body immediately. And because of that, we can work to, uh, look at the biology of the fly that's laying eggs on the body and how long it takes to develop from egg to adult to to work back to how long that person's been laying there. So you can use entomology to help solve crimes, essentially. Yep, absolutely. Wow. Did you ever solve any murders? Not me. Um, most of our entomological evidence is used as corroborating, which is just helping evidence, um, bolstering the evidence that's already there. And so I have done case work where my evidence has been used. But never solely to solve the crime. That's so cool. Well, we're happy to have you with us today because it sounds like you could be doing much greater things out there on the streets solving crimes. Um, and then Angie, I know that's hard to top, but prior to joining the MDA, what did entomology look like for you? I know you mentioned Alaska. What was Alaskan entomology like? Um, so that was back when I was a technician. I was much younger. Um, but I spent, uh, two years up there. And what I did part of my job was doing aerial surveys. So we were mapping insect damage from little two, three seater airplanes. And I would spend all of my summers flying around the state of Alaska mapping different insects, um, damage like bark beetles or, uh, Aspen leaf miner, whatever the, the, whatever the. Insect of the week was that was causing the most damage. Um, but it was really cool cause I got to see so much of that state. Probably, I probably saw more of that state in two years doing those surveys. Then people have lived there the whole lives. Um, we saw musk ox grizzly bears. We camped on rivers, um, wherever we would land for the evening. Um, we had, it was a very cool job. Did you ever have any close encounters? Um, nah, not with. Any bears, they were, I mean, we, they were near us. Um, I, I did have one close encounter with a porcupine and that was about it, but that was. Everybody survived okay though? Everyone, everyone survived. Porcupines can be scary. Okay, note to self. They're slow though, right? Well, yeah, but, like, when they're chewing on the cabin underneath you while you're sleeping, and then you go to see what it is, they could, I mean, that's, That's fair. It, yeah. Well, I'm, I'm officially more scared of porcupines than grizzly bears now. for that. Um, Well, why don't, to start, why don't we back up a little bit? I think the terminology can get a little confusing when we're talking about entomology. Uh, we all hear about insects, arachnids, invertebrates, arthropods. Uh, and then I feel like often when I'm talking about invasive pests, I want to just say bugs. So, I'd like to know, when we're talking about invasive pests, what exactly are we talking about? Are we talking about bugs, insects, or are we talking about something else? I mean, a bug, a bug is a catch all term for anything creepy crawly, in, in my experience. So, people call. centipedes bugs and spiders bugs, but there is a category of insect called a true bug and they always have bug in the name, stink bug, box elder bug, giant water bug, things like that. Um, but not all things called bugs are insects. The insects are very specific. So when people use it as an umbrella term, is that an improper, proper usage of the word, technically? I mean, technically, but not everybody is an entomologist. So, so we try and establish, well, what are you talking about? What, what kind of bug are you talking about? And then we, we might gently correct to say, oh, that's not a bug, it's a beetle. Well, and on that front, there are other insects that are called bugs that are not technically true bugs, like lightning bugs, which are actually beetles. And I'm trying to think of another, there's, oh, mealy bugs are also not a, not a true bug. Right. Yes. I mean, the, the, the word bug is very loose. Let's just say that. So when we're talking about insects, entomology and specifically is the study of insects and what makes an insect an insect. There are. are some very specific things. So we're talking about, um, an organism that has a hard exoskeleton, which is a hard outer shell. Um, their body is specifically divided into three parts. We call that the head, the thorax and the abdomen. They have six legs as adults. And they typically have two pairs of wings. Now, there's exceptions to all of those rules. Sometimes, like, flies, for example, have two pairs of wings. But that, that second pair of wing is actually reduced into something technically called a halteri. But it's kind of like a little gyroscope that helps keep them flying. So, there are those things that make insects specifically an insect. So, it's complicated, is the short answer. Exactly. It depends. Yeah. So, so then for, for the purposes of a fall pest invasion, when does an insect actually become a pest? I think when a person determines I've had enough. You know, one ant in, in the house, most people don't think of that as a pest, but you've got to, if you have a line of ants into your house, then yes, you start thinking about pest control at that point. Also, I think on a higher level, I mean, when you start talking about. where it's harming people, harming animals, harming the environment. You know, it's kind of bumped up maybe from just a general, you know, nuisance into full pest mode, where you're getting to that point where you're thinking about maybe Doing some kind of mitigation for it. Sure. Yeah, and I like that connection to harm because I feel like the term invasive pest invasion conjures up images of like an army running through a town with torches and pitchforks and pillaging everything. And when I think of it like that, it adds a little glamor to your roles as the people whose job it kind of is to prevent that from happening. And that kind of leads me to my next question, which is what exactly do the DNR and the MDA do when it comes to pest management efforts in Minnesota? Okay. So, well, the Department of Ag, as a rule, we don't do, like, direct pest management, except for, like, in the, in the sense of, like, where you might think at a home where you're spraying insecticide, with the exception of spongy moth, where we do do some aerial spraying, um, we have an aerial spray program specifically for Um, and for those of you that don't know what spongy moth is, it's a, an, a moth. It's an insect defoliator that is starting to show up in our, um, in our state and sort of on a westward movement throughout, throughout the country. Um, And then for another example of direct pest control that we do is with emerald ash borer and that's where we're releasing biological control agents. So think of an insect that eats another insect. And in this case, we have, we are releasing insects that will either attack and reproduce inside emerald ash borer eggs or inside the larva. And in that sense, we're actually doing direct pest control. But. A lot of what we do is on the prevention side, so we're doing early detection, we're trying to find these pests early, um, we're doing outreach, we're trying to educate people on what is an invasive insect, where do you find them, what do you do when you find them. So we spend a lot more time on that front than we do the actual, you know, quote unquote direct pest management. And the Department of Natural Resources kind of does parallel, uh, studies. So we do an aerial survey too, um, looking for tree damage so we can pinpoint outbreaks, for example. Um, we do a lot of educating, um, to educate people about not moving firewood, for example. So we partner with the MDA in, in that sort of thing, but the, the Department of Natural Resources is not in the business of. making treatments on, especially native pests. Um, for another example, for emerald ash borer, we would say, try to put more ash on the market, get more mills to take ash, so that we are reducing the amount of host out there for emerald ash borer. And I like the complexity that you talked about there, because there's a lot of work that goes to direct pest management, but also that goes to indirect pest management, like Uh, adding more mills for, for ash on the market. And there's a lot to be said for education and identification as pest management strategies. Um, so if, if I'm a Minnesotan who's just now hearing about pest management for the first time, why should I care? Why is it so important to manage pests? And what could happen without proper management? So I, I think when you're talking about pest management, a lot of, you need to start with kind of like, what is your objective, right? Um, are you just trying to remove them from the house? Are you trying to protect a landscape? So different, different objectives are going to have different methods of actual management. Um, for example, you know, Mosquitoes. I mean, when you're managing mosquitoes, right, you most people probably know we have a pretty intense, um, mosquito management, um, program in, in the metropolitan area directed by the metropolitan, um, mosquito control control district. Thank you. I can never remember that acronym. Um, and, but I mean, if we weren't, if we didn't control mosquitoes, I mean, there's a, a, a chance that there could be, you know, harm to human health. Right. So, um, same thing with some of our crop insects, a lot of, um, pests that are pests of crops, like for example, soybean aphid is one that growers will manage because if they didn't, they could die. Potentially either have a yield reduction in the amount of soybeans that they're able to harvest or if it got really bad, they could lose part of their crop. And so those are some of the consequences of not managing pests. Exactly. Another example could be, um, managing manure around confined animal like feedlots or barns where a buildup of flies would result in animals doing more. swishing and stomping and bunching as opposed to feeding. And so there would be reduced weight in the, in the calf population, for example. You've got me thinking a lot about where the pests are hiding in my own home now, because I'm like, did I check my attic this morning for the boxholder bugs that I know are hiding up there somewhere? So, um, would you be able to maybe speak a little bit about how I can reduce my anxiety and what pests I need to actually watch out for in the fall? Oh, sure. There's, there's quite a lot. So, we take a lot of calls in the fall for insects that are both native and non native. So, there's going to be quite a different, uh, Big suite of insects that people are going to notice in the fall. Um, and like I said, some of them are native, such as the box elderbug. And some of them are not native, like the brown marmorated stink bug. So, I think the big ones are probably going to be the box elderbug, the Asian ladybird beetle, brown marmorated stink bug, Uh, what else did we say now? Hackberry psyllid. Yep, hackberry psyllid. Uh, oh, the western conifer seed bug, which is a, kind of a bigger one that's got some interesting ring. Leg features, leg features, . Thank you, . And then there's an actually a new one that we were just alerted to by a homeowner last year called the Elm seed Bug, which is a tiny little insect, um, that in other states has become a household nuisance. And when I was called out to that. They were all over the inside of the windows and on the floor. Um, and that one is, that was the first time that that one was ever reported in Minnesota. So that's another one that could be a household insect in Minnesota. For sure. Um, and I guess if we're talking about, you know, what you can do or, you know, or why they're there. So, you know, most of these insects are native. Um, or, a few of them are not native, but they're, they overwinter as adults, which means they spend the winter. So they're looking for a place to get out of the cold, to, to find a place where they can spend the winter, um, until the temperatures warm up and they will head back outside. So that's why they're congregating on the side of your homes and your windows. Um, typically, like on my house in particular, they love that south facing side of my house. And they're full, like, even right now, there's, when, on Monday, when it was nice and warm, I'd box all their bugs and Asian lady beard was all over the side of my house. I mean, I have a high tolerance for it, so I just leave them there. Um, but that's what they're doing, right? They're trying to get in, to spend the winter. They're gonna spend the winter inside. And then when it warms up, they're going to go outside. And I like to remind people, too, that before we all built homes, these insects were overwintering in native spaces, in tree bark crevices, in rock crevices, and things like that. And now that our houses are there, they just represent one more place for these insects to spend the winter. Right. So like on your property, if you have outbuildings or sheds or any of those kinds of things, those are all great places for these insects to, to overwinter. Um, one time when I was working in Alaska, we got a call, um, to a house and we pulled off. They said that there was, it had warmed up, and they said there was butterflies in my bus, and I was like, what are you talking about? Butterflies? This was in the middle of winter in Alaska. And so we went, and we pulled off their siding, and underneath the siding were thousands of, um, Vanessa, um, butterflies. Sorry, that's the genus. There were thousands of these, um, of butterflies that had crawled in over winter as adults, and they were just all huddled on the one side, the south facing side of their house, underneath the siding. It was pretty cool. That's cool. Large insect populations are very cool. Well, you can say that these are natural instincts all you want. I still think they have a personal vendetta against me specifically, and I'll take that to my grave. But, um, So, so, one of the things that surprised me about that though is you mentioned box elder bugs are native species, uh, while brown marmorated stink bug maybe is, is more invasive. So, um, if I find a bug, how do I know whether it's invasive or native and, and what exactly do I do with it? Is there someone who can tell me maybe? Well, yeah, I mean, we can tell you that and so if you find something, you know, and if you have, you know, a lot of homeowners surprisingly have insect guides and guides at their house or they have access to the internet and you know, you can do a quick, you know, I naturalist search or Google search and find out pretty quickly. Maybe what you sort of what you have, but the best thing to do if you're not sure, um, is to capture the insect. If you can, and you don't mind, um, put it in a container, Ziploc bag, whatever you got, and throw it in your freezer, so that It'll, you know, leave it in there for a couple of days, um, to kill it, to kill it. Yeah. My husband still opens up the freezer and is like, when are all these dead insects getting out of the freezer? And I'm like, I don't know, someday. Just don't eat them. I have one in my freezer right now too, so yeah, it's not like it's taking up space for hamburger. I mean, they're tiny little jars, um, and so, you know, you can do that. And then, if you can take a picture, and then we have a Website that's called the report a pest MDA report a pest. There's also a phone number that you can call and that number is 1888 545 6684. So you can call that number or you can do the online reporting. There's also an app on your phone called the Edmaps app. And that is for both Android and iPhone. And that's a great app. I love when people report that way. Because the app kind of forces you to take a picture, which we need. Um, it takes a GPS point so it, we know exactly where the insect was found. And then it will shoot me an email right away once those So, I'm set up as the state identifier for edmaps. So it'll come to me, an email will come, and then I can either get back to the person if I have more questions, or I can either confirm or delete the record based on what, what it's being reported as. So we really want people to report. If you're not sure, just go ahead and report it, and even if it's native, it's better that you reported it than not reported it and missed something, right. Yeah. And, you know. I, I just have to say about Google, people do go to Google right away to try to identify something and there are, you know, insects from around the world are pictured on Google. Yes. And so it's, can be dangerous because you can assume then that that picture from Europe, the insect has, has arrived here and that's generally not the case. So I, I guess I want to caution people that if you're not an entomologist. Contact, you know, the M. D. A. through report a pest, um, because you just can't make those assumptions. There's millions of species of insects and so many look just alike. Oh, yeah. I mean, there are so many insects that are out there that you basically have to, um, Like, there are moth species. One of the ones that we look for in crops, there's a native one. And the only way to tell the difference is to dissect the genitalia. And so, I mean, I, I don't even have the, you know, the skill set to really do that well. And so, I have to send it off to an expert. So, Val is right. Um, just because you think it looks like the picture, I mean, is not doesn't mean it is. I mean, not that that's not a good place to start. It might help you get to the right insect order or even to the right type of insect. Sure. I mean, if you're if it's for your own interest, yes, please do look it up and learn something that way. But it's easy to like spread information that's wrong by using that right? Absolutely. And I think the flip side of that is If you see a bug, and you looked it up, and you think that it's not a big deal, but it actually is a big deal, and you just decided not to contact an entomologist about it, that could be related to an invasive pest that is now in the state and technically undetected again because you did not report. So I think, Angie, going back to what you were saying, report, report, report, right? Yeah, and I really appreciate when people report. You know, we have found through report a pest in the last, I would say, five years. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but I would say it's at least five different new invasive species that had never been reported in Minnesota before were reported by homeowners who were out in their yard and thought, well, that looks different and just sent it in and sure enough, it was the first fine for Minnesota. So that's important. Do you feel that that people report those single individuals or do you feel like something has already become a problem and that's why they're reporting it like this thing is. You know, I've got many of these in my garden, or all of a sudden I've got many of these in my windowsill. So, honestly, I think it's been a kind of both, because sometimes, I mean, like for, for example, with the um, the Asiatic Garden Beetle, which was a new one that was just reported a few years ago, that was just a, like a really savvy gardener. That, you know, just was like, Oh, I've never seen this before. She didn't have a lot of them, but she just had never seen it before. Um, and she reported it. But then with the elm seed bug, yeah, that person had them all over the inside of their wind window sill. And so I think it's a pretty decent mix of both of those things. That's awesome. I think it speaks to the efficacy of the tool. Um, alright, well, if you could offer one single best piece of advice for someone looking to get better at fall pest management, does anything jump to mind for either of you? Sure, I think It's not always easy, but prevention is really the key here. Most of these home invaders don't need pesticides to be controlled. And really, I would never recommend using a pesticide in your home. There are certain occasions, but, um, prevention is really the key. And that would be in terms of making sure your windows are tightly sealed or leaving your screens on. so insects aren't coming in there. Um, wherever you've got like wiring coming into your home, um, you know, seal around that kind of thing around, and I'm not saying close up all your vents, but sealing the, where it joins to your house is, is pretty critical. Cracks in your siding, cracks in the foundation, any of those types of things are going to help with that. those insects from getting in. I mean, and let's be honest, you, you can do that and still probably get some of these insects inside your home. I mean, they're small, they're good at fitting through any tiny little hole. space that they can get into. So you, you might not take care of it all together, but you probably, that probably will reduce it. Also, I mean, you can just suck them up with a vacuum cleaner. That's what I do. I mean, you know, I mean, there is a potential the inside of your vacuum might stink if you got stink bugs or ladybird beetles. You know, or you got paper towel or toilet paper. Just grab them with your hand and flush them down the toilet or run them down the sink. I mean, if you know, there, there has to be a little bit of tolerance here. I mean, sure. If your house is inundated with them, you know, then it might be time to call. You know, for some help, but if you just have 10 or 20, I mean, just, I mean, it's probably safer and a lot cheaper just to, you know, kind of take care of it yourself. I mean, like Val said, I mean, if you have kids and pets and plants, I mean, just spraying chemicals inside your home is just, you know, generally higher risk. I read in one University of Minnesota Extension fact sheet about, uh, vacuuming, uh, the ladybird beetles up. And it's kind of dated, but they said to attach a nylon stocking. Do they even do that? Make nylon stockings now, but like a knee high. Attach it with a rubber band around the end of the vacuum. And so, um, when you vacuum the lady beetles, they'll get trapped inside the stocking and then you just use the rubber band to close up the stocking and throw that away. Although they said you could reuse it. Um, I don't know. You know, people aren't going to wear the stockings afterward, but, um, but I thought that, okay, you're collecting them into something that you can throw it away because they may not be dead and they are going to be smelly, so you do want to empty that vacuum cleaner bag once you, once you're done vacuuming. A lot of vacuum cleaners have canisters now, too. You just dump the canister, you're going to wash those canisters out. My son gave me a bug vacuum that, It's just a small, like, D battery kind of thing where it's supposed to keep the insect alive. Well, I'm not gonna, like, if I vacuum up a spider, it's not gonna see the light of day. But, but then you could take that vacuum outside and let it go. What is it called? Bug vacuum. I never No, no kidding. And it's got a clear, uh, canister. And it's very, it's only like a foot long. Maybe we'll see it on Shark Tank soon. I'm assuming it's not super, it doesn't have a super high suction, right? Because when they get like, I'm imagining my vacuum cleaner does some damage when the insect is like, whoop, up through the vacuum cleaner. It's not going to keep all its legs. It's very small. It's small. So perhaps, I've not used it because I'm just going to use the You go with the nylon sock method? I just go with the regular vacuum method. I don't, yeah, I don't waste time. I've never actually had an infestation of ladybird beetles in my house. I've never had an infestation of most of these things, so I think it's not everybody, it's not every fall, it can be really variable from year to year, what comes in and what the populations are. That's another point in favor of prevention efforts too, right? Exactly. Yeah, I had at least 25 on the inside of my window on Monday while I was sitting at my desk. But that, like, I have an egress window down there, and it's, I'm sure it's not sealed well. But I just let them do their thing. Okay, well, so in summary, I'm hearing prevention efforts. I'm hearing nylon socks. I'm hearing vacuuming. I'm hearing call an expert if you need, and I'm hearing leave them in your freezer for your husband to find days later. Is that, is that about to sum it up? Is there anything I'm missing? Um, so I would, you know, I was thinking there, so there is, you know, A thing called insecticidal soap also, that's not, not the same, it's not going to be as dangerous as like spraying an actual pesticide. But the thing with insecticidal soaps is that you have to spray them like directly on the insect that you're wanting. It's not something that you could apply very broadly, but you could, you know, you could have that if you, if you were at such an ick factor that you didn't want to touch anything. Right, right. Right. If you need to do something, yeah, and some people like need to do something, so that's an option, and I just I wanted to mention, um, to that people can look at the University of Minnesota extension website for information on every single past that we have talked about today, and that is just U. M. N. dot E. D. U. And you can just put in the past that's bothering you. Lady beetles, And a whole fact sheet comes up about that. Their biology, how to control, when do you see them, it, it's very, very useful. I direct people to that website a lot. As, like, the Department of Ag and the DNR website, we have a lot of the pest information, but then the U. M. N., the extension website, has a lot more about control and different things that you can do. Um, and oftentimes it's really divided well onto, like, if you want to use chemicals, if you don't, um, those kinds of things. Yes. Alright, well, my first instinct when I see a centipede in my house is to just wave the white flag and give up and move out and cede the house to the centipede. So, I'm excited to take some of these tools back and maybe take back my property from the bugs. Um, if you think of anything else that can help me in fighting the fall pest invasion, let me know. Otherwise, I'm kind of curious about, uh, if you have any fun stories related to your jobs or Um, anything else that you, that you just think would be a fun story to tell that you've seen over the years? So, I guess I do have one that, when I was in grad school. Um, I, and this is related to Fall Invaders, past the Asian Lady Bird Beetle. When I was in grad school, there was a contest on 93X to eat, whoever could eat the most Asian Lady Bird Beetles won 50 yard line tickets for the Packer Vikings game. And I'm a huge Packer fan. So I was like, all right, I can do this. So I sat down and I just grabbed whatever Lady Bird Beetles were in the windowsill and I ate them. Ugh. No, they taste exactly like they smell and so I, I was like, well, no, I'm not going to win, but I, so I didn't go down to the radio station to, to, to participate, but the person that won that eight, if I remember correctly, it almost ate a cereal bowl full of them, and I can't imagine that they didn't get sick at some point, but our, a colleague of ours who is a retired entomologist from, um, The University of Minnesota was actually a judge, apparently, in that contest. He told me that while he was explaining his encounter with, um, with fame and an invasive insect. So, after Paisley Park was first built, I think it was built in 87. In 88, he got a call along with several other agency people like Carver County and other professionals go out to Paisley Park because there was a big box elder bug invasion and they, the people that called were under strict orders to get them out of Paisley Park because they were annoying Prince. So our colleague went out there and they just, you know, Confirmed, yes, Boxelder bugs, here's what you do. They're not harmful, they're not going to reproduce in the house. And Prince wasn't there at the time. Um, you can't blame him. But, anyway, cool experience to see Paisley Park. That's great. Boxelder bugs are everywhere. Even Prince has them. That's a nice, nice thought for me. Right. Well, Angie, I'm sorry that that happened to you. Um, I would, I would love to know whose idea it was to come up with that contest. I know me too. You could get revenge or something, but, um, thank you both for coming on. It has truly been a joy talking to you. I certainly learned a lot and I'm sure our listeners did too. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, thank you. Alright, this has been Smarty Plants, a podcast from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Our producer is Brittany Revell, our editor is Larry Schumacher, and I have been your host, Aiden Silver. You can learn more about pests and other invasive species that affect our environment at www. mda. state. mn. us slash plants dash insects. And while you head to our website, we'll be working on the next episode of Smarty Plants. See you there.