Oh great, more nasty bugs with an attitude

Well, as if there aren’t enough ill critters to contend with outdoors, we have three new species of invasive insects that can cause problems. I know this because of the news release from the North Carolina Pest Management Association headlined “Pest Association Summer Meeting Examines the Latest Pests to Invade Our Region.”

The region includes North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The professional pest managers – we common folks call them exterminators – spent hours learning how to ID the ruffian bugs and how to defeat their uncomfortable intent.

I will take the three pests one at a time. Being someone who is subject to allergic reactions to bee, wasp, and hornet stings and fire ant bites, I have a special interest in the Asian Needle Ant.

Now here’s an insect (those bugs that have six legs and two antennae) that poses a threat only to other ants. It’s the size of a fire ant, except it’s black. Like we need more black ants around here. It’s not aggressive, but native ants won’t live near their Asian cousins. See, native ants help maintain ecological equilibrium because they’re predators. Things like aphids would run wild if we didn’t have our native ants. Our home-grown ants also help disperse seeds from precious forest plants like trillium. The Asian ants don’t do that.

They just sort of roam around and run the native ants out of the neighborhood. The needle ants aren’t as voraciously predatory, so they don’t do much for the balance of Nature.

They are not considered a danger to humans, but if you get one on you, it can sting the crapamoley out of you. If you are allergic, you could get a welt. Or a rash. Or go into anaphylactic shock. They will not make good pets.

So how do you tell an Asian Needle Ant from the common species? I am so glad you asked. Unless you’re an expert on bugs and intimately familiar with the physical characteristics of Pachycondyla chinensis, you probably can’t just by eyeballing it. But ol’ needle ant is a clumsy oaf compared to our regular ants. If you put one of our ants in a glass jar, it can climb out. Needles can’t. They flounder around in the bottom of the jar.

If you try this, be careful. Wear armor and pick up the ants with tweezers or pliers or something. But don’t crush the ant or you will ruin the experiment. This is a scientific comparison, after all.

Some pesticides will eradicate the ants and keep them at bay. Or, you can build a wall of glass jars around your property.

This next pest is a real stinker. It loves fruit and vegetables, on the vine or off. The brown-marmorated stink bug is like our regular old stink bugs, except bigger. And it’s marmorated. That means parts of its back and wings are mottled, stippled or striped.

We, as in America, didn’t notice the new stink bug (it’s Asian, too) until 1998. Seems they spread fairly rapidly. Farmers hate ’em. The common stink bug is bad enough. The University of Pennsylvania College of Agricultural Sciences, a leading authority on brown-marmorated stink bugs, warns that if the odiferous critters gain entry into your house, “live and dead stink bugs can be removed from interior areas with the aid of a vacuum cleaner – however, the vacuum may acquire the smell of stink bugs for a period of time.”

Well no stink, Sherlock. I’ve been around our own stink bugs all my life, and if you touch one (you don’t even have to smush it) you will be beset by an aroma your best friend won’t long endure.

Seriously, the Penn people have done a lot of work on how to deal with stink bugs. Building glass walls around your place won’t deter them because they can fly. They’re not as clumsy as the Asian Needle Ant. So seal up your house. Fill in every crack. A minefield of pesticides is not a guaranteed defense.

If they get into your house, seal up the cracks and openings so they can’t find their way into the living areas. Once they’re inside, absolutely do not seal the outside of the house. Just keep ’em at bay, and when summer comes, they’ll leave. They only came inside to ride out the cold weather. They don’t breed indoors. They like it outside.

But folks, it ain’t no joke if you mess up and release a stink bug’s stink. That cousin who nobody wants to be around after supper has never seen the day he can top a bunch of stink bugs sucked into the vacuum cleaner.

Last but not least is the bed bug. These are considered to be among the hardest pests to eradicate if they get into the house. They don’t travel all that well on their own, but they’re sneaky hitch-hikers and it doesn’t take but two to tango their way into a full colony.

And they bite. And bite. They’re nasty, vile creatures. If you find one, you can build a glass wall and patch cracks, but call an exterminator first. Fighting bed bugs isn’t a do-it-yourself project. Your home needs urgent care if bed bugs come to roost.

I promise if I find one of these things around the house, I won’t laugh.

One more thing: Insects should never keep one from going outside. Insects come with the territory – virtually any territory. So go out, but pay attention.

 Larry Clark is a Record staff writer. Reach him at lclark@hickoryrecord.com. You can find the aforementtioned critters easily on the Internet. That’s how the University of Pennsylvania site was discovered. And, you can go to www.ncpestmanagement.org for the lowdown on pests and extermination.