When winter season kicks in, the western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus Occidentalis will seek your home’s warmth. This bug is sometimes confused with a cockroach, the biting kissing bug, and stink bug because of its somewhat similar appearance.
These bugs have black and reddish brown colouring, with square shoulders, small and pointed head which is why they are sometimes confused with stink bugs.
Good thing that western conifer seed bugs don’t cause harm or bite humans. However, they can be a nuisance once they decide to move in for winter season. At around ¾ of an inch long and once gathered in large numbers, western conifer seed bugs are never a welcome visitor in many homes.
Western conifer seed bugs are true bugs from family Coreidae and Order Hemiptera. Similar to other bugs that belong to the order, these bugs have a simple life cycle that starts from eggs to nymphs, with their lives ending as adults. These insects tend to fly noisily similar to bumblebees.
The Damaging Effect of Western Conifer Seed Bugs and How to Prevent It
Although western conifer seed bugs don’t pose any harm to humans, their excessive consumption of pine and fir seeds can result in serious seed crop loss. This economic effect can be most severely felt in the declined viability and quality of conifer seed crops.
This can become a serious concern for homeowners once these bugs decide to move indoors. There are several homeowners who are unlucky enough to face some severe infestations once the weather turns colder and nothing can be as disconcerting as having an invasion affecting your property.
A lot of people who give advice on how to reduce these unwelcomed visitors in your home recommend sealing off exterior holes, cracks, and gaps with caulking to get rid of their entry points. It may work on the older houses with clapboard siding. However, if your house a vinyl siding, even large amounts of caulk won’t keep them out.
Vinyl soffits and siding are not nailed down that tightly as these are just nailed loosely or hung, as what they call it in the trade. This is done in such a way that it allows vinyl panels to contract and expand with changing temperatures.
Insects that invade during fall can get around edges of the loose panels and into attics and wall voids. If the house is not heated, the bugs will possibly be content with going dormant and they can spend the cold season within the cozy confines.
Sadly, most houses are always heated and the warmth will keep the bugs active. For this reason, they sneak their way inside the living space possibly around mouldings of window and doors, baseboards, openings for electrical fixtures and outlets, openings for cooling or heating vents, as well as other similar pathways.
Once these bugs get inside walls, there are not a lot of measures that you can do. In houses with an infestation of these bugs, there is a high chance that you will continue seeing them through the winter months.
Every now and then, the number of seed bugs in an area might increase to an alarmingly large number. In such instances, pest control professionals can use an exterior pesticide perimeter treatment to help kill off the bugs before they get the chance to enter your home. Such treatment, however, should only be a last resort since pesticides may cause you more harm compared to the bugs themselves.
