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From: jgpo@iwu1c.UUCP (John, KA9MNK)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Re: Red-and-black beetles
Message-ID: <205@iwu1c.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Feb-84 11:43:49 EST
Article-I.D.: iwu1c.205
Posted: Mon Feb 27 11:43:49 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Feb-84 07:43:01 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 19

a

Sounds like you have an infestation of "box elder bugs," as we call 'em
here in Illinois.  Judging from the amount of information I've been able
to find about them (nearly nothing) they are probably just a harmless
nuisance.  They seem to go in cycles; 1980 and 81 were very bad here, with
tens of thousands of the critters crawling all over the exterior of the
house; 82 was less bad, and we had almost none in 83.  With the warm
February we've been having, they are already showing up in force, so 84
mightt be a pretty bad year.

I had never seen them when I lived in Chicago and its suburbs.  My first
experience with them was when I moved to a semi-rural area about 45 miles
from the city.

If anybody has any more information about these bugs, I'd sure like to
hear it.