How to rid your house of those pesky box elder bugs...the safe way

I know this isn't decor related, but I like to pass along good tips whenever I think they might be beneficial. And if you are experiencing what I'm experience, trust me, this is beneficial ;)

It's that time of year again...for bugs. Box elder bugs. I don't know about you, but where I live, they come in droves and droves and build empires around the house. It's just disgusting. Especially when you go outside and they just fall down right in front of you from the door. Nothing like getting torpedoed by these bugs :) It seems like they come every other year, so at least I got a year reprieve last year. But this year, it has been the ultimate worst. Luckily, a few years ago I figured out how to take care of those buggers. My little secret weapon I keep in the coat 'closet' ready to use at a moments notice.

Meet soapy water.

Yep, my best defense. I just put about 3 good squirts of dish soap into an old Windex bottle and fill the rest up with water. Shake it up a little bit and get to work.

It's my understanding that the soap penetrates and brakes down their hard shell and then kills them somehow. Suffocates them maybe? I'm not sure, but it works whatever it does. The only downfall of this method? You have to spray the bug to get it to die. You can't just leave a trail of it and hope they take it back to the nest and spread it around. Each one needs to be hit, directly. (I feel like I'm combat talk here lol). But really, it's not that hard to do and only takes a couple of minutes. You'll have to come back the next day or two to get the ones that were hiding.

I seriously killed hundreds of these the first day; they were nesting in our bricks. It was amazing to see how many kept flowing out of this hole....and just disgusting. Now I know where I need to caulk :) Every other day or so since I go out and squirt another couple. Now they are almost gone. Thank goodness!

Just an FYI, this will leave carnage all over your porch or the ground, so you'll want to sweep up afterwards and it does take a few minutes for them to die. But it's the best method I have found, and a safe method without putting chemicals all around the house. Now you don't have to worry about kids or pets getting into it...obviously don't let them drink it or anything, then that negates the safe aspect :)