Just made this meme to express my frustration at Boxelder bugs. No matter how many times I carry them out they find a way back in my house in Spring and Fall.

Note because I guess some folks need it: I don't kill them, I pick them up and put them back outside!

Remind me what the bug is that carries the “makes your heart fall apart slowly” disease that was popular last year.

I think I kept mistaking these for those.

Kissing bugs cause chagas, and they do look very similar

At least box elders are distinct looking. I've been getting elm bugs after moving to a different state and from afar they look like cockroaches. Eughgggghhhhh

Last summer we had thousands on the south facing wall of our house. Will be interesting to see what happens this year.

Soapy water kills them quickly if you need to exterminate them. Just don't squish them.

Hot take: These guys never bothered me. I know some people are strongly bothered and annoyed by Boxelder bugs but they don't annoy me.

Triatoma infestans is the primary vector for Chagas’ disease, but it can be transmitted by other triatomines. Fun fact, they shit on your face and the infection comes from you rubbing their infected shit into the fresh open wound. It’s not from the bite itself. Thanks to climate change they’re migrating northward. Sleep tight!

There's a Boxelder tree in the neighbors yard and our garage, table and tarps get absolutely covered in them every summer and fall. They're cute lil bugs but not in those numbers, lol!

They're related to stinkbugs right? Smell bad when squished? I've never intentionally squished one.

Same here. I think they're kinda cute tbh. They are just a very mild inconvenience in the house just because I gotta go find a piece of paper for it to crawl on and put it outside, lol.

Supposedly the release pheromones when squished, which then attracts more of them. Not sure if they are related to stinkbugs!

I thought they were all kissing bugs. How do you tell them apart.

My old house got tons of box elders and asian beetles. The side with the most sun would be absolutely caked on sunny fall and spring days. When they got inside, I'd use the vacuum with long extension hoses to suck them up. They have a smell but I would call it stinky -- just kind of old and musty.

There are so many it's impossible to kill them all that way. My house becomes absolutely caked in them in the spring and fall, and some of them even come into the house.

I feel like they are the same.

They give you a nasty disease that makes your heart fall apart. I hope you like being dead dumbass, your love of gross bugs will be the death of you!

They're only cute until they give you that nasty heart disease that makes your heart fall apart slowly...

Interesting argument, mind backing it up with a source?

I have no idea where you got this idea but it's wrong.

https://npic.orst.edu/pest/boxelder.html

Are you perhaps thinking of kissing bugs???

The biggest tell is the missing sucker tube. Though boxelder bugs are fairly vibrant in color, and generally are numerous/you know about them majority of your life.

Around me they've become far less common due to climate change sadly. Love the little guys, even if they used to easily overwhelm any house in the woods.

Leave them alone already.

This is me but with stink bugs.

https://www.cdc.gov/chagas/spreads/index.html

They are the same bug!

You can get an attachment for your garden hose that would let you spray soapy water over a large area very quickly.

tell me your house is badly insulated without telling me your house is badly insulated

Not the same bug

Yeah it's over 100 years old and has been through countless owners and tenants lol

I'd prefer let them back outside rather than see them getting squished or drown themselves in the washing machine or be eaten by the cats 🤗

No they're not lol

https://extension.umd.edu/resource/kissing-bugs/

The boxelder bug (Boisea trivittata) is often mistaken for a kissing bug due to its red and black coloration. However, while the kissing bug has six red-orange stripes along the side of its abdomen, the boxelder bug has red along the edges of the front wings.

That brings me back to my childhood. We had lots of these in the backyard when I was a kid, but I haven't seen one for decades now.

Seems like this is your own fault then

These are not the same bug

Same, but school playground. Do they turn into the jumpy/flying guys of the same color? I suppose I can look that up since I now know the name of them thanks to this post... lol.

Looks like no, the jumpy bois at least aren't in the pics when you search boxelder bugs. So still I have that mystery! They literally look like the boxelder's next evolution, they get sleek and shaped like a B-2 Stealth Bomber, the colorway/shader is "boxelder" apparently, and they can jump like a son of a bitch, and fly short distances kind of like a chicken.

Could it be a kissing bug? I'd never heard of them before, but they were mentioned in this thread and do look a lot like boxelders!

They're my friends

Naw, definitely not. They're almost leaf bug shaped but flatter, less long than a boxelder ('bout leaf bug length), black, and a couple red stripes.

Kissing bugs like that one above are longer like the boxelders and still the wrong non-B-2-Bomber shape, too many red stripes in the wrong pattern, and I'm still unclear on their propensity to jump into a short flight like a chicken with pneumatic legs. Still the exact right colors though!

They are friendly little bugs.

They don't look much different to me...

Huh, nice.

That seems like horse shit

They ARE the same!

They aren't. Boxelder is different than kissing bug

Weirdly I just learned all about boxelders the other day when one appeared on my desk. There's a Reddit thread really similar to this one with people trying to explain that boxelders aren't the same bug lol

Whatever you say bud. I'm not taking any chances with that shitty heart disease. I choose life, thank you very much.

Read the link you posted and look at the name of the bug. The page has both the scientific and common name. Now look up boxelders and see if it matches

if you're in south american countries. they are similar looking to assassin bugs which are predators instead of bloodsuckers.

Speaking of horses, did you know that house flies and horse flies can look almost identical, but are different species?

The possum is not the same species as the opossum.
A rabbit and a hare are different species.
A buzzard and vulture are different species.

It's all about DNA. If two bugs (or any organism) can mate and produce viable, fertile offspring - that's a species. If they can't, then they are different species.

You're a different species dumbass!