I have an infestation of elm seed bugs at home. They showed up a few years back in my back yard, then began invading my house. This year is the worst it’s ever been. I have elm trees across the road that spew seed pods like a blizzard in Montana and they cover every inch of the ground during the spring. The bug numbers are in the hundreds. They leave dark spots around the doorframes and windowsills and crawl in every crack and crevice. I am spending hours each night vacuuming them up and wiping down my front door.
As far as I can tell, these bugs are native to Europe and first showed up in 2009 in the states. I’m in Oregon and I think I’ve probably been seeing them since about 2016. They are getting into EVERYTHING, my hair, my clothes… I am afraid I am inadvertently going to bring a mating pair who have set up shop in my purse or a pocket into the museum. I cannot find any useful advice online at to how to deal with these bugs. I’m trying to understand how to discourage them – and whether they can be destructive to museum objects. As far as I can tell they don’t eat paper or cloth… but they DO poop and leave dark spots on EVERYTHING. Does anyone have experience with these annoying critters? Should I be worried? I’ve attached a picture I found on the internet. *Susan Buce, Museum Registrar* Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum 5000 Discovery Drive The Dalles, Oregon 97058 collecti...@gorgediscovery.org 541-296-8600 ext. 242 www.gorgediscovery.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/ecd0e40b2bf3ef9a59e006cccc72a22f%40mail.gmail.com.
