I have Maple Bugs nesting in my compost pile. How do I get rid of them with out killing the beneficial organisms in my pile? Do I have to get rid of the pile or will they eventually leave? They are invading the area where my pile is and crossing the back alley to my neighbor's yard. Help!!

What a shame! In my experience maple bugs (or as my children call them "pink poopers") are nearly indestructible. I've never found anything that even slows them down. My suggestion is to get rid of the pile and start over. I'd even consider burning it, if you aren't in a fire ban area of course.

Are maple bugs a problem? I've had lots of them over the years but have seen no damage from them...so why are people so anxious to get rid of them? What am i missing?

Now, I can only speak for Alberta, but according to the book Bugs of Alberta, the Maple Bug (also called the box elder bug) does no damage. The biggest problem they create is that they like to spend their winters indoors and are very good at getting in. Annoying yes - harmful no.

I saw on another site where mixing 1/2 cup of laundry detergent with a gallon of water kills them quite efficiently. I still haven't decided whether I'm going to try it yet. I removed about 1/2 of the pile as they seemed to be nesting in only the upper layers, but the ones I missed remained and are now in the rest of it. I think I'm going to keep doing this until either the bugs are gone or my pile is. Thanks for your help :)

My experience with the Box Elder Beetle was in Southern Alberta in the early 80's. They now are as far north as Hwy 27 in central Alberta. If anyone knows if they are further North, please submit a message to this thread. I contacted Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge, they advised using Diazinon spray. I found it to be not effective. Eventually after trying many different chemicals, I found that the best results were obtained from my Butane Torch. After several weeks of continuous burning, I reduced the numbers from several thousands to a few hundred.

If you have Female Manitoba Maples, that is where they breed, live and feed on. If you could sacrifice those trees, then you could also reduce the Box Elder Beetles.

To reply to Alisa's query about why we want to get rid of Maple Bugs...because they get into everything! At my last residence in South Central Alberta Maple Bugs moved in by the thousands (literally) and could be found in cupboards, drawers, closets, sinks, beds, etc. etc. leaving their telltale signature (pink poop as my children called it) that was very difficult to remove. Harmless, more or less but they nearly drove us all crazy.

Does this mean if I pull up my rhubarb (which is crawling with them), destroy my wooden fence (which is covered with eggs and babies) they will just move to my compost pile? oh, help!

INVENTING A MAPLE BUG TRAP?? My neighbor's maple bugs are using my property for nesting and reproducing also. I noticed they like to gather on the south wall on sunny days. If we observe their habits I think it would help to invent a trap. I'm thinking a trap would consist of some kind of a warm surface to attract them. Maybe a piece of plywood painted a dark color which the sun would heat...and place it near their gathering spots. The surface of the warming board would have to be smooth so they loose their grip easily. Now perhaps during a sunny day when you're in your yard, you could go to the board periodicly and "rap" or brush the board and cause the bugs to slide down and off into a catching trough. You could empty this trough quickly into a sealed pail or perhaps keep something in the trough to incapacitate the bugs....like water, or insecticidal soap, or some other insecticide, or perhaps float oil ontop of the water. If a person was particularily handy she/he could rig up a device on a timer that would periodicly "rap" on the board and send the bugs sliding into the solution wating below.

Alternatively, a person could create the ideal nesting conditions in a controlled enviornment where it would be safe to introduce a strong insecticide drench. I'm a assuming the bugs return to the nest at night after their perches are no longer warm. That would be the ideal time to drench the nests. I seem to have effective results with this method. The bugs are nesting in the ground against my south facing concrete wall. Having no children or pets in the yard, I'm able to soak this area with diazinon.

I'm fortunate that they haven't found a route into my house yet. I've found only a few in my house.

As someone else mentioned, I've had good luck also with a blow torch with attached flame spreader. They seem to die instantly at the touch of the flame.

Do they have any natural enemies? Would cornish hens or other foul feast on them?

Sorry...but it still sounds to me like this is a case of people getting rid of some other living thing (with poisons, no less) just because they're kind of creepy. I must admit I only end up with half a dozen in the house over the winter. If I had them all through the house though,I'd sure want to investigate what I could do about it that didn't involve nuking them, or poisoning them. If they're not causing harm, what's the big rush to kill?