#false chinch bug

[textless]

[textless]

[textless]

[textless]

False chinch bugs.  (I’m still not a fan!)  Cochise County, Arizona, May 2020.

[textless]

[textless]

False Chinch Bugs: Not a Fan

In late June I started noticing huge numbers of small black bugs on plants in the yard.  They were mostly on dry plants, and didn’t seem to be doing any harm, so I was only mildly interested but I took a few pictures.

A few days later, I saw that they were congregating on exterior walls of the house.  Still, I wasn’t especially interested.  (What, me worry?) 

Around the fourth of July, they started coming into the house.

I generally like insects unless they are biting me or contaminating my food, but these were different.  Our house is pretty weather tight, but these are small enough to fit in the tiny openings around windows, doors, and screens.  They came inside and swarmed the insides of the windows, and crawled all over every surface.

They didn’t bite or do any actual harm, but they were everywhere.  They especially liked sheets, blankets, and pillows.  And walking on my face, any time I tried to sleep. 

So, alas, chinch war.

From everything I read, false chinch bug invasions don’t usually last more than three or four days.  Lucky us!  These bugs shifted to different areas around the house, but kept at it for nine days in early July.

I didn’t take pictures of them in the house because I was grossed out, and they didn’t look nice.  Also, I was too busy sweeping them into piles and then vacuuming them by the thousands, and tens of thousands.

I had never seen or heard of these guys before, but apparently they invade houses after a cool, wet spring.  If we have another of those, I will make sure any weeds near the house are cut very short, and I’ll tape up all the windows and doors... and then I’ll go stay elsewhere for at least a week.  Yech.