Unwanted tenants: Elm seed bugs have made the Okanagan their new home
Standing in his house, looking out his patio door, Kamloops resident Glen Hamilton sizes up his intruders: a swarm of six-legged elm seed bugs.
"It can be horrific at times," Hamilton told Daybreak South host Chris Walker.
"You don't want to go outside because there's a whole bunch of them waiting for you."
Though harmless to humans, their numbers have grown since the bugs were first spotted in the Okanagan in 2016. They've now joined the apple maggot and the Japanese beetle on the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture's pest alert list.
The critters were first spotted in Idaho in 2009 after being introduced from Europe.
Hamilton, who moved to Kamloops almost five years ago, says they're everywhere; in his shed, under the deck, on the bathrooms fans, and in the kitchen.
"If you think you've got it covered, you better look somewhere else because they'll find another way [into your house]," said Hamilton.
They are more than a simple nuisance for Hamilton and have become — due to the sheer number of them — a real problem.
What can you do?
Ward Strong, an entomologist at the Kalamalka Forestry Centre in Vernon, B.C., says the solution is simple: Get rid of the bugs' food source.
Elm seed bugs eat elm seeds and elm seeds grow on elm trees.
However, Strong recognizes that people love their elm trees.
"You have to consider that most of the elm trees around here are Chinese elm trees and those in themselves are an alien invasive species just like this bug is," said Ward.
"So if we get rid of these alien elm trees, which are the hosts of this alien bug, well that's a win-win situation, isn't it?"
Listen to the full interview below;
Read more from CBC British Columbia
