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In The Garden

Avoid Insect Invaders in Your Home During Winter, Spring

Learn how to identify the six-legged stowaways

A ladybug perched on a blade of grass. Play Video

Bears aren’t the only animals who hibernate for the winter. Many bugs take a timeout during the cold season as well, through a process called “overwintering.”

Given that a typical backyard contains 1,000 or more different insect species, there are plenty of potential house guests (or should we say, “house pests”) lining up at your door each fall.

Unlike bears, however, certain critters — especially insects like stink bugs, ladybugs, boxelder bugs and wasps, among others — prefer to bed down in your nice warm home. And they don’t make for ideal bunkmates.

So how do you identify these insect invaders? When should you expect them to show up? And where do the critters tend to congregate once inside your home?

Watch as Matt Bertone, director of NC State University’s Plant Disease and Insect Clinic, provides an overview of common nuisance pests and what you should know about them in this edition of Homegrown.

Did You Know?

Learn more about common insects, some of which are beneficial to natural habitats, and how to control for them in the North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook.

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