Okay... it's finally warm enough to go out into my garden and get some things done and these BUGS are driving me nuts!!! They "hover"... may have two sets of wings. They get into my hair and under my shirt. The seek me out and will fly right in my face. If you know what they are and know how to get rid of them, would you please let me know? If they would just leave... me... alone... I would let them live! They are SO annoying! Oh... about a half inch in length with the same red markings underneath. Ah geeze... now I'm starting to itch! :shock: I'm surprised I haven't had dreams about them!! :evil: Hope to learn something here. Thanks!

Looks to me like what my students called a "stink bug". (That's because they smell when you step on them.) When I was little they were called box-elder bugs. I don't think they do anything, but they can be pesty.

I thought box elder bug also. I remember them being everywhere when I was a kid, but I don't remember them attacking me.

Our stink bugs don't look like that--ours are bigger.

Stink bugs are wider & more of a tan color. If your bugs are not chewing up your plants, stick a Downy fabric softener sheet in your shirt pocket. That's how I keep the knat like critters that attack me off my face & hair.

Okay... as soon as I asked this question... my sister found the answer for me. It is called a California firefly... Ellychnia species, family, Lampyridae

Although they are a firefly, they do not illuminate. They like the sugar maple trees... so maybe that's why they bug me??? Because I'm so sweet??? Yeah, right... well, anyway. Does anyone else have these in the yard?

Oh! Thanks for the info! I will do that... Heck, I'll tie some together and wear them as a neck scarf if it works!

:lol:

It's a firefly, very harmless

When I was little we called them stink bugs also. We caught them once in awhile by mistake when we were catching lightening bugs. Now the stupid stink bugs we have are the bigger tan ones and a pain!

I thought it looked like a firefly! The front looked like ours but the back didn't. Probably the difference in why they don't illuminate! Learn something new every day!

They sure are a pain! Been spraying mine with bug spray--seems to be helping this year!

That is interesting, our stink bugs are big and pure black.

Thats a June Bug. Their purpose in life is to mate and bug us I think. We have tons of them. Some people call them maple bugs. They are a pain in the butt thats for sure.

That is very interesting. Looks like what we called "potato bug" long ago as a child in Southern Iowa.

In my area, June Bugs were big, green and ugly! Don't know if they are right but someone told me June Bugs are related to the Stink Bugs we have now...The green ones are native to America and the Stink Bugs we have now come from China?

I think it is a box elder bug.

That's not a JUNE bug- from the picture, it looks like a boxelder bug to me.

I will have to remember this trick.

They look like the bugs we call box elder bugs or fire bugs. I hate them because they make such a mess in the windows and it is hard to kill them. Good luck.

We got them, they are so pretty to watch at night or night time. The children will collect them in a glass and watch them glow. Off course they will be released, so they can join their brothers and sisters again.

We call them "stink bugs" - haven't got a more scientific name for you. Any usual pesticide should do it - so long as it doesn't kill you or the plants...

IF you have the real stink bugs, try to get rid of them. They destroy apple trees.

It looks nothing like a stink bug, a box elder, or a june bug.

However it does look like a "lightning bug" more specific a Californian firefly just like the OP said! :)

I was thinking lightening bug?

Hope they don't decide to visit our town!

I love watching the fireflies at night My DGD has great memories of her and her Pappy in the summer nights waiting for it to get dark so they could go out and catch fireflies and put them in a mason jar, (if you can picture a little 3 year old and a 50 something old man dancing around the yard in their pj's trying to catch these things, that's a memory I will never forget) she would put them by her bed at night, used them as a night light. :-D Once my DH decided to let them go in the family room and turn all the lights out. What we won't do for our grandkids. :lol: :lol:

I think it is a box elder bug...I hate them and they are everywhere in Illinois is seems. I have a regular "bug man" and he cannot get rid to them. They love the sun and cover the walls of my porch ...disgusting!!!

The stink bugs we have now have been resistant to bug sprays. I did find that wasp and hornet spray works though.

Looks like a love bug to me. Do they fly in pairs sometimes? If so, noises and vibration attracts them and they love light colored paint and will cover a wall. When they get smashed on your car, they damage the paint if you don't wash it right away. Generally they are a nuisance for about 2 weeks and then they are gone. You might try a bug zapper in a corner of your yard away from where you will be most.

Brings back old memories

our june bugs are huge--at least an inch long, and flying chunks of meat and shell. when they hit the windshield, they leave their entire life story behind. ours are cousins to the scarab beetle, and they just creep me out. last week i was in the bathroom at midnight. i turned on the light, and inside of ten seconds, it sounded like someone was tossing pebbles against the window. there were at least a dozen of these hefty wonders, trying to commit suicide on the window--while startling me near to death!

my exterminator is here now and he said he thinks it is a member of the fire fly family. but we are in the SE so he could be wrong.

I was told this morning a safe recipe to use on Box Elder bugs. Use an empty spray bottle with 4-5 tablespoons Dawn or Joy liquid dish soap, make sure it is mixed well. Spray the bugs and they die NOW but if they just fall down off the wall, spray them again to make sure they die.
It clogs their air ways and they die. Add more soap if the first measurement does not work well.
Jan in MI

To keep the bugs away from you, try Bounce or Downy sheets, in your back pocket, in your shirt pocket, and I sometimes rub a sheet over my ears, under my chin, and across my forehead. You can also spray the inside brim of a straw hat with bug repellent and it will keep bugs away from your eyes. Good luck.

To keep the bugs away from you, try Bounce or Downy sheets, in your back pocket, in your shirt pocket, and I sometimes rub a sheet over my ears, under my chin, and across my forehead. You can also spray the inside brim of a straw hat with bug repellent and it will keep bugs away from your eyes. Good luck.

Thats what my husband calls a stink bug

They are benign - won't hurt plants etc. I had so many at my front door it was hard to get in. And they were on top of each other doing the hokey pokey if you get what I mean. I finally did use bug spray and that got rid of most of them.

Our fireflies in GA look a little different and they light up---but that was what I was thinking it looked like. Some years we have more, some less...not too many this year. We have millions of mosquitoes this year, though.

The June bugs we get are medium brown and about the size of an almond, only rounder. Our stink bugs out here don't fly, they are really some kind of beetle, and are much larger and all black.

When I was a kid we visited our relatives in Missouri and we would catch lightning bugs (fireflys) in jars. I don't remember what they look like when "cold" however.

I have them. And my yard is full of maples. Several years ago there were millions of them but not so many the last 2 years.