Where are all the little black bugs coming from? - The Progress (2024)

• Local News
• May 8, 2019
• vrobison
• 2 Comments

By TYLER SMITH

Have you found tiny black or brown bugs all over your home and yard lately?
These small bugs, called chinch bugs, have been the talk of the valley recently.
So, what exactly is a chinch bug? The chinch bug is a very small black and white bug that is about 4.7 mm in length. To the naked eye these bugs just look tiny and black.

There are also false chinch bugs that are 1/8 of an inch long and are a brownish gray color. They have an X on their backs, but if you’re looking at them at your home they will just look like a bunch of coffee grounds.
Chinch bugs do not fly. So you will see them climbing on the walls and things, but not flying around.

It can be hard to tell the difference between the two kinds of chinch bugs we have here unless you know what you are looking for.

A lot of people have never seen these bugs before, but they are not new to the valley. Chinch bugs suck the moisture out of your grass. If you see yellow spots in your lawn, there’s a chance you have chinch bugs.

You don’t usually see them just sitting in your lawn in clusters like we are seeing lately. Rather they will be found down at the base of your lawn, sucking out the moisture. You’d have to dig around the yellow spots along the base of the grass blades to see them.

So, why are we seeing them this year in such large amounts? They are being found in lawns this year in larger amounts than I have seen before. But they have also been seen on the sides of homes and buildings and covering sidewalks.

They are here because of the unusually plentiful rain that we had through March. Moisture plays a critical role in insect development, especially in the desert. Desert pests have learned to adapt to the dry desert conditions, but when we get additional moisture, these pests can really thrive.

The recent rain has sparked an increase of vegetation growth in yards, with weeds growing better than ever. Chinch bugs aren’t partial to just grass. They will soak the moisture out of weeds as well. A female chinch bug can lay 250 eggs in her lifespan of about 50 days and it only takes 6-13 days for those eggs to hatch. That is a lot of chinch bugs!

Now the question is, how do you get rid of them? Rest assured that chinch bugs will cause no damage to your kids or pets. They don’t bite and cannot puncture the skin.

They can cause damage to your lawn, though. According to Purdue University Entomology Department, treatment is only necessary on the plants that are under stress and not able to thrive.

If you have false Chinch bugs, treatment is not even effective with insecticide. According to Purdue University in March 2015, “Residual control is not likely during migration periods as bugs may not stay in treated areas for a sufficient period of time to accumulate lethal doses of the pesticide and any insects that are killed are merely replaced by other migrants.”

Tyler Smith is a Logandale resident and owner of Valley Environmental Pest Control. He may be contacted at 702-397-7719.