Yes, hamsters do eat bugs! I was surprised to learn that hamsters in the wild eat certain insects. Some options include waxworms, mealworms, crickets, and locusts. Pet stores can provide live or dried insects for people who wish to provide a diet as close to natural as possible.

Large birds, such as woodpeckers, crows and jays may eat them. If you keep fowl such as guineas, chickens, ducks and geese, they may be helpful to you in keeping boxelder bugs (and lots of other garden pests) under control.

Considered harmless, boxelder bugs have no venom and don’t sting. If your pet should happen to eat one, it will probably be the last time. Boxelders have a nasty taste that often makes dogs and cats vomit.

Mix about a tablespoon of dish soap into a spray bottle of water. When you find large groups of the bugs clustered together, spray them with the soapy water. If you saturate them enough, soapy water will kill several of the bugs in the group. More importantly, however, it’s also repulsive to the other bugs.

Simple sprays made with soap and water can also be fatal to boxelder bugs. Add a tablespoon or so of dish washing liquid soap to a spray bottle full of water, and spray the mixture directly on any bugs you see. If it’s possible, you can also try knocking the insects into a bucket of soapy water, where they’ll drown.

Borax: Often used for household cleaning, borax is a boron-based compound that also breaks down the protective coating of the boxelder bug and destroys cell membranes. Sprinkle a coating of it around boxelder trees and inside the exterior siding of your house.

To prevent boxelder bugs from invading your home in the fall, repair holes in window and door screens, seal cracks and crevices around the outside of your home, and install door sweeps on all exterior doors.

Boxelder bugs are not known to cause damage to homes or significant damage to plants. However, their feces can stain light colored surfaces. Smashing them can also release an unpleasant odor. They are often found in homes and on the sunny exterior sides of buildings.

Soon they exude a white, frothy “spittle” mass which protects them from natural enemies and desiccation. Nymphs feed for at least a month and develop through four instars before becoming adults. Adults live about three weeks and the females spend the last two weeks of this period depositing eggs.

Adult meadow spittlebugs are 1/4 inch long but are not usually seen. They start out green and then turn brown or grey. Adult spittlebugs, also called froghoppers, have enlarged hind legs for jumping. They are similar to leafhoppers but are fatter.

Cuckoo spit is a white frothy liquid secreted by the nymphs of a sap-sucking true bug known as a froghoppers. They are also known as spittlebugs.

The aptly named Spittlebug (Cercopidae) is a garden pest that looks worse than it is. That’s because spittlebugs are very good at hiding. 1 That mass of froth you see on your plant isn’t there to do your plant harm. It’s a very clever cover for the spittlebug.

Spittlebugs

Cuckoo spit is a spit-like frothy mass of bubbles, which is found on plants from May onwards – around the same time as the cuckoos return from Africa and start to sing. Despite being a sap-sucker, this small bug is is completely harmless to plants.

The frothy spittle, sometimes called cuckoo spit, is actually a telltale sign that an insect known as the spittlebug is feeding on a plant. Scientists are calling for volunteers to record where and when they’ve seen spittle or spittlebugs, in gardens, meadows, grasslands and woodlands.