For 3 years now I've been battling these bugs in my garage. In the beginning I used non-toxic traps. Then I added in some powder—even though it's toxic and I have to wear gloves and a mask to apply it. Between the two I've kept the population under control (translation: the indoor traps are empty.) ;)
Now, the debate between Mr. Retired and myself has always been … are they "water beetles" as the city claims, or are they "co**roaches"? I was sure it was the latter and even considered having chemicals dumped all over my house (toxins be damned!), but since the indoor traps have shown NO bugs, I haven't dumped toxins inside.
Finally, I captured one of these buggers and we hauled it to the Ag folks. There we amused the biologists with our critter. (For the record, these biologists are delightfully weird; they get so darn excited over the bugs you bring in. They actually fought over a blue wasp I once brought in for identification, and I wound up having to decide who got to keep it in their private collection.) :rolleyes:
Anyhow … after much discussion amongst themselves and checking in books … it was determined that the dumb things really are water beetles and they aren't harmful. In fact, they eat ants and such. So how come I have so many ants?
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