Public Service Announcement

[Hermit Tim]

I am not sure where this should be posted so please feel free to move it to the proper location if is doesn't go here. It is now that time of year where, at least here in southern middle Tennessee, we are being bombarded with stink bugs. Here is the warning: Was cleaning some percussion guns and project barrels and am finding that these bugs are packing themselves into the barrel and I have found wads of them down at the bottom toward the breechplug. I'm sure many of you are aware of problems like this but just wanted to let everybody know just in case. Might be a good idea to protect the muzzle end and to check to make sure the barrel is clear before you dump a powder load on top of a bunch of stinkers. Thanks and happy hunting.
Tim

 

[MountainSmoke]

Good tip, those things are everywhere around here. Never thought of them getting down in gun barrels but makes sense. I almost always run a patch down the barrel of any gun I haven't shot for a while to make sure nothing has gotten down in there.

 

[Whitworth]

I left an unmentionable in the garage and the whole action was packed with them Blasting the SOBs out of a muzzleloader with a cap might be fun but stinky. Luckily this year they haven't been too bad here......yet.

 

[Hermit Tim]

I left an unmentionable in the garage and the whole action was packed with them Blasting the SOBs out of a muzzleloader with a cap might be fun but stinky. Luckily this year they haven't been too bad here......yet.

Stinky sure. But would probably be incredibly satisfying. I hate those friggin things...

 

[sheriff john]

Are we talking the flat, sorta gray ones that smell like rotten banannas or the ladybug-looking ones?

 

[Hermit Tim]

The first ones you mentioned. The ones shaped kind of like a shield. Fortunately we haven't seen the ladybug looking ones yet. They are coming though...

 

[necchi]

Good tip, Thanks for sharing.
We ain't got them stink bugs up here in Minn, (yet). It's too cold come winter for'm I guess.
But we get them 13-spot asian lady bugs, bitey little critters come fall when they seek the warm of a house to hibernate.
An Boxelder bugs,, they like to try an come inside too!

 

[ghostdncr]

Thanks for the tip. I run a patch or two before loading, but it would be easy enough to forget and make a mess of things.

 

[Spikebuck]

We ain't got them stink bugs up here in Minn, (yet). It's too cold come winter for'm I guess.
But we get them 13-spot asian lady bugs, bitey little critters come fall when they seek the warm of a house to hibernate.
An Boxelder bugs,, they like to try an come inside too!

Necchi, Lucky you are far enough "up north!" We have the stink bugs, the boxelder bugs, and the asian beetles in SE MN.

All of them like to climb into any hidey-hole they can find for the winter. I have no doubt that they would go down a gun barrel, given the chance. While it might not be 100% bug proof, I like to use a gun sock on my longer rifles that have to hang on the wall in my work room. All my others are sealed nicely in a gun safe.

If you ever want to see millions of those bugs and you have vinyl, aluminum, steel, or any house siding that is hollow behind and must leave expansion room at the ends, just pull a piece of that off and see what falls out! All I can say is to NOT do it while standing under it and looking up!

 

[mushka]

Here in the desert there is a small bee of sorts that likes to enter a gun barrel and make a little paper nest like thing. At some time it draws moisture and ruins rifling. I roll paper towell and put it into the end of the barrel and it keeps them out.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

It is now that time of year where, at least here in southern middle Tennessee, we are being bombarded with stink bugs. Here is the warning: Was cleaning some percussion guns and project barrels and am finding that these bugs are packing themselves into the barrel and I have found wads of them down at the bottom toward the breechplug. I'm sure many of you are aware of problems like this but just wanted to let everybody know just in case.

I had NO idea....,
Never heard of such a thing

LD

 

[sheriff john]

I use a hand-held Oreck vacuum cleaner to suck them up (all three) by the zillions. Trick is to spray the disposable bag with insecticide as well as the tubular hose thing or they simply re-emerge from the vacuum cleaner if I don't.

My small flock of free-range chickens take care of ticks and most every other bug but they won't eat the ladybug-looking ones. Both box elders and asian ladybugs release a phremone (sp?) that attracts more of their kind. Wads of thousands are common.

 

[Spikebuck]

Both box elders and asian ladybugs release a phremone (sp?) that attracts more of their kind. Wads of thousands are common.

Around where I live people are getting "bug-catcher" bags, to hang on posts, that have those pheromones in them to attract the Asian beetles into them and then they cannot get back out. I don't use the bags.....I've told my brother, who has three or four of them around his yard, that the Asian beetles are like terrorists.....kill a thousand and there are two thousand more to take their place!

 

[mjpchief]

Around here we call them Japanese Beatles. The traps use a scented bait to attract the Beatles. When you put them up they will attract thousands of the beatles to your place that might not have come if you hadn’t put out the bait. My suggestion? Take the bait down to your neighbors place and throw it his gutter. Problem solved.