Tiny Black Insects Taking Over Parts Of North Texas County

[snooper2]

the hackberry nipple-gall maker

Ever hear of that stupid sounding bug before? Me either, worked at MIL's house in The Colony over the weekend and millions of these fuckers everywhere!

Nasty little bastards...I set off two fog bombs and a sprayed some bug kill stuff with the hose attachment, I think it just pissed them off . I thought she had some kind of rotted trash or something breeding them till I heard on the radio this morning they are everywhere-




http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Millions-of-Black-Bugs-Invade-North-Texas-Neighborhoods-232419141.html

Millions of Black Bugs Invade North Texas Neighborhoods
Hackberry nipple-gall maker bugs are looking for a place to spend the winter

What's bugging North Texas?

Millions upon millions of homeless hackberry nipple-gall maker bugs are swarming parts of North Texas in hopes of finding a warm spot to spend the winter, according to an etymologist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension.

The insects are taking over neighborhoods from Crowley, to Benbrook to Oak Cliff. Viewers have inquired about the tiny black bugs through calls to NBC 5, posts to our Facebook page and questions on Twitter.

Jeri Joiner has them covering her Dallas home and car. She said it's the same at a home six streets away.

"It's just uncomfortable," she said. "You can't get in your car. They in your ears, your hair and your clothes, and it's just uncomfortable. There are millions of them."

[hobbit709]

1. get rid of the hackberry trees.

I don't have a bug problem, I got about a 150 fat geckos living in and around my house. No ants, no roaches, very few flies.

[X_Digger]

4. Funny thing is, those geckos are likely an invasive species..

http://www.texasinvasives.org/animal_database/detail.php?symbol=17

We love ours, they do the same job for us.

[hobbit709]

17. They got rid of one nasty invasive species in my yard. The fire ants.

I've found a couple of nests with about a dozen small pea-sized eggshells in them where they had babies.
We used to have fire ants, carpenter ants, leaf-cutter ants, and those little pissants. Along with the small roaches, they're gone from my yard and house, haven't seen any in years.

[X_Digger]

21. Really? Cool.

My wife and I enjoy leaving a shade up at night and watching them congregate on the window screen and chase after the insects attracted to the light. Every so often we have to rescue a tiny one from the dogs who think they make tasty snacks.

[snooper2]

5. I've got geckos living under my siding in east plano

They can stay as long as they want


She has probably 30 trees in the back field that runs into a drainage ditch, one huge one by the street that I think is a hackberry tree from looking some pictures online. Just what I need, more work...

I guess they don't make some kind of DDT spray to eliminate them

[PassingFair]

19. Hey....is that where the phrase "put the kybosh on it" comes from?

Oops...guess not:

The word kibosh is Gaelic and implies 'cap of death.' The cap of death was actually the black skullcap put on by a judge prior to giving a death sentence to a prisoner. In modern application it implies, as it did to the condemned, 'Your path of ruin has ended.'

[displacedtexan]

10. I love the geckos in my brother's Fort worth yard because...

...when you see lots of them, it means there are no rattlers around!

I've never heard of that bug, and I grew up in Texas. Where did it come from?

[kydo]

16. lizards are the best way to check for snakes

I'm in FL so we have lots of both. The snakes are mostly black racers non poisonous. But when a snake is near you can generally tell by the lizards. They jump either a wall, fence, tree, branch whatever. And they always point with their bodies in the general direction of the snake.

Squirrels usually just narc on the cats but sometimes they to bark at the snakes.

[TexasProgresive]

11. Tell me how to get rid of hackberry trees

[hootinholler]

12. Tell W there's a terrist in it n/t

[hobbit709]

18. Chainsaw and fire usually works.

[Orrex]

14. I'd like to thank you for generating a Geico ad at the left side of my browser.

Damn you! Damn you!

[tridim]

2. Forget gall... this bug has Nipple-Gall!

Invest in fly paper.

[loli phabay]

3. wait until you have to deal with stinkbugs.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

6. you got that right.

[B Calm]

7. Looks like a common locust to me.

[CanonRay]

8. Another reason not to live in Texas

as if I needed one more.

[Paladin]

9. Thank you for remaining in Oregon. (nt)

[seabeyond]

13. we do not have them here. BUT... i reemmber the year, driving south, running into massive waves

of stink bugs. in the restaurants. on the highways. i was all wtf???

we got a few that eventually got up to us. but that was one of my most oddest experience. they fought each other then ate the loser. eeeew. all over the place. i would tippy toe into stores. would have turned around, but had to get to where i was going. never saw anything like it.

[Orrex]

15. Until two minutes ago, I had never encountered the phrase "hackberry nipple-gall maker"

Funny ol' world.

[HappyMe]

20. OMG! That sounds horrible.

You Texans are sturdier folk than I. Between the heat, kooky wild life and a crazy governor......

[broiles]

22. The kooky governor is the worst of our problems.

[snooper2]

23. I was cleaning out debris/trash/leaves, a truckload of crap from around the house all day-

Twice those bastards got in my right eye and had to wash it out, got in my ears, just nasty-

My four year old was inside playing with grandma, when we went to leave I had her go out the side door and said run through the bugs. You should have seen her LOL...arms flailing screeming AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[cliffordu]

24. Pestilence? Raining frogs next??