After 9 years of trying and failing , family and friends finally know better than to ask . I don ' t understand the reproduction thing . Like if people don ' t want to have kids , leave them the fuck alone . <| sep |> That makes a lot more sense <| sep |> This time of year , box elders are looking for someplace nice to overwinter , which means squeezing themselves into whatever cracks and crevices they can find on the outside of your house . Many of those cracks and crevices become entry points for the little guys , which is how they end up in your house . Here are some solutions 1 . Pop out all your window screens and spray the little spaces around the windows with canned air . This will blow out anybody hiding in the gaps , as well as freezing them to death . It ' s also a giant pain in the ass , depending on how many windows you have . 2 . Get a product like Essentria it ' s an allnatural pesticide made from peppermint and rosemary oils . It smells nice , it ' s fairly effective , and it ' s safe enough that it doesn ' t even have an EPA registry number . 3 . Call an exterminator . Believe it or not , we ' re actually lisenced by the state Department of Agriculture to do what we do , and we ' re not going to treat your home in a way that ' s going to kill your dog .