How to Remove a Bug Rather Than Kill It

Relocate a beneficial ladybug to your garden.

Bugs can crawl or fly into your home through an open window or crevices around your doors and windows. To deter bugs from coming into your home, keep the inside as clean as possible. Sprinkle dried catnip, bay leaves and garlic around the outside and inside of your home. These natural, nontoxic repellents discourage bugs from entering your home without actually harming them. If a bug does make its way into your home, you can humanely catch it, rather than kill it, and release it safely back into the outdoors.

Things You'll Need

• Butterfly net
• Clear glass jar
• Paper
• Newspaper
• Tape
• Fruit
• Petroleum jelly

Instructions

1. Catch a flying bug, such as a butterfly, fly, moth, bee or wasp, with a butterfly net. Quickly pinch the top of the net, near the handle, closed with your fingers to trap the bug in the net and prevent it from flying out. Go outside and release the bug a few feet from your home.

2. Capture a crawling bug such as a spider or beetle by placing the mouth of a jar over the bug. Carefully slip a piece of paper under the mouth of the jar without allowing the bug to escape. Once the paper is completely under the mouth of the jar and the bug itself, flip the jar and paper over to trap the bug inside the jar. Hold the paper over the jar to prevent the bug's escape and go outside. Place the jar on the ground, on its side, and allow the bug to crawl out on its own. If it is having trouble getting out of the jar, gently tilt the jar upward to help it out.

3. Set a humane trap for crawling bugs, such as cockroaches, that you may not see, if you suspect you have some in your home or have seen one scurry past you. Wrap a jar in a piece of newspaper, taping it around the sides of the jar to allow the bug to crawl up the side. Cut out a small piece of fruit, such as a peach or apple, and place it inside the jar to lure the bug. Rub petroleum jelly around the inside of the mouth of the jar to prevent the bug's escape. Leave the jar to sit in an area you suspect the bug to be overnight. In the morning, you may find a bug in the jar, which you can then release outside of your home by pouring out the contents of the jar in your yard.

Tips & Warnings

• Release a flying bug by holding the net away from you and staying still. Don't release a flying bug in front of you with heavy winds blowing toward you as the bug will be blown at you when released; face the net away from you in the direction of the wind.

• You can also capture lizards using these methods to humanely release them.

• For hard-to-catch flying bugs, you can purchase commercially available humane traps that lure the bugs with light into a container for later release.

• Substitute a glass or plastic container for the jar to trap a bug.

• Wear gloves when catching bugs to prevent them from biting or stinging you.

• If you catch a flying bug that stings, such as a bee or wasp, trap it in the butterfly net, then use a twist-tie to close the netting around it to prevent its escape. Refrigerate the bug in the net for 5 to 10 minutes so that it will be calmer upon release, reducing the chances of getting stung.

• Rough handling can easily kill bugs; use caution when trapping them.

References

• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Cockroaches
• Mississippi Entomological Museum: Insect Nets
• University of Illinois Extension: Ladybugs Can Be a Real Nuisance
• Ladybugs: Ladybug Control Methods
• Nature's Control: Ladybug Fact Sheet & Release Information