There are certain indoor pests that don’t require control with insecticides, usually because they are “occasional invaders” that accidentally get inside and don’t reproduce indoors. Earwigs, millipedes, stink bugs, and clover mites are just a few of the temporary nuisance pests that can be found in small numbers. And spiders are hard to control with insecticides because they remain in their webs and rarely come in contact with insecticide applied to other surfaces.

What the experts usually recommend for small numbers of occasional pests is to simply suck them up with your vacuum. Wait a minute! You don’t want those things in your vacuum either. How do you dispose of them once you’ve vacuumed them up? What if they escape from the vacuum? Expert advice says to dispose of the vacuum bag immediately after by sealing it off in a plastic bag and putting it into the trash. Maybe, but that wastes a lot of mostly empty vacuum bags. And what if you have a bagless vacuum with a collection bin instead? Here’s a better idea.

How to Make a Bug Collector Out of Any Vacuum

1. Get a knee-high nylon stocking or cut off a knee high length from the bottom of a pair of panty hose (make sure there are no holes).
2. Remove any attachments from the end of your vacuum hose.
3. Stuff the sealed toe end of the nylon into the vacuum hose for several inches, being sure to keep hold of the open end of the nylon.
4. Fold the cuff end of the nylon back over the open end of the vacuum hose (like folding a trash bag back over the rim of a trashcan) and use a rubber band to hold the nylon in place on the vacuum hose.
5. Put your vacuum crevice tool on the vacuum hose over the nylon.
6. Vacuum up your bugs, bug eggs, bug residue.
7. When done, immediately remove the crevice tool and rubber band. Pull out the nylon and knot it or tie it off near the open end.
8. Place the knotted nylon “bug bag” into a plastic bag and tie that off, too. before discarding in an outside garbage receptacle.
9. Or – you can just release the bugs alive outside.

For more on vacuuming bugs, see Colonial’s blog, Use Your Vacuum As a Pest Control Tool.