I have never had any trouble with any kind of tree, even weedy Box Elders coming in my house, or growing uninvited on the window sills. Is this a common problem?

He/she is referring to the beetles.

I have them, too, lots of them, and they are enough to drive a person to drink! HOwever, I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to drench the place in pesticides. (ALMOST, but not quite)
I just wish they'd stay out of the house!

go look up Tempo. We have asian lady beetles which are worse than box elders. This stuff will kill both. I spray it all around the house about 10 ft out and up the siding. It can either be purchased as a liquid or a wetable powder. I know some don't want to kill anything but we were to the point where we couldn't barbeque without them getting onto the food or into our hair and under clothing.

What we found to be effective is to be meticulous about cleaning up any box elder seed pods that are the food the box elder bugs eat. We had white gravel under the box elder trees, so we couldn't clean up all the pods, and it was like a freakin' cafeteria. Once we removed the gravel (huge, nasty job) and raked/swept up all the seed pods, the population of bugs went down significantly.

Box elder bugs overwinter, so it is also important that you try to eliminate as many as possible when they are breeding (late spring as I recall) or when they are newly hatched. I used a fly swatter, which was time-consuming but strangely satisfying.

In the end, we exercised the ultimate box elder bug control strategy. We moved.

We moved.

That one is probably the only real solution, short of removing your maples.

Another point about the gravel: These beetles like extremely hot temperatures which is why they are so cozy among gravel, which soaks up the sun's heat and keeps them warm at night. You'll also find eggs stuck on the sun-side of buildings where things can really cook. I had so many of those that I was able to finally just squish clusters of eggs (bright red ones) with my bare thumb.

Water, such as a very wet summer, can keep them under control, since they may not get a second breeding cycle in before year's end. If suitable for your situation, having your sprinkler cover stone or gravel areas where they congregate on a regular basis might drown a lot of the nymphs. Spraying with a soap (I used laundry soap) and water solution can be effective.

In the end, however, I moved, too.