Anyone else have this problem? For the past two years, PA has had an awful stinkbug invasion. If you have ever dealt with them, you know what a pain they can be.

Big, brown (sometimes green) & ugly! They come indoors in the fall/winter and "stick" to walls/curtains/clothing, anything really.

They like to buzz around lights, pc monitors and will occasionally "dive bomb" you when you walk by. They don't bite or sting, but can cause damage to fruit/vegetables, so you have to watch out for that.

Like many folks we have been sucking them up with the vacuum which then leaves the horrid stinkbug smell in the house unless you have one of those hi-tech HEPA vacuums, which we don't.

I have been researching using essential oils or other items as a repellent but haven't really come up with anything. Short of spray bombing the house on a repeated basis (no way) there doesn't seem to be much else to do.

Disgusted with the bugs...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2010 09:19PM by juicerkatz.

We had them in BC, they are a trial and a half man. In this area it's the box elder which are annoying in all the ways a stink bug is but they don't stink, thank goodness! I haven't found a way to keep them out of the house come fall, they just swarm the place.
Best of luck my friend, let me know if you have any luck at all conquering the seasonal invasion.

Thank God stinkbugs don't swarm, and they only lay their eggs outside, which is a blessing. Yeah, they are pretty nasty otherwise - even the cats won't touch them...

I guess maybe they learned their lesson after getting a sour taste a time or two! Thought I would start experimenting with all the different oils I have & see if I hit it lucky...

I crunched down on a stinkbug when I was picking berries and put a handful of them in my mouth -- they're bitter tasting. That happened twice so far.

We have double sheer drapes in the living room. I pulled those out today & there must have been over 500 of these little critters all over the back of them. We've been vacuuming them all up, about to go out of our minds over this infestation.

Everyone's homes have them, they are in the public buildings & schools. They are also damaging fruit/crops.

"The stinkbugs suck the juice out of fruits, leaving a brown spot on the inside and outside..." GROSS

[www.wgal.com]

Oh, so that's why the peaches are mealy at the end of the peach season --

"Hass said that he is trying to salvage some of the fruit.

"It might taste a little mealy, just spit it out. "

Yeah, I've been cutting out all the brown spots on our apples when I use them. You can easily see where the bad part is on the inside.

I just spent an hour pressure washing the front of the house where it gets the most sun; They were all over the wall & eaves. I know it is a temporary solution, but they are gone for now.

This is the worst we have had it over the last 2 or 3 years. I am not sure how I can deal with these horrid little creatures for another month. Even when you sit down to eat a meal, they will dive bomb you... ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You could get one of those screened in tent like eating areas and use it inside the house . Sorry to have a laugh at your expense, sometimes humour is the only place left to go... Fingers crossed I'm laughing *with* you, not at you buddy .

Pressure Washing....I wanted to get out house pressure washed sometime, but then I read that it's not good to do because it gets in the crevises or someplace and causes mold or rot or something like that....

I just counted 25 Stinkbugs on the outside of the window I'm facing, sitting at my desk. When the Ladybugs start swarming here, I expect the Stinkbugs to get worse. From what I've heard, when it gets cold for a bit, then warm again, that's when the Ladybugs come.

They are back with a vengeance today...I find when we have warmer days it really seems to get them active. We are in for warm weather until Friday. I'm not sure I can make it that long. They are driving everyone in my area nuts.

We have burned out one vacuum sucking up these suckers. You gotta change or empty the bag frequently or it really puts a strain on the motor.

bad part of this is, local officials have been discussing county - wide spraying to try to knock them down. So then we have to be concerned with that chemical floating around for who knows how long.

Even worse, you have to spray every couple of weeks because the spray doesn't affect their eggs, only live bugs. I am getting a feeling for what the plagues in the Old Testament must have been like.

Here's another article about them -

Stink Bugs Smelling Up Eastern U.S.: How to Eliminate Them?

[www.cbsnews.com]

I just counted 52 on the window screen in front of my desk. Today they started getting in through the cracks around the door, so I'm going to have to put tape around it.

we used to get millipedes by the thousands upon thousands invading our home once or twice a year back at the old house... they dont stink as much as stink bugs, but they do stink...and it sucked...the vacuum that is... we would vacuum them all up and toss them outside, it was almost a full time job...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I just went all over the roof of the house & sealed all the vent openings and attic vent passages with fine mesh screen. We have several window unit ac's and I covered the vents on the one we do not use often.

It has made a dent in the ones that have entered today. When I woke this morning, it sounded like someone was pelting the house with sonmethi8ng. I lay there a couple of seconds & then I realized it was the stinkbugs bombing the side of the house!

The cat wanted to go out, but when I opened the door a slight crack for her to get through, she took one look at all the bugs on the deck & turned & ran back into the house, lol.

We are supposed to get cooler temps lat Fri into Sat. - hopefully that will calm them a bit.

Is this the problem?:

[www.coldclimategardening.com]

If so, now is the time to seal everything like a tomb, because like adorable field mice, these unadorable insects try to find a cozy place in your home to winter over. Because they are an alien Asian insect, they have no predators here in the States, so maybe the best thing is to get a beat up old car and park it next to your house with a portable space heater on, to lure them to the car instead of your home.

Yeah, Tamu - that's them. Unfortunately, you can only do so much sealing, 'cause these guys can squeeze into the tiniest crack. After the cooler temps arrive and winter starts, you really don't see them all that much.

The idea about the old car & heater might work...don't know how my neighbors would feel about an old clunker sitting next to the house, making the neighborhood look ugly!

Well, today's cooler, only in the 80's, so we'll see if there are less of them. Then Sunday starts a cool trend for a week or more, so I expect a decrease in numbers. But then when we get 'Indian Summer' and it's hotter again, that's when the Ladybugs will swarm, and we'll see if we get a lot more stinkbugs, like I think will happen.

KidRaw,

where are you located? I am in S.E PA, about 20 mi. north of MD.

I understand VA is getting hit with them really bad. It is cooler here today, about the temps you mentioned, and we have a lot less in the house.

Yes, we have a lot less today, now that it's raining and in the 70's. I taped my door, but the cat keeps meowing outside, so I have to break the seal and let her in and then seal it up again. Now when it gets warm again, that's when the ladybugs will come and more stinkbugs. I keep getting little surprises by them - like there was a bunch of them under a throw rug when I lifted it up, and under a mirror on the dresser and in a blanket that were in the closet. I had some curtains sitting on the floor for a while waiting for me to put them up, and there were a bunch of them in it-- maybe because they were white. I miss the hot weather though, now that it's cold and damp today, but we really needed the rain we're getting. Hope everything gets green again.

KidRaw,

Very puzzled by your reference to ladybugs.

What do ladybugs have to do with stinkbugs? Why are you talking about them like it's the tagline of a horror movie from the 1950s?

Quote

That's when the Ladybugs come.

Because Ladybugs and Stinkbugs come at about the same time in about the same way, although the Stinkbugs came a bit earlier this year. They both came over here from Asia about 10 years ago, they both swarm and are becoming more proliferate. They both fly and both go crazy trying to get in the house and then hibernate for the winter in the house. We get thousands of ladybugs swarming and coming into the house even though we tape around the doors. They gather up in the corners of the ceiling in huge clumps. So even though this thread is about stinkbugs, to me they are related in their pain in the a**ness.

Imported Pests: Ladybugs and Stink Bugs

[www.oldhouseweb.com]

I will try to stay on topic in future.

No, no, it's OK, it's not a topic issue; I was just wondering if ladybugs attract the stinkbugs because hereabouts(upper Midwest), ladybugs are considered beneficial, not nuisance, insects. The article linked does explain that your problem is not ladybugs but Japanese Ladybeetles. Those are nasty, but our larks and wrens seem to like them, thank goodness. I'd hate to think anyone is sucking actual ladybugs into a vacuum cleaner!

Yes, you're right - they're not the real ladybugs, but everybody here just calls them the ladybugs. At least they don't make that nasty buzzing noise when they take off flying like the stinkbugs do. Unfortunately the ladybugs and stinkbugs turned me into an insect killer - I had always caught and put other insects out of the house, until we started getting so many of the you-know-what's in here. So I'm a hypocrite because I don't or didn't believe in killing any living creatures.

"At least they don't make that nasty buzzing noise when they take off flying like the stinkbugs do."

You are correct about that - nothing is more annoying than that! We don't have a prob. with the ladybugs in my are that I am aware of. I am a feared that when we fire up the wood stove for the winter that the stinkbugs will get more active than ever.

BTW - I have started to give the vacuum a break. For S-bugs on the wall or ceiling; I fill a wide mouth mason jar 1/3 with water & soap.

If you slowly come up under the S-bug, 9 times out of 10 it will jump into the jar by itself, or you can give it a gentle nudge with the jar mouth.

vacuum bags are too expensive to waste on filling up on these critters...

man, you need a bagless vacuum...lol...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Here's information on the lady beetles. For me the worst part is the orange spot they leave on the woodwork and walls. I've been bitten by them, but it doesn't hurt too much, more like a little bee sting.

*************



Asian Lady Beetle

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle

Harmonia axyridis

Multicolored Asian beetles are slightly larger than most native lady beetles, with adults measuring 9/32 inch (7mm) long and 7/32 (5.5mm) wide. They are oval or convex in shape, and yellow to red in color (without black spots on wing covers). The beetles' spots, which can vary in size and pattern, number from no spots to as many as nineteen; however, nineteen is the most common number. The head is usually concealed beneath the disk-shaped pronotum, which is cream to yellow in color with a black 'M' design in the center. Asian beetle larvae are elongated, flattened, and covered with minute tubercles or spines. They are often described as alligator-shaped. The eggs, which are laid upright in clusters of about twenty, are oval and yellow.


Once the weather starts to turn colder, lady beetle adults begin to seek over-wintering sites. The lady beetles appear to orient toward light colored, conspicuous objects, such as white buildings. Large numbers collect on outside walls warmed by the sun, especially on the south and southwest sides. When one lady beetle lands, many others soon follow. Some research suggests that this aggregation behavior may involve chemical cues (pheromones), visual cues, or a combination of all.

The Asian beetle is a voracious predator of aphids and scale on trees, shrubs, and crops. Adults are capable of consuming 90 to 270 aphids per day and larvae can consume between 600 and 1,200 aphids during its life stage. Both adults and larvae have been observed in soybean fields feeding on the newly introduced soybean aphid and are believed to be effective biological control agents in controlling this important new pest.

Asian Lady Beetle Damage

The greatest damage caused by the multicolored Asian lady beetle is the discomfort they give to homeowners. It is not uncommon for tens of thousands of beetles to congregate in attics, ceilings and wall voids. When the heating is turned on the beetles tend to move around inside these voids and exit into the living areas of the home.

In addition to biting, they exude a foul-smelling, yellow defensive chemical, which will sometimes cause spotting on walls and other surfaces. Most people are only annoyed by the odor of these chemicals. However, some individuals experience an allergic reaction to the defensive excretions. Sinus irritations and mild skin irritations have been reported subsequent to encounters with the Asian beetle. It is probably not an over-reaction to wash hands or other skin after contacting the beetles. In at least one study, the severity of sinus problems subsided with the removal of beetles from the home.

They were imported here for some reason, supposed to die off after a season. They were thought not to be able to withstand a cold, snowy winter. WRONG! Now they are squeezing out the native population of pretty little red ones we've known and loved all our lives. Those orange suckers bite too, my kids have no fondness for the ladybug I'm sad to say.

The stinkbugs snuck in from Asia as well. If only they and the Asian Ladybeetles were mortal enemies: it could be like "Godzilla vs Mothra" and problem solved!

Throw the pine beatles and ash borers in with that group and let's have some Real fun! Yeehaw!

I did a stupid thing yesterday and put my laundry outdoors to dry. Then last night I brought it all inside, but didn't check them out. This morning I started putting them away and got loads of nasty surprises inside the clothes. They especially love the inside of white underpants. At least they were sluggish because it's colder today. Trying to vacuum them up, I accidently sucked up a pair of panties, so I hope it didn't clog up the vacuum hose (central vac). But I now know they love to hide in cloth, preferably light colored, unlike the Lady Beetles who gather in corners of the house.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2010 03:56PM by KidRaw.