Killing stink bugs may seem like mission impossible, not because it isn’t easy to do it. Sure, they can be squashed like any other bug. But the problem with killing them very clearly has to do with the big stink that they cause when you kill them. Anyone who has had any first hand experience with trying to kill stink bugs by means of the good old fashioned way – taking a shoe and crushing them – knows that while doing so may indeed get the job done, this is an action that is not without its consequences!
So the “impossibility” of killing them stems from the challenge of trying to put an end to their misery (and to ours) by any other means whereby this feat can be accomplished without causing them to give off that stink. It’s not that the stink is necessarily in and of itself a bad thing. It’s not like their stink is poisonous to humans or anything like that. But, as is the case with the smell of a skunk, the odor that stink bugs emanate is extremely pungent and potent. It’s not that easy for the smell to go away, especially if it gets on your skin, on your clothes, on your sheets and linens, your curtains, or what have you.
The good news, however, is that with a bit of creativity and ingenuity, it is possible to not only exterminate stink bugs, but to drive them out of homes, and to prevent more stink bugs from entering our homes. And what’s even more good news is that you do not need to resort to the extreme of using pesticides either within your home or even in your garden (or your crops if you are a farmer). And you should not ever need to call an exterminator either. Not even as a last resort. Save your money. You can get rid of stink bugs yourself. Believe me.
Even if you have a huge phobia against stink bugs, or the sight of stink bugs just makes you squeamish, and you wouldn’t dare go anywhere near the sight of these ugly reptilian-looking pests… the good news is that you can deal with the stink bug problem on your own. There are many non-intrusive ways to do it without ever having to come close to these critters or coming in close contact with them. In fact, you can get rid of stink bugs without ever having to look at them either, if you don’t want to.
And this holds true, regardless of whether we are talking about a minor stink bug problem where you just happen to see one or two stink bugs a day in your house, or whether you have a major infestation problem where entire colonies of stink bugs are nesting somewhere deep within the recesses and crevices of your home and you have no idea where they are coming from. Even if you have so many stink bugs in your home that you have lost count, and that it seems like no matter how many you kill, more keep emerging in their place, it is possible to put an end to your stink bug problems once and for all.
And furthermore this holds true even if your stink bug infestation problem is external to your house, whether the problem be in the garden in your back yard, or in a field of crops that you maintain if you happen to manage a farm. No matter whether the scope of your stink bug problem is large or small, the task of killing stink bugs need not be overwhelming and daunting.
If you approach the problem logically with a proven plan of action, you can rid yourself of your stink bug problems in no time flat. The secret to killing stink bugs, driving them away, and keeping them away, permanently and forever relies on arming yourself as much knowledge as you can about what makes these critters tick. You may have heard the expressions “know thy enemy” or “knowledge is power”. Well, this holds very true for stink bugs. The more knowledge that you can arm yourself with about stink bugs, the more effectively you can use that knowledge against them.
Let me give you a few examples of what I mean:
1. Did you know that stink bugs feed on fruits and vegetables only? Do you know how they eat? If they find an apple, whether it is lying around in a fruit bowl in your kitchen, or it is growing on an apple tree outside, stink bugs will perch themselves on the apple and pierce the skin and start sucking up the juices of the apple, thus drying the apple from the inside out. Armed with the knowledge that stink bugs only eat fruits and vegetables, you could easily use this information to locate and isolate stink bugs and set traps for them.
2. Did you know that stink bugs seek sources of warmth and light? You can use this information as a means to redirect them. (eg- turn off the lights in areas of your house where you don’t want them to be and turn on the lights where you want them to flock towards. And better yet, you can set up a light zapper as a trap to lure them and kill them.
3. Did you know that stink bugs lay eggs and attach them to the underside of leaves on trees? Armed with this knowledge, you can make an informed decision about where to locate and isolate them. And you can take measures to destroy the eggs to prevent more stink bugs from being born.
4. Have you ever wondered what makes stink bugs flock together? Turns out they emit a special type of pheromone that acts as a beacon that attracts other stink bugs to their location. This is what makes them congregate together in clusters. But this pheromone chemical is not to be confused with the chemical that they spray that makes their trade mark odor. That is entirely different, and is for an entirely different purpose: warding off predators. So one thing you can do is devise a plan such that if you can lure a stink bug into a trap and then that bug is stimulated such that this pheromone is released, then other stink bugs will also automatically be lured into the trap.
So as you can see there are a number of do-it-yourself ways to go about killing stink bugs. Now, in this article we have merely skimmed the surface of what you can do. But the devil is in the details, as the saying goes.
Now, having said that, let’s delve into the specifics of the various methods of killing stink bugs.