Protecting Your Home | How To Kill Stink Bugs

How To Kill Stink Bugs – Keeping Them Out Of Your House

The first line of defense against stink bugs is to take the appropriate measures that are necessary in order to keep them from entering into your homes. Millions of homes across the country have played host to stink bugs that have somehow managed invade your house and made a home for themselves within the four walls of your domicile.

Unless you run a farm, where stink bugs pose a very real threat to your crops, you probably do not have a problem with stink bugs when they are outdoors. In fact, you probably don’t even see them or notice them outdoors. We can go through our entire lives, completely oblivious to the fact that stink bugs are all around us, until and unless they manifest themselves indoors.

And so the most obvious question might be “why”? Why do stink bugs seem to be so determined to make their way indoors? Why do they go through all the trouble to squeeze into our homes, the cracks in the windows, cracks in the siding, and cracks in the foundation, or through the chimney or exhaust vents? Obviously it can’t merely be some coincidence that a horde of stink bugs just happened to randomly end up inside your home. They must have deliberately made an effort to come inside. Surprisingly enough, that is true.

Stink bugs do try to come into your home on purpose. Why? There are a few obvious reasons:

Stink bugs are instinctively drawn toward sources of light. At night time, if you leave your window blinds or your curtains open while the lights are on, guess who you will find clinging to your window screens? Yep. You guessed it. Stink bugs. So one way to prevent an onslaught of stink bugs would be to close your curtains and your blinds at night so that no indoor lighting escapes outdoors for stink bugs to take notice of and be drawn towards.
Stink bugs seek out sources of warmth. During the summer months, stink bugs will merrily mind their own business, dwelling outdoors thanks to the temperate season. But as the weather begins to cool in autumn, you will find many a stink bug attempting to seek refuge in warm places indoors, in order to escape the cold. And so therefore, peoples’ homes becomes a prime target for stink bugs during the cold winter months. So what can you do in this situation? You need to make sure that there are no cracks in your window sills, no cracks in the foundation, and no cracks in the siding of your house, and that you use appropriate coverings over your exterior exhaust vents so that stink bugs will be deterred against trying to gain entry into your home through any of these crevices.
Stink bugs have been reportedly known to track the scent of other stink bugs, particularly if they had previously been squashed or had been frightened and given off their trademark pungent odor. So it is important that you strike “squashing” off of your list of ways how to kill stink bugs. If you want to know how to kill a stink bug, there are plenty of other ways to do so that don’t involve actually squashing them.

When in doubt, your best bet might be to contact an exterminator who would be an expert on how to kill stink bugs.

How To Kill Stink Bugs Using Stink Bug Traps

There are many different strategies for how to kill stink bugs. Some are more effective than others. And some are more desirable than others. By now, you probably have already figured out that while squashing stink bugs may seem like the most common sense way to deal with them, as you would with any other bug, the reality is that this is probably the least desirable way to deal with them, due to the foul odor that they emanate when they get frightened. (Hence the name “stink” bugs, because of the foul stench they release as a way to detract predators.)

One hands-off way how to kill stink bugs is to by using stink bug traps in order to stop them dead. A stink bug trap is designed to attract these critters, luring them toward it, and then trapping them so that they cannot escape, while the lethal agents within the trap get to work to put the stink bugs out of their misery.

There are three ways in ways stink bug traps can work for you:

Stink bugs are attracted to light. So in dark areas of your home or at night, or outside near your home, if you place a lighted stink bug trap there, stink bugs will be drawn to the light.
As with any other species of animal or insect, stink bugs are attracted to pheromones, which are airborne hormones that are used for attracting a mate. So a stink bug trap that emanates these stink bug pheromones can serve as an extremely effective means to draw these bugs toward the trap.
Those stink bug traps also work very well that have a stash of their food available in the trap, laid out in such a way that stink bugs that happen to be in the proximity of the trap will be able to sense the food and thus be drawn toward it.

There are all kinds of stink bug traps out there. Some employ only one of the three methods, whereas there are other traps that employ all three methods. This latter type of trap that combines multiple methods of stink bug attraction generally tend to be more effective since they increase the odds of being able to lure these bugs toward them.

So how do these stink bug traps work? Once the bug is lured into the trap, what happens? Typically there will either be some type of adhesive material that will prevent the stink bug from escaping, or the entry way into the trap will not allow the bugs to escape once they enter it.

And what is inside the trap? What exactly is used to actually exterminate a stink bug? The answer varies. You may be surprised to find that dousing stink bugs with dish washing liquid detergent is sufficient to kill them. Yes, you read correctly! You don’t need some synthetic, toxic chemical bug spray. Dish washing liquid detergent has been proven to be lethal to stink bugs! So a solution of this detergent is all you need inside the trap to exterminate stink bugs.

If you need professional help to rid yourself of your stink bug problem, then perhaps it may be worth considering to call up your local exterminator, who would be an expert on how to kill stink bugs.

How To Kill Stink Bugs – How Effective Is Power Washing Your Home?

Protecting Your Home

One of the most effective ways how to kill stink bugs and to keep them from invading your home is to power wash your home regularly. Power washing can achieve a number of desirable outcomes (desirable for you but undesirable for stink bugs):

It can eliminate any trace of the odoriferous emanations that previous stink bugs may have released while perched upon the windows of your home. By doing so, you will be able to reduce the likelihood that other stink bugs that happen to be flying by will notice the scent and follow it.

Depending the nature of the detergent you use, you will be able to repel stink bugs from wanting to come near your home, because the scent will drive them away.Any stink bugs that are already nesting within crevices alongside the exterior of your house can be exterminated on the spot if they come into contact with the detergent that you use to wash the house with.Now, of course there are quite naturally some drawbacks to power washing your home as a means how to kill stink bugs:

– Power washing costs money. Doing it yourself can save you money but can cost you in terms of time. If you know how to do it yourself, by all means, go for it. You can always call upon an expert to come and take care of it for you.

– You may need to power wash your home on a regular, frequent basis in order to keep the stink bug problem at bay. Power washing is not a permanent, long term solution for how to kill stink bugs. It does, however, buy you some time, giving you some relief from any new stink bug infestations.

– You may not appreciate the scent of the power washing detergent that is used. Many people have found success with using regular dish washing detergent as a means how to kill stink bugs. It seems that this seemingly harmless chemical to humans is extremely lethal to stink bugs.

The bottom line is that power washing is definitely something you will want to try.

On the flip side, consider these benefits that power washing your home has to offer in your efforts how to kill stink bugs.

– If there is any scent such as pheromones from other stink bugs in the proximity of your house, the power washing solution should eliminate it. This will eliminate any odors that may have been attracting more stink bugs to come toward your house in the first place.

– Power washing your home will eliminate the foul odor that stink bugs emanate, as this odor may have permeated the siding of your house.

– If there were any stink bugs nesting along the siding of your home, power washing the exterior of your house should dislodge and displace the nests that they have forged for themselves.

– For a period of time, the power washing solution will serve as a protective coating that will kill any stink bugs on contact.