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Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Stink Bugs And How To Get Rid Of Them
You’ve no doubt seen them. You probably noticed them once or twice a few years ago and didn’t give them much thought. At the time, they just seemed to pass by unnoticed, like any other unusual bug. You don’t want to know them. And you certainly don’t ever want to know them. Nor do you care. But if you have been noticing them a lot more recently, then you are not imagining things. These little critters are seemingly everywhere now. And try as we might, we just can’t seem to ever shake them.
What on earth (or are they really even from earth!?) are stink bugs? Where did they come from? How did they get here? Why did they get here? Why has no one ever heard of these little critters before? We don’t want to bore you with the textbook definition (that’s what this section is for) of what a stink bug is. (Entomologists click here.) In a nutshell, the scientific name for this category and classification of insects is halyomorpha halys. And if you think that these stink bugs are out of place and don’t look like they belong here in North America, then you are right. That is because they don’t belong here.
In fact, stink bugs are native insects from the Asian subcontinent. These “illegal immigrants” are native to Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea, where they are a common pest. If you live in one of these Asian countries, then stink bugs are a common, every day nuisance, posing as a threat particularly to the indigenous agricultural industries of that region. Up until recent times, stink bugs had remained confined to the Asian subcontinent. It was only recently that they accidentally made their way to the North American continent. And once they got here, they began to multiply in numbers very rapidly. Stink bugs were first discovered in Pennsylvania. And then gradually, over the course of time, reports of stink bugs began emerging in the adjacent states. Year after year, the number of states reporting stink bug infiltrations is increasing as the population of these little buggers continues to spread out in all directions. After years of sitting back and watching helplessly as they began to infiltrate our homes and our crops here in North America, government agencies commissioned to study pest control are just now beginning to get a grasp on understanding these bugs.
While nobody can pinpoint exactly when or how stink bugs first infiltrated the western hemisphere, the most prevalent theory is that they may have accidentally come over in one of the millions of boxed crates that gets shipped into North American harbors, carrying imports from Asia. While there are indeed very strict standards to inspect shipments that are brought into our borders, it is highly probable that a cluster of stink bugs must have some how inadvertently slipped through the cracks (literally) during the freight inspection process and become stowaways on their journey overseas (the old “hide in the baggage compartment trick”).
Characteristic Traits of Stink Bugs
Bearing a resemblance to the dinosaurs from Jurrasic Park, stink bugs have a uniquely reptilian appearance, which makes them unsightly and frightening to most entomophobists. But apart from their appearance, they are actually harmless to humans. They don’t bite. They don’t suck your blood. But the one distinguishing characteristic that makes stink bugs unique is their patented defense mechanism: the foul stench that they emanate from their bodies when they become frightened. This odor is unmistakably rank enough to drive away just about any predator, including human beings! If you have ever tried to squash a stink bug, then you know from first hand experience what it smells like. (Some people liken the smell of the stink bug odor to that of cilantro. I used to love the smell of cilantro until I came into contact with my first stink bug. Now I tend to lose my appetite when I smell either of the two!)
Their Impact On Domestic Human Life
So if stink bugs are purportedly harmless to human beings (apart from being the stuff that nightmares are made of, for those who can’t stand the sight of bugs), then what is there to be concerned about? Why all of the fuss? It seems that for the average every person, the issue with stink bugs is that they are just plain annoying and unsightly. Most people will not even bother to think twice, flinch, or even bat an eyelash when they come across an ant or a common housefly. But when it comes to stink bugs, these little critters can wreak havoc on many a person’s psyche. What is worse is that stink bugs can often show up in clusters. And just knowing the fact that squashing them (the preferred method of dealing with most other types of insects) will yield in foul odors that can often leave permanent traces on the surface where said squashing occurred can render some of us humans to feel defenseless against them.
More often than not, you will find stink bugs congregating on window screens during the autumn season. This is because as the weather begins to turn cooler during autumn, stink bugs instinctively search for warm places where they can escape from the cooler air. When they fly by your home and detect the heat emanating from within, they will quite naturally gravitate toward your windows, on the hopes that they might be able to try to get into your house. And guess what? If you have any rips or tears in your window screens, or if you have any cracks in your window sills, then stink bugs who are determined to get into your house for the sake of the warmth, will find a way in. Perhaps this itself is one of the most frightening characteristics about stink bugs: how they somehow manage to infiltrate your home despite your best efforts to keep the house sealed off.
Stink Bugs Have Infiltrated Your Home – Now What?
And once stink bugs get into your home, they will either generally tend to gravitate toward sources of heat and light (if you have ever noticed, once stink bugs get into your home, they like to linger on your windows, because they want to bask in the sunlight). Fortunately, stink bugs are not known to reproduce indoors, so at least you need not have to worry about that. Perhaps one thing that can be extremely frightening and annoying about stink bugs is their characteristic “kamakaze” style manner of making an entrance into a room. They will “dive bomb” from their hiding places into the middle of the room, making a distinct buzzing sound, and land on whatever surface they are interested in.
While stink bugs may not have an impact on urban populations, they do pose a threat to agriculture, as they are known to destroy crops. Fortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working with scientists to develop standards for safe and effective pesticide solutions as a deterrent against stink bugs. However, further research and development is still needed and continues to be an ongoing effort.
So much still remains unknown about stink bugs as of yet: Stink bugs have no known predators who can attack and kill them in the wild (at least in the Western Hemisphere anyway), thus restoring balance in nature to keep their population growth in check. As a result, their numbers are believed to be steadily increasing in our environment. Fortunately, scientists have discovered that there is one species of insect that may pose as a potential threat to stink bugs: wasps. It has been observed that wasps will prey upon and eat the eggs of unborn stink bugs. Therefore, wasps may be our only hope at natural population control. (Though it is highly unlikely that anyone would advocate unleashing wasps into the wild in order to eat stink bug eggs, only to experience a rise in the wasp population!)
So this begs the question: How can we get rid of stink bugs? There are a number of ways how to kill stink bugs:
– Insecticides specially designed to kill stink bugs are being brought to the market.
– You can set up “stink bug traps” in your home, which basically are sources of heat and light designed to attract stink bugs and then zap them.
– You can squash them. However, this is perhaps the least desirable method how to get rid of stink bugs. There is a theory being floated around that when you squash a stink bug and it emits that foul stench, other stink bugs flying by can detect the odor and will flock toward it, thereby actually resulting in an increase in the number of stink bugs attempting to infiltrate your home.
– You can spray them with dish soap. Yes, you read correctly: You can spray them with dish soap. Just grab a squirt bottle and fill it up with dishwashing detergent. When you see a stink bug, spray it. But here’s a tip: Spray it in such a way that the soap makes contact with its underbelly and not its “armor plated” side. Studies have shown that the chemical composition of dish washing detergent is extremely lethal to stink bugs and they can become paralyzed and / or die within minutes after coming in contact with it.
Stink bugs are more of an annoying nuisance than a veritable threat to the average person. The good news is that scientists, government officials, entomologists, and other people who make it their business to know this stuff, are making leaps and strides in their efforts to keep the stink bug population under control. The bad news is that the stink bug population is on the rise and the problem doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
How To Get Rid Of Stink Bugs Without Pesticide
There are many ways how to get rid of stink bugs without using pesticide. In fact, the use of pesticide should ideally be reserved for being your very last resort, when all other methods at killing them, disposing of them, and preventing new ones from invading your living space, have failed.
Pesticide can have unintended consequences, no matter how safe professional exterminators may claim that they are. Why would you want to spray pesticide in your back yard where your children normally play? Why would you want to put other animal wildlife at risk? The use of pesticides is risky business, not only to wildlife, but also to humans, and to the environment as well. Why solve one problem, only to create yet another?
There are many ways how to get rid of stink bugs using other means. Let’s examine a few ways how you can thwart this threat:
- You can set up traps to capture and / or kill stink bugs.
- You can seal any gaps or cracks in your home’s windows, doors, and walls through which stink bugs might be able to gain access into your home.
- You can simply vacuum them up.
- You can squash them.
Hold it right there. That last item, squashing them, is probably the last thing you want to do (aside from using pesticide of course). As you are probably already well aware, these bugs are so named for a reason! You guessed it! They got their name because they stink…. Well, to be precise, they let out a putrid odor whenever they are threatened. It’s their natural self-defense mechanism to ward off any predators.
So who gives a stink about the stink, you ask?
Well, the answer is that the stink is extremely vile and extremely potent. It can get on your skin, requiring you to wash your hands thoroughly to get the odor out. It can get on your clothes. It can even get on your furniture, your walls, or your carpet. And it takes a little bit of effort to get this odor out completely.
And that’s one of the things that makes killing stink bugs so challenging. If you want to stop stink bugs from overrunning your household, then you will need to take certain measures to eliminate them.
Now, if you are extremely entomophobic (fearful of insects), you may want to consider contacting your local pest control company and asking them if they can get rid of stink bugs for you without using any types of pesticides. Can they set up the traps for you, and give you pointers and tips on how to capture and dispose of them without you having to come into contact with them?
Some extermination companies may even tell you that they cannot help you. I once called an exterminator to my house to ask if they could help with our stink bug problem, and when he arrived, he told me that he can’t help with it, on the basis that stink bugs are an airborne species of insect, and that none of their solutions would work on them! Needless to say, he didn’t stay very long. I wanted to call other exterminators to see if I could get a second opinion, but then I decided to try out several of the tactics on how to get rid of stink bugs that I have detailed on this website for you, myself, and have found great success.
Or, simply ask a friend, family member, or neighbor (whom you can trust) to come and help you out. But there is no reason for you to feel helpless in this situation. Stink bugs are absolutely harmless to human beings and animals. They do not bite. They do not sting. They do not suck your blood. And they have not been known to transmit any type of communicable disease. Part of what makes them such frightening bugs (for those who are easily frightened by bugs) is nothing more than reptilian appearance thanks to the exoskeletal shell on their backs.
In fact, stink bugs are herbivorous. They feed on fruits and vegetables. They are a huge threat to agriculture, but unless you live on a farm, you don’t really need to worry about that… It might be a good idea for you to keep your fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator instead of out in the open, if you have a stink bug problem in your house.
If you see a stink bug in your home, you can simply vacuum them up. It might be challenging to lug a huge vacuum around the house and to keep the hose attachment ready. You might do well to keep a handheld portable vacuum cleaner available and ready at all times.
Perhaps one of the cleverest and simplest solutions for how to get rid of stink bugs is to use dish soap! In fact, this solution has gone viral in communities across the country, as the easiest, and most satisfying ways how to kill stink bugs! There is something sheepishly evil and satisfying about spraying a stink bug with a bottle of dish washing detergent, and watching it die. Apparently, the chemical composition of dish washing detergent is highly toxic to these bugs and kills them on contact. (But as cited in my blog post on dish soap, it is important to make sure that the soap comes in contact with the bug’s belly and not its dorsal shell.)
Learn more strategies on how to get rid of stink bugs without having to resort to using a pesticide, which can cause more problems than it is worth.
How To Get Rid Of Stink Bugs Through Micro-Deforestation
Do you have a lot of trees and shrubs on your property or in the nearby vicinity of your neighborhood? If that is the case, then you may want to consider the fact that one way to get rid of stink bugs would be through small-scale micro-deforestation – which is the process of removing excessive trees and shrubs from your premises. Stink bugs may be lurking in these trees and shrubs, and may even be laying eggs therein. Stink bugs lay their eggs where they remain hidden in plain sight, on the underside of leaves.
So it goes without saying that if you want to get rid of stink bugs, then you may want to consider your options when it comes to reducing the greenery near your home. While stink bugs may or may not ever bother to enter your home during the spring and summer months, it is primarily the autumn season that you need to be most concerned about. As the weather gets cooler, they will instinctively start scouting their environment for warm places to take up domicile for the onset of the autumn and winter months. If they have made homes for themselves in the trees near your house, then that will only increase the likelihood that your house will be the first stop on their hunt for a new home during the colder months.
Now, if removing trees and shrubs from on or near your property is not practical (either because it is just too costly for you to remove them or because the trees just don’t belong to you), then your next step would be to engage in regular pruning to remove excessive leaves and branches. Not only does this help to keep your property looking more aesthetically pleasing, but it also removes the available vegetative real estate that they can seek refuge on.
If removing trees and shrubs are not practical either, then your next recourse would be to spray them with pesticides, which should effectively kill or forcibly effect any pests that are inhabiting them.
If even that is not possible, then you may want to consider setting up stink bug traps outside near your trees and shrubbery. These traps are usually made with a combination of stink bug aggregation pheromones and heat-emitting lights that are specially designed to attract them. Hopefully any stink bugs that happen to be present in the surrounding greenery should be attracted toward the trap, where they will either be killed on contact or will become trapped into a container which you can later use to dispose of them.
The bottom line is that if you are suffering from a problem of excessive stink bugs, then one way how to get rid of stink bugs is to tackle the problem at its source: identify where they are coming from, which is very likely the trees nearby your property.
There are many ways how to get rid of bugs. With a little bit of patience, courage, and persistence, you can overcome this nuisance.
How To Kill Stink Bugs By Using Their Own Pheromones Against Them
Stink bugs get their name because they have the dubious distinction of being one of the rare members of the insect kingdom who emit a foul odor as a deterrent against imminent threats. This odor is used to stave off most predators who try to assault them, not unlike how a skunk might emit its noxious odors when they feel threatened by a marauder looking to hunt them down. It is for this reason, it is believed, that stink bugs do not have any known predators in the wild (unless you count wasps, which prey upon unhatched stink bug eggs as opposed to living stink bugs). Killing stink bugs comes with a trade off: You get sprayed by a puff of noxious odors.
Now if you have ever come into contact with a stink bug and tried to squash it, then you no doubt have smelled their trademark odor. Some people say it doesn’t bother them. Some people say it is extremely nasty and putrid. And then there are even some people who say that the odor that stink bugs emit bears a striking resemblance to the smell of cilantro. Well, that is not a coincidence. It just so happens to be that the chemical that is released by stink bugs is composed of trans-2-decenal and trans-2-octenal. This is the same chemical compound that is found in cilantro!
And that is what makes killing stink bugs so challenging: If you try to sqaush them, you could end up with that odor on your hands, your clothes, your furniture, your flooring or walls. And that is perhaps the last thing you want to do, as the residual odor is known to serve as a signal for other stink bugs to come closer.
If your home has been infiltrated by a huge swath of stink bugs, then you may have noticed that they generally tend to stick together in clusters. How do they do that? They do that by releasing what is known as an aggregation pheromone. This aggregation pheromone should not be confused with the self-defense cilantro-smelling odor that they emit when they are threatened. This pheromone is entirely different. It is used to attract other stink bugs, much like a homing beacon, so they can find each other and form clusters like they do. Stink bugs are always on the prowl, in search of warm, and bright places to take up domicile. When other stink bugs are flying by, and they detect that pheromone, they will take the presence of that chemical to mean that there are other stink bugs nearby who have already “blazed the trail” and found such a place for them that is habitable and hospitable.
For many people, this can spell disaster: The last thing you would want to do is to kill one stink bug, only to have a whole army of stink bugs come to take its place. But on the other hand, it is possible to use stink bugs’ weapon of self-defense against them.
Yes, it’s true. Think about it. Stink bugs will instinctively flock toward wherever the source of the aggregation hormones are emanating from. So if we, as humans, chose to, we can leverage this to our advantage. We can set up a trap! The idea is so elementary as to be flawless in nature!
By attracting more stink bugs toward one particular location, you could then entrap them within an enclosure. Or you could get them stuck to some adhesive fly paper or even industrial strength duct tape. Or you could drown them in a container filled with dish soap or dish detergent (which has been known to be lethal to stink bugs). You can get really creative with this.
So the question is: How exactly do you kill stink bugs by using their own pheromones against them? Well, one way would be simply to set up a trap near an existing cluster of stink bugs. Another would be to set up a stink bug pheromone trap, which you could either construct yourself or which you can buy commercially. You can buy synthetically engineered stink bug pheromone sprays. Essentially, you lure stink bugs into an encasing with a trap door from which the pheromone is being released into the atmosphere. And then when enough of these bugs have entered into the encasing, you can then shut the trap door. You can then dispose of these bugs as you see fit. The encasing doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It could be anything as simple as a jar or a bottle, with an odor dispenser placed inside it.
Fortunately, these pheromones are odorless to humans, but stink bugs are highly sensitive to them.
So there’s no sense in feeling helpless and frightened in the face of a horde of stink bugs. There are many ways how to kill stink bugs can kill stink bugs by using their own pheromones against them. Any variation of the method described above will do, as long as you have a source that emits the pheromones and any type of receptacle that can be used to capture and encase them.
How To Kill Stink Bugs By Siccing Predators On Them
Seeking new, more efficient, and less repugnant ways of how to kill stink bugs has become a subject of preoccupation for many people across the United States. Although stink bugs have been around on the planet earth for thousands of years, they are a relatively new arrival here in the US. Stink bugs are indigenous to southeastern Asia and are commonplace in the Koreas, Japan, and China. It was not until sometime in the past decade that they were first spotted here on American soil.
While nobody knows for certain how they got here, the prevailing theory is that they were inadvertently brought here as stowaways aboard shipping crates from Asia. Over the past decade, they have managed to adapt to our climate and have multiplied by the millions. Having first been spotted in Allentown, Pennsylvania, they have now been sighted in over 30 states across the continental US. And their numbers are expected to get worst. While they may be a nuisance to most people, they actually pose a threat to the agricultural industry.
Stink bugs are unique among the insect kingdom in that they have been endowed by nature with their own distinct form of self-defense mechanism to help their species service. Unlike other insects that might bite you or sting you, stink bugs will release a putrid odor into the air whenever they are frightened or attacked. And it is for this reason, many scientists speculate, that stink bugs actually do not have any natural predators that would hunt them down and kill them. Generally speaking, stink bugs are at the top of the food chain, in this respect.
With regard to the issue of natural predators, however, researches have discovered that there is one, after all: However, this predator doesn’t go after live stink bugs themselves. Instead, it targets the unborn eggs that stink bugs lay. And that predator happens to be the wasp. Wasps have been found to prey upon stink bug eggs.
Experts believe that one way to keep the stink bug population under control and to keep it in check, preventing it from growing much more rapidly than it already has been over the past decade, there needs to be a natural predator in the wild that can feed on them. This of course would supplement other efforts at how to kill stink bugs, such as through the use of pesticides, traps, and the like. We can do our part to kill and exterminate stink bugs as we come into contact with them. But for those stink bugs that are still out in the wild, there would need to be a way to keep their population under control naturally.
Otherwise, as we have seen, the stink bug epidemic has only been growing. The growth rate of their population has not yet peaked. In fact, the epidemic has had enough of an impact so as to gain the attention and focus of the US federal government! The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has actually been conducting research and studies into the environmental impact that stink bugs have been having on the agricultural industry, and has actually floated the idea of introducing wasps into the environment, albeit, in a controlled manner.
The way this would work is that wasps would be introduced into regions where there are known stink bug eggs. The wasps would go to work, devouring them, thus preventing new stink bugs from being born. The intended consequence of this would be a slowing down in the growth rate of the stink bug population at the local level. At the very least, if this were applied in regions in the vicinity of farms, this can help to minimize any damage to crops that stink bugs might normally cause.
(Stink bugs are a threat to agriculture because they feed on fruits. They will pierce the skin of fruits and suck the juices out.)
Now some might cry foul, claiming that this is an example of employing a “scorched earth policy” – by killing off stink bugs, we will be solving one problem, but creating a new one. By introducing more wasps into the environment, we would merely be replacing one problem with another: trading out stink bugs for wasps.
But desperate times call for desperate measures, as the saying goes. It remains to be seen where the government will take this initiative. In the meantime, let’s review some tips on other ways how to kill stink bugs.
How To Kill Stink Bugs With Duct Tape
Killing stink bugs can be a challenge, not because it is impossible to catch them, but because those of us who have actually killed them before know that the stench that they emit can be pretty rancid, and is not something you would want to have to deal with again. The smell can get on your skin, on your clothes, your furniture, your sheets, and your walls. So if you want to know how to kill stink bugs, you are going to have to get creative. You are going to have to learn to think outside of the box. One solution that many people have found to be quite useful is the idea of using duct tape.
You can’t directly kill stink bugs with duct tape, of course. But you can use duct tape as a means to capture them as well as a means to create an impenetrable barrier between walls and windows, to prevent them from gaining entry into a house or into a particular room within your house (or from exiting a particular room, if you are trying to confine them). So let’s take a closer look at and examine just how we can leverage duct tape as our tactical weapon of choice in our war of how to kill stink bugs.
A Sticky Situation
Duct tape is essentially a much stronger version of your average, everyday household scotch tape that you might use in the office or in school. Duct tape has a much stronger level of adhesiveness that binds two objects together. It would require a great deal more force to tear two objects apart that are bound together with duct tape than it would take to tear two objects apart that are bound together with simple scotch tape. And then, when you are talking about duct tape, there are various degrees of strength. You can even find industrial strength duct tape that is so strong, that if you try to remove it, you might end up ripping or tearing the objects that you had bound together with it.
What strength of duct tape you want to use depends on the type of structure you are going to be securing it to, but the point is that you can use it as a trap to capture stink bugs, when used properly. You can make a simple trap by laying some fruit out on a table and affixing it to the duct tape, and have the duct tape affixed to a piece of paper or some other discardable object. In theory, the stink bug will land on the duct tape or set foot on it in the process of attempting to devour the fruit, and will get stuck to it.
Or you can keep the duct tape near a source of heat and light, so as to attract stink bugs to it as well. Once the stink bug gets stuck to the duct tape, you can safely pick up the strip of tape and discard it in the trash.
An Impenetrable Barrier
As mentioned above, another way how to kill stink bugs using duct tape is to use it as a barrier. If you have a window screen that doesn’t fit your window properly and has gaps in it, or if you have any type of gaps between where windows and doors meet the wall structure, then duct tape can be used to provide a seal that is absolutely impermeable to stink bugs. They will not be able to squeeze past it to gain entry into your home. And even if somehow they are able to maneuver into any tight spaces, you can be assured that they appendages or perhaps any other part of their body will get stuck to the adhesive and become immobile. If this were to happen, then it becomes easy to remove the duct tape, with the stink bugs attached to it, and then discard it in an appropriate receptacle.
There are many ways how to kill stink bugs without having to resort to directly squashing them, and thus releasing that putrid odor. Duct tape can not only serve as an effective mechanism whereby you can trap stink bugs and then dispose of them appropriately. It can also be used as a means to seal off any cracks or gaps in your home through which stink bugs might try to find a way to get inside your home.
How To Kill Stink Bugs With A Caulking Gun
When it comes to trying to figure out what is the best way how to kill stink bugs, very often you will find that a caulking gun can be a man’s best friend. Prevention is half the battle when it comes to trying to deal with the threat of a stink bug infestation. It’s one thing to deal with the problem of stink bugs once they have already entered your home. But that’s only dealing with half the problem. You still have to contend with the problem how to keep new stink bugs from attempting to gain access into your home.
Unfortunately, the problem of how to kill stink bugs is made more complicated then, let’s say, trying to figure how to kill ants or roaches, because stink bugs of two things: one is their trademark odor, which they release when they are threatened; and secondly, is the fact that when one stink bug is squashed, other stink bugs will allegedly follow them, thanks in part to the aggregation pheromone that they are known to release. You can kill stinks that have made it into your home all you want, but you aren’t really dealing with the problem at its core until you have figured how to prevent them from getting into your house.
And that’s where the solution of caulk comes into the picture, when it comes to figuring out how to kill stink bugs. If your home is currently overrun by these unwelcome visitors, then you probably have already figured out that stink bugs are extremely determined to get into your home, once they have made up their mind that they want to. They somehow always seem to find a way. So even if your doors and windows are all shut, somehow they will find a way to get into your home, whether it is a gap in your foundation a crack in your window sill, or an exposed vent without an insect-proof trap door.
Believe it or not, stink bugs are notorious for being able to gain access into peoples’ homes through entryways that you would least suspect, let alone even be remotely aware of. If there is a gap in your window sill due to poor construction, deterioration of your exterior paneling, or cracks in the drywall, then your friendly neighborhood stink bug will, eventually find it, and will make it its life’s purpose to crawl through it until it reaches the great indoors.
Stink bugs thrive on warmth and light, and are attracted to both. So at night, stink bugs will be attracted to the lights in your windows. Or on cool days or nights, during non-summer seasons, they will be attracted to the heat that is emanated from your home. And it is for this reason that stink bugs are driven by their instinctive desire to seek shelter in warm and bright places. The bottom line is that the reason why stink bugs are constantly trying to get indoors is not by mere random chance. They are deliberately looking to seek refuge from the cold air outside.
Therefore, if you have little to no experience with using a caulking gun, now may be a great time for you to head on down to your local Home Depot, Ace Hardware, or Lowes and get yourself one. You’re going to need to identify any cracks or gaps that you may have in your window sills, your doors, your foundation, or your siding, and fill them in. Caulk is essentially a rugged, permanent building material that is used to fill in gaps and create impenetrable barriers. You see them in your bathrooms where the tub meets the tiles. And you see them in window sills. If you have ever had to fill a hole in the wall, you probably used to caulk to fill it.
And so one of the best preventative measures you can take in your efforts for how to kill stink bugs would be to identify each and ever gap where stink bugs are likely (or even unlikely) to slip through to get into your home. If that seems like an overwhelming or time consuming task, then consider doing it one room at a time. Tackle one room per week, or if you only have time on the weekends, do one room per weekend. Eventually, you should see a decline in the number of stink bugs entering your home, because you are eliminating the possible entry points through which they might be able to gain access.
Not only will caulking up your window sills prevent new stink bugs from creeping in from outside, but it can also trap any stink bugs that have made it into your house and are hiding inside the walls. In my own house, I once had a problem wherein stink bugs had already come into house… and no matter how often I would kill them, more would appear on my window screen. So I went through my entire house and duct-taped all of the window screens. Yet the stink bugs kept coming in. I had even done an inspection of the outside of the window, and found that there were no gaps. As it had turned out, a whole swath of stink bugs had come into my house through the window one day and went inside my walls through a crack in the window sill. So what I ended up doing was filling the crack in the window sill with caulk… effectively trapping the stink bugs that were inside.
Of course, caulking up your house is not a way how to kill stink bugs, but it is a way how to prevent them from getting into your house. There are many other things you can and must do in order to tackle the problem, but one step in the right direction in terms of your efforts is to caulk up all of the gaps in your house.
If you are not much of a handy person, you can always call a professional to help you do it. But nonetheless, this is an extremely important task you should take care of right away and strike it off of your checklist, in your efforts for how to kill stink bugs.
How To Kill Stink Bugs – Employing a “Scorched Earth Policy”
Do you remember the 1999 box-office hit movie “The Matrix” in which mankind’s only hope to win the war against the machines was to use nuclear weaponry to permanently scorch the sky, creating a permanent, massive cloud layer too thick and too dense for adequate sunlight to penetrate, for the robots to be able to draw their solar energy from? Well (spoiler alert), that strategy didn’t work too well and it actually backfired, as the robots learned to quickly adapt, and then enslave the human race to draw upon their body heat for an endless, abundant source of energy to power themselves.
Mankind’s quest to figure out how to kill stink bugs is beginning to follow a similar plot line. Or at least it will, if certain scientists within the federal government have their way. Indeed, if the government is getting involved in solving a problem, then you know it has got to be serious! The stink bug epidemic is something that was brought upon by accident not too long ago, perhaps within the past decade. Initially, it was just a handful of stink bugs brought here from overseas through some shipping crates where they may have gone through customs inspections unnoticed, the first report of their presence here being in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Now fast forward to today, and stink bugs have officially been confirmed as having spread out to over 33 states in the continental United States alone.
What is the big deal about stink bugs? After all, there are thousands of different species of insects present in North America at any given moment. What is so special about them that has got the government funding research projects to investigate and thwart the spread of these bugs? Why is the government spending taxpayer dollars to learn ways how to kill stink bugs? Stink bugs are not known to be harmful to human beings in anyway. They don’t bite. They don’t sting. They don’t suck our blood. They don’t even attack other animals or insects. They are peaceful vegetarians by nature. (Looks can be deceiving. They may look like eerily menacing reptilian bugs, but in reality they are harmless, no matter how annoying they may be.) The threat that stink bugs pose to our way of life is purely economic: Stink bugs, in large numbers, are known to destroy farms.
Yes, stink bugs pose a major threat to the agricultural industry. Stink bugs eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables. And they do so by piercing the skin of the food and then sucking the juices out while injecting it with their saliva. So if swarms of stink bugs were to do this on entire farms, it goes without saying that entire crops can be destroyed in this manner. Even in their native domicile of southeast Asia, where stink bugs originate from, they pose a significant threat to agricultural crops there as well. Damage to the agricultural industry has the potential to result in a loss of millions of dollars per year, if the situation is left unchecked.
So what exactly is the government doing to thwart the spread of stink bugs? They are looking at the problem from all angles. They are researching everything from the use of pesticides to seeking to gain an understanding of whether or not stink bugs have any natural predators who pose a threat to them. They are not only looking into how to kill stink bugs but also into how to simply keep the stink bug population under control.
Scientists have not been able to find any evidence that stink bugs are under attack from any other animals or insects in North America. However, by doing a study of these bugs in the context of their natural habitat, in the Far East, they have managed to develop a clearer picture of where they fall in the natural hierarchy of the “food chain”.
As it turns out, bats are confirmed as being avid, hearty eaters of stink bugs. According to one study, a brown bat can eat as many as one thousand brown marmorated (marmorated means having a marble, or streaked appearance, according to the dictionary ) stink bugs within a single hour! How is that for population control? How does this sound: You set up traps for stink bugs – cages filled with bats, that also contain fruit, light and heat (the three things that stink bugs are attracted to) as bait. So when the stink bug is lured toward the cage, the bats are there to eat them up. No need to call an exterminator! No messy stink bug corpses to clean up. No stink. And best of all: free food for bats! Nature will take care of how to kill stink bugs on our behalf, without any intervention from us humans.
Of course this is highly impractical! How many people does the government think are going to be willing to keep bats as pets in our back yards, to keep the stink bugs away? If you think stink bugs are scary looking enough, you haven’t really gotten a good look at bats! Bats, as portrayed in “Batman”, are cute little birds. But if you have ever seen a real bat, then you know that they look like giant, oversized, flying rats!
And then there are other studies that have been done, that reveal that stink bugs do in fact have another predator, which happens to also be in the insect kingdom: wasps. However, the interest that wasps have towards stink bugs is not between the wasp and the living stink bug. Rather, wasps are interested in eating the eggs laid by stink bugs! Yes, wasps pose a threat to the stink bug population at large, by consuming their unborn eggs, but do not pose a threat to the living stink bug population.
Therefore, the introduction of wasps into the environment wherein stink bugs can be found would only be beneficial in terms of population control of the latter. Does this mean that the government might actually be exploring the possibility of introducing wasps into environments where stink bugs are in proximity, as a means of population control?
This sounds good in theory, doesn’t it? We want to keep the stink bug population under control, so therefore we sic wasps on them. But then what happens when the stink bugs are gone? Will we have inherited a new problem? An overpopulation of wasps in our environment. That would seem to be the ironic, “catch 22” of the situation, wouldn’t? Trading our stink bug problem for a wasp problem?
It almost seems as though the mere idea of introducing wasps into our environment would be somewhat akin to the “scorched earth” policy, where in order to destroy the stink bug population, we make the environment worse – not only for them, but also for us humans too!
Not exactly the type of scenario would ever hope to have to play out. But if some scientists have their way, then we might actually be seeing the controlled release of wasps into our environment as a means to quell the explosive growth of the stink bug population in North America. While their aim may be to figure out the best and most efficient way how to kill stink bugs, they may actually be exchanging one problem for another.
How To Kill Stink Bugs In Homes That Have Window Air Conditioner Units
Facts About Stink Bugs:
1. Stink bugs want to come inside the house during the winter. Have you noticed that the peak season for stink bug infestation problems within domestic households in North America is during the onset of autumn? This is not by mere chance or coincidence. Stink bugs are no different than any other insect or animal that instinctively seeks to escape the harshness of winter either by hibernating or by migrating south. What makes stink bugs stand apart from other insects is in their persistence when it comes to matters of seeking shelter in warm places during autumn and winter. Whereas it is very rare to find bugs lurking about in your house during the winter months, stink bugs are a notable exception.
2. They will seek any means to get into the house. If a stink bug is unable to seek shelter in a warm household during the winter months, it will inevitably hibernate. But during the autumn months of September and October, you will find these little critters to be among the most persistent when it comes to trying to gain entry into your home for the winter. Wherever they can find any type of opening in your house, somehow they will manage to make their way indoors, where it is warm. This opening could be a crack in your house’s foundation, the exhaust fan pipes from your clothes dryer, your stove exhaust vent, your chimney, gaps in your window sills, tears in your window screens, or any other crevice that they can find. Suffice it to say that if there is a way to get into your home, a determined stink bug will find a way. This is their mission in life during the autumn months.
3. The Window Air Conditioner Unit is one of the most vulnerable parts of the home. Among the many different ways that there are for stink bugs to gain access into your home, the window air conditioner unit is one of the single most vulnerable. It is, after all, an actual opening into your home. Designed for air to be sucked into your home from outside, it is an open invitation for these bugs to crawl straight through. This is of course a common problem with any opening into your home, be it a central air conditioning unit, or any other exhaust pipe leading out of your house. Stink bugs can make their way through these as well. The main difference is that the distance between the outside world and the inside of your house is very small, and is a relatively short distance for a stink bug to trek before it finally emerges into your home. If you don’t take the necessary precautions and safeguards to seal off your window air conditioner unit and make it completely air tight and impenetrable, except for the flow of air molecules themselves, then this unit becomes an open invitation for stink bugs to make their way into your home.
4. The problems with window air conditioner units. Because air conditioner units are units that are fitted into an opening that is cut out of your wall, you must be mindful of the fact that even the tiniest gaps between the unit and the wall can be just big enough for stink bugs to slip through. And believe it not, stink bugs can and will find a way to get through this unit, once they are able to detect the presence of heat emanating from that unit. Stink bugs are notorious for penetrating homes and making their way indoors, and are equally notorious for their persistence at doing so.
5. How to safeguard your window air conditioner units. While most professionally installed air conditioner units are designed to fit precisely into the opening in your exterior wall, it is inevitable that sometimes you might end up with a unit that is not a perfect fit, even by a few millimeters. This is true of both new installations and replacements, as well as with existing units that have been in your window for a long time. Here are some tips on how you can safeguard your window air conditioner units so as to prevent stink bugs from making their way through in order to get inside your home:
i) Use duct tape. Duct tape is an extremely effective way to seal off any gaps between your window air conditioning unit and the wall. It provides a solid, impenetrable barrier. Plus, it is adhesive, so it is very unlikely to come undone, plus it can trap any stink bugs that do come in contact with the adhesive surfaces, thwarting their attempts to gain entry into your home.
ii) Spray the window with dish soap. This may sound like an odd solution, but the fact of the matter is that dish washing liquid soap has proven to be lethal to stink bugs and acts as an excellent deterrent against them. By spraying the exterior of your window with dish soap, this should be sufficient to drive them away. Of course, if it not practical to spray the window with dish soap yourself, then you may want to have your window (as well as the rest of your house) professionally power washed.
iii) Caulk the window. If you have any gaps in your window sill or in the areas between where your window meets the window frame, you may want to fill these up with caulk. Once the caulk dries, this will form a solid, water-proof impenetrable barrier that stink bugs will not be able to pass. Also, if any stink bugs have managed to get into your home through these cracks and are hiding within the walls, then this will take care of them. By sealing off the openings with caulk, this will trap, suffocate, and kill off any stink bugs that might be hiding within your walls, so that they cannot come back out and lurk about within your house.
6. Cover your air conditioning unit. One thing you can do is permanently can encase your air conditioner unit with a cover that has gaps that are too narrow for bugs to pass through but are just large enough for air molecules to pass through. This case would be somewhat akin to a cage. Yet another way to cover your air conditioner would be completely enshroud it within a cover when it is not in use, particularly during the winter months. Removing window air conditioner units completely during the winter months is also an option, provided that you are able to board up the gap in the wall completely, caulk the edges, and ensure that it is air-tight. Having a window air conditioner is a necessity during the summer months, in houses that do not have central air conditioning. Unfortunately, the luxury and comfort of having air conditioning comes at a price… the trade off is in the amount of effort you must put in to ensure that your unit does not leave your home vulnerable to an infestation of stink bugs.
If you are already suffering from a stink bug infestation, then you may want to consider getting some professional help from an exterminator who is experienced in the art of how to kill stink bugs.