O/T stinkbugs

[4010 puller]

Hey guys:

Here in Ohio, stinkbugs (little fat bug looking things full of puss)are terrible this year and trying to get in house. How can I kill them off and keep them out of house?
 

[Dennis in NC]

vac works best
 

[guido]

Hello 4010 puller,
Yep! shop vac, double up on the tubes and you can reach pretty high.
Guido.
 

[Trkr]

Keep a dustbuster handheld for the ones that make it into the house,then dump those bestids into the toilet.
 

[Mike (WA)]

Re-locate the doorbell high enough that they have trouble reaching it. . .
 

[LeoinMI]

Got"em here in Michigan also. Liquid dishsoap and water in a spray bottle seems to work. Kills them pretty good.
 

[Traditional Farmer]

Have about a dozen muscovy ducks meet them in the driveway--works for me
 

[greygoat]

A squirt of Starting Fluid works on em !
 

[Rwolfejr]

Three or four years ago they were terrible here... western PA... but the last couple years there have been way less of them. Don't know if some birds finally took a liking to them or if maybe the weather killed them off? They're back some again this year but nothing by comparison to a few years ago.

Onme thing that seems to be a constant with the little smelly son's a guns is heat and light. In the fall they seem to go after the warmest wall of the house then hunt for cracks. I've heard they follow the smell of others before them. Don't know if that's true. Was told it's best to suck 'em up in the vac or flush them... not squish them and add more stink to the area. I'm inclined to believe that because when they first came around I had to hose down my gargae door to open it. After hosing it down I'd stomp all over the things and it naturally stunk the valley up. I think I might have attracted more of them because like I said... that year I had millions of them.

Dish soap diluted and sprayed around all the door and window openings is supposed to help? Never bothered trying that one.

The other thing to try is the bottle trap method. You can look it up on the internet (type stink bug trap pop bottle... or something like that and it should come up) but it basically goes like this....
Take a 64oz. plastic pop bottle and cut it off where the last straight part is before it curves in to the lid or spout. Then put a battery powered LED light in the bottom of the bottle. You can buy them where if you push on the light face it'll turn them off and on. Then take the part of the bottle you cut off and turn it upside down and put it into the opening at the top of the bottle with the light in it. It'll look like a funnel going into the bottle. Then tape the top all the way around with masking tape. Then cover the entire outer part of the bottle... all except the top funnel looking part... with a dark paper or something the light won't go through. Then put a few strips of masking tape up the sides.

What happens is the bugs go to the light and once they get in they can't climb out and can't hit the hole to fly back out. For these to work you need to run them at night without other lights on.

Some fun facts about stink bugs... Their stink juice is poisonous (wee little bit) It has arsnic is in it. If you get the juice on thinner skin it burns a little. A chemical burn. They say folks sometimes put them on foods for seasoning. And some eat them to get high. Guess they taste nutty as many poisons supposedly do. Look up Penn State Stink Bugs and you'll find a big study they did on this new strain that got here somehow. They're supposed to be a variety from overseas somewhere and a little more aggresive than the old kind we have.

The stink doesn't wash off your fingers with soap well either. I've found that toothpaste seems to work best. The year they were real bad I'd go around the house grabbing them and either run them down the drain or flush them then go scrub my hands with toothpaste. If you run them down your drain don't use hot water... You'll get a waft of stink like crazy out your drain hole.

If you have 'em bad. check your air cleaners etc. on things before firing up stuff that sits around a while. I had about a hundred packed in around my chainsaw sides a few years ago and it was stored in my basement garage. Motorcycle air cleaner was packed... anywhere they can get tucked into and hid away for the winter they were there.

Good luck... they're a pain in the butt.
 

[jeffcat]

go on the web. I think it is in PA, there is a company that makes a trap and you can also build your own. Just look it up.