Get Rid of Stink Bugs

Pentatomoidea, also referred to as shield bug, chest bug, or stink bug, is a large family of insects belonging to the Heteroptera suborder of the Hemiptera order of the insect kingdom. When threatened these insects, spray a liquid into the air that produces a pungent odor thus giving them the famous nick name Stink Bugs. Special glands in insect’s thorax, between the first and second pair of legs, produce the foul odor, naturally acting as self-defense to ward of predators.

Dangers of Stink Bugs – Stink Bugs have made their way on households around the world. The insects hibernate during winter and come out in huge numbers come summer time. They are virtually attracted to light ultimately making their way into our houses. Stink bugs can be dangerous when mishandle. The stink liquid they produce can release a very foul odor that is irritating to the nose. The foul odor can trigger allergic reactions and nasal problems. People who have sinus problems fall prey to this stink spray. When a person is sprayed in the eyes it can cause some serious problems. The liquid can cause immense pain in the eyes and can cause damage to the cornea. If ever you experience this, immediately wash your eyes with water to get rid of the liquid. Almost all stink bugs are vegetarian but there are also those that feed on other insects. The insect also bites some serious bite. Many people claim that stink bugs do bite humans and those who were bitten experienced pain, much like being stung by a bee, leaving a red sore in the skin. The sore usually lasts for about a week and can sometimes produce a white puss.

How to get rid of stink bugs? Well there are really a lot of things you can do to shut down the stink bug menace without risking yourself from any stink spray exposure. Stink bugs are “touch me and face the consequence” insects. They have a natural stink spray defense which they use to repel predators and when they feel threatened. You can’t really blame the insects for their nasty built in defense system because it is their own way of surviving. If they chow down on our favorite plants and crawl around our house though, then that’s a different story. Here are some helpful tips you can use to stop this insects from advancing in your home.

CONVENTIONAL METHODS

1. Seal all entry points -The best and safest way to get rid of stink bugs from getting inside your house is to literally stop them from getting in. Seal all cracks, holes, and any possible openings where stink bugs can crawl through. Don’t forget that these insects are relatively small so you might consider sealing those small holes and cracks in your walls and chimney. Try using a cement sealant, the same sealant you use in sealing holes in your roof. Cement sealant are effective in blocking of small holes. Stink bug invasion in homes usually starts in autumn where they creep inside houses to escape the coming cold winter. Before this time, get prepared by examining all the possible holes in your house and sealing them off.
2. Choosing the Right Chemical repellents – Fall is also the best time for you to start spraying some insect repellents. Stink bugs, because of their thick exoskeleton, and natural resistance to chemicals tend to frustrate people who opt for insect repellents. Thus choosing the right chemical would be most appropriate. Use an insect repellent that is commonly known as the “spreader sticker”. The sticker will allow the pesticide to penetrate much faster making it an effective weapon against stink bugs.
3. The household vacuum cleaner – The ordinary vacuum cleaner is also an effective weapon against stink bugs. The common household cleaner can suck stink bugs fast and in a safe and controlled manner where you don’t expose yourself to any stink spray. This is a great way of killing the insects without any direct physical contact involved. Suck as much stink bugs as you can until the bag becomes full and you can simply throw it away in a safe place where you won’t have to remember the darn insects.
4. Light Traps-  The insects are naturally attracted to light. This is one reason why they get inside your house because of the natural attraction to light. You can use this natural attraction though to your own advantage. Light traps are perfect examples of this. There are many light traps sold in the market today and you can just choose from all of them. The Light traps zap the stink bugs as soon as they make contact with it. Just get ready to clean it every day though, because there would be a lot of stink bug corpses lying around the light traps.

NON-CONVENTIONAL METHODS

• Get a bat – I don’t mean a baseball bat, I mean a live flying nocturnal bat. Bats are natural insect predators and stink bugs are included in the menu. If you are afraid of bats though, just don’t bother trying the method. Anyhow, bats would naturally appear when stink bugs fly around after the long winter. That is if your place has natural population of bats that is…

• Wash the curtains, bed linens and send drapes to the cleaners, and will that deter the bugs from returning to the same spots in the house.
• Spray them with hot sauce, or fill a lidded jar with hot sauce and drop them in.
• Flush them. Still seems the easiest way to go as long as you’re not knee-deep. Drives up the water bill though …
• Fly paper. Line windowsills, door jams … one stink bug attracts another, so the paper should fill up with bugs in the house.
• Mint leaves. Line windowsills and leave near any crevice … one reader swears this works.
• Regularly spray your plants, trees and grass with a soap and water solution; it will dehydrate most of the bugs.
• Spray them with a 32 oz bottle hot water and 1 3/4 cup of dawn soap; it’s said to kill them fast. Since they hang out on fruit trees, a reader suggests spraying trees with 36 oz of dawn soap to 2 gallon of hot water.
• Nicotine. Shred a pack of cigarettes and let it steep in a gallon of warm water over night, strain it through several layers of cheese cloth, and add two tablespoons of dish washing detergent to the mix, and spray that on the bugs and it will kill them for sure. (Wear gloves when handling the nicotine water; you don’t want to poison yourself with too much nicotine absorbing through your skin.) The detergent will break down along with the nicotine. The detergent lessens the surface tension of the water, making it coat the bugs well, and the nicotine poisons them. Both decompose after a while.

Those were the best ways to eliminate stink bugs in your home. The non conventional methods are tried by other people and are claimed effective. The conventional methods though, are more widely used and also proven very effective. It is safe to say though, that you should choose conventional methods in stopping the stink bugs. You can try both methods though if you wish. After all, there are many ways to eliminate stink bugs and you can even make your own discovery.

Stink Bugs are some little buggers you don’t want inside your house. Stink Bugs are as nasty as cockroaches and as hard to eradicate a ants. They seem harmless in plain but has a dangerous stink spray hidden beneath it’s thorax. Stink Bugs are like thieves in the night. They invade your house without your notice and permission. They are lurking in the shadows, inside the small cracks and holes of your house, waiting for the opportune moment, after winter, to strike back again. Again I repeat, you don’t want stink bugs inside your house and here are the reasons why:

Stink Bugs can chow down your plants – Stink Bugs are at the top of the insect kingdom when it comes to damage on plants. Using their tube like mouth, they suck out the living juice of plants until they wither and die. They are considered agricultural pests in japan and now in the US as they made their way to American soil. Their damage is horrific. Farmers include stink bugs in the long list of insects to be wary about. Imagine them chowing in your plants or fruit trees in your garden. That is a disaster you don’t want to happen in your precious plants.

Stink Spray – Stink Bugs emit a foul stink spray in the air when threatened or mishandled by a human in this case. Imagine what this stink spray would do to a child inside your house or to your favorite dog whose playful intent pays the price. The stink spray are pungent to human smell and can even damage the nasal cavities. When sprayed in the eyes, it can inflict immense pain like a pepper spray leaving a possible corneal damage. For some people who have nasal and allergic problems. the damage can even be much more daunting.

They do bite - There are cases where stink bugs bite human beings. Many have claimed to be bitten and the pain is immense much like a sting of a bee. The bite mark leaves a rode soar and the pain lasts until three days. The punctured sore then eventually produces a disgusting puss. We already have problems with so many biting insects and the Stink Bug just keeps adding to our nightmares. Well known as plant feeders, Stink Bugs can sometimes be so unpredictable.

Those were the reasons why you don’ want stink bugs around your house. They are no doubt agricultural pests but when they make their way inside our homes they can do us much damage to the people living in it. Never underestimate this little creatures. They will not hesitate to spray their foul odor when you touch them and when you get to much relaxed sometimes they will send you a bite. Seal all cracks and possible entry points to keep Stink Bugs from coming inside your house. We don’t want them living inside the four walls of our house.

As the name rightly suggests, stink bugs are insects that emit a foul smell. These insects belong to the super family Pentatomoidea in the order Hemiptera. This super-family consists of many different families with many different species that are spread across the globe. Stink bugs are otherwise known as shield bugs, due to to the shield-like shape of these insects. Adults are about 1/2 to 3/4-inch in length and are solid green. Immature stages vary in color from black for very small nymphs to green for larger nymphs; however, the immature stages have a distinctive pattern of whitish spots on the abdominal segments. Nympho stages are often found together in high numbers because eggs are laid in clusters that appear as rows of small barrels on and around suitable food sources. Development from egg to adult requires about 35 days but varies with temperature. Up to five generations per year may occur with greater numbers appearing in the fall before adults overwinter.

There are a number of different species of stink bugs common in Texas, including the conchuela stink bug, Chlorochroa ligata (Say); the brown stink bug, Euschistus servus (Say); the harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica (Hahn); the rice stink bug, Oebalus pugnax (Fabricius); and the spined shouldered stink bug, Podisus maculiventris (Say). Most are plant feeding, although a few, such as the spined shouldered stink bug, are predaceous on other insects. One stink bug species, Brochymena arborea (Say), closely resembles the color and texture of tree bark on which it lives.

Life Cycle: Simple metamorphosis; adults deposit barrel-shaped eggs; immature stages develop through five stages in-stars that appear similar to adults except that they do not have fully developed wings. Several generations can be produced each year.

Habitat, Food Source(s), Damage: The southern green stink bug feeds on a wide variety of developing fruit, including cotton, peaches and tomatoes, and seeds such as pecan, sorghum and soybeans. They also feed on the parts of many ornamental and wild plants. Stink Bugs pose a great threat to agricultural crops. They can wreak havoc to farm lands, especially fruit crops, when left unchecked.

Pest Status: Plant feeder; has well developed scent glands and will emit a distinctive disagreeable odor when handled; medically harmless. In fruit, such as tomatoes, damage is of two types. When the young green fruit is injured, the cells at the site of feeding are killed by the toxic saliva injected by the bugs into the plant. This area of the fruit stops expanding, while the cells around the dead cells continue to expand by increasing their water content. The result is deformed fruit that appears to have dimples. This type of damage has been called “cat facing.” When ripened or nearly ripened fruit is injured, the injection of toxic saliva merely kills a cluster of cells that later forms an off-color hard mass in the fruit, reducing fruit quality and producing a bad flavor to the fruit. Some plant diseases are spread by stink bug feeding.

Stink Bugs are primarily agricultural pests. Since making their way to the US, more and more people have researched information about the insect for the reason of keeping them out of their houses. They get inside houses to hibernate for the long winter season.