How do you STOP stink bugs?

[dankicksass]

Up until two days ago, I didn't see any of these things around. Now they're everywhere in my garage. I suppose it's my own fault, I was doing night work the past three days and had the doors open for an extended period of time. Otherwise my garage is pretty tight, all the windows are well sealed and the doors have good sweeps on all sides. I've googled and youtubed and I've seen these things on the news for years, but there's so much out there that just sounds like an old wives' tale, I just have to ask the questions. The general consensus seems to be that vacuuming them up is the best way to manage the pest, that insecticides don't work and that soapy water kills them. Is this correct? How do I find the source and their eggs, and is it even worth trying?

These bugs are particularly annoying to me right now because I have interior clients lined up and I don't want to have the pests compromise my work. They seem to really like my CFL bulbs. I haven't had the time to kill the bugs properly yet, so I hung up a bug zapper but some of them have managed to figure out how to hang on the grid without bridging the inner grid, and survive. I plan on picking up a cheap vacuum (probably Home Depot's 5gal bucket vac - can I use a trash bin liner with that?) to hunt them once it gets dark tomorrow so I can control the light and smoke them out.

Dealing with the full size stink bugs shouldn't be too hard, but what about the eggs? I read that they lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves of fruit and vegetable plants, but I don't have any of those. All I and my immediate neighbors have are trees, hearty flowers and grass yards. I recently removed ten yards of grass-covered soil (700sqft excavated) for a bigger parking pad but I don't think they live in the grass. Could it be my fault they're around?

 

[Thruxton]

This is the second year they have been a plague down here in VA, and what a PITA! The BMSB (brown marmorated stink bug - oriental invader) is pretty unstoppable, although rumor has it that peacocks love to eat 'em. Good luck, let the world know if you find anything that works!

 

[Shadowdog500]

You pick up anything new from HF of Tractor supply? Those places are loaded with them and people usually bring them home from there.

Chris

 

[Vicegrip]

They seem to like lights when it is dusk or dark. Along with the sealing measures you have taken you might want to keep unscreened shop doors and windows shut when it is darker outside than inside. From what I have been reading unlike some other pests they are hard to kill with residual contact sprays. Direct contact or mechanical means. My Boxer dog Otto is good at hunting and eating them. Unfortunately I can tell (smell) every time he gets one.

 

[RPH]

Anti-stink!

 

[floyd]

Pretty good info here. Bottom half deals with fighting stink bugs. http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/brown-marmorated-stink-bug

 

[rodm1]

To prevent stuff from crawling in I use insecticide granules around the foundation. They work grate not shire about flying insects.

 

[dankicksass]

Thanks for the info guys. I'd love to screen-in the garage but haven't actually seen the kits in person. If anybody has a garage door screen kit, let me know what you think of it.

I picked up the 5gal bucket shop vac at Home Depot this morning and got to work. I went with Home Depot's Mexico-produced unit rather than Lowes' USA-made Shop Vac because it has 1-1/4 couplers and I have a ton of 1-1/4 hose, so that will make it easier for me to re-purpose this vac later for dust collection if I so choose. The Shop-Vac brand uses reducing couplers built into their hose. I left the dry filter on the vac and didn't use a bag, but I bagged the junk after. The vacuum doesn't kill the bugs, it just collects them. I will be out there later for the night patrol.

 

[KrisKustomPaint]

This is the second year they have been a plague down here in VA, and what a PITA! The BMSB (brown marmorated stink bug - oriental invader) is pretty unstoppable, although rumor has it that peacocks love to eat 'em. Good luck, let the world know if you find anything that works!

I've been looking for an excuse to get a few peacocks.

 

[kbs2244]

Around here (north Illinois) they seem to be pretty seasonal.
Late spring and early summer.

I have never had them inside.
They seem to like the sunny side of the building.

I have tried soapy water, vinegar, commercial sprays, etc.
Each one kills what you hit with it but not the source.
I have not tried Borax around the foundation as I remember that as a cockroach remedy.
And I do not have them.

I guess I have learned to kind of co-exist with them.
They seem to be around for only a few weeks,
and I guess I have bigger things to worry about.

 

[dankicksass]

What I learned today:

A vacuum does a good job of picking up stink bugs, but it doesn't kill them with a filter installed. They must be bagged and destroyed.
Finding them after dark is much easier than in the daytime.
Febreeze is the best thing ever.

I live and work about 40 miles as the crow flies from the stink bug's first reported incidence area, Allentown, PA. They're an occasional pest in the valley here, you'll see one or two and then can go months without seeing another. I've never seen anything like what was in the garage; I took about a quart and a half of these things out today, total bagged with whatever else I vacuumed up. They like to be on the windows and on the CFL bulbs and lamp cords. It took me about two hours to coax them all out but I'm comfortable with how things went. I think they were just in the garage because it was the brightest thing around and they could get in through the wide-open doors. There's nothing to eat for them in there, no reason for them to be there, I'll adjust my night habits accordingly.

I talked to a couple farmers from outside the valley this afternoon, they said there's a new thing out there in the fight against stink bugs - wasps. They're trying to get their hands on some tiny wasps that kill the stink bug eggs, sounded hopeful.

 

[yjWrangler]

I heard this gets good results. They're just too dumb to fly out of the hole in the trap. Just make it nice and dark in the garage and they'd go right to it

http://www.wpxi.com/news/27939762/detail.html