Sunday, September 25, 2011

They are back... en masse!

The Asian invasive species, brown marmorated stink bug, is once again crawling over the outside of our house in hundreds, maybe thousands...  Every little crack for them is a possible place to overwinter.  What a stinky pest. Here is how you identify them, and we think the best way to kill them is to take a glass of water with some soap in it, and drown them in there.  They smell less when they are in the water, and they die quickly.  More good information about these pesty insects here.  (I can smell them where I sit in the living room, from the outside.  Ick.

Posted by LS at 5:16 PM

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3 comments:

EH said...

Poor you, infested with bugs(Halyomorpha halys). Do you know that other stinkbug species have specific pheromones? They release them in order to find each other and congregate and overwinter in a cluster. The swedish species "körkmack", riddarskinnbagge (Lygaeus equestris L.)has a similar behavior.
More info here, in swedish. http://www.sef.nu/landskapsinsekter/equestris.htm

September 27, 2011 at 4:30 AM
Sarah said...

At first I was thinking, poor little bugs drowning in soapy water. Because when I was last living in NJ, I didn't know anyone who had such a bad invasion. It was always just a few, and I learned, better to leave them alone then crush them and have them smell up your house. But sitting *inside* and smelling them from outside!? THAT sounds awful. I would try to get rid of them, too. Last I heard they were not really harmful to any plants, just smelly and invading people's homes. Do they eat any native plants?

October 1, 2011 at 12:28 AM
LS said...

Sarah - what so you think these Hemiptera are using their long snouts for? They stick them into plants to suck them dry! I know they eat tomatoes and other garden plants, not sure about the natives. The native plants are being eaten by the deers anyway, so there aren't much left of the nice native plants (except from poison ivy...).

October 2, 2011 at 9:49 PM

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