On one of the first chilly days of fall, Lisa Bardarson of Penn Valley and her daughter decided to build a fire. But when Bardarson yanked open the flue, hundreds of stinkbugs poured out.
"It was sort of like a scene from Fear Factor," Bardarson said. She spent the next 20 minutes sweeping and shoveling the critters back into the fireplace, and then torched them.
For many Philadelphia residents, the grayish-brown shield-shaped skunk of the insect world has become a chronic, unwelcome guest. Aside from the odor, the stinkbug is harmless to humans, but it eats plants and is tough to eradicate.
An invasive species from Southeast Asia, the 12-millimeter brown marmorated stinkbug first crawled into view in 1996 in Allentown. Today, they're a fixture throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Stinkbug sightings have been reported in at least eight Pennsylvania counties, mainly in the southeast.
"As far as I can tell, everybody has had them," says Linda Barry, master gardener coordinator of the Delaware County Cooperative Extension. "We've probably had 30 calls in the last two weeks."
At Bucks County's Cooperative Extension, senior extension educator Scott Guiser says the bugs are moving south, and have reached Langhorne. His office is getting a growing number of calls from new places.
"Stinkbugs are the big ones this year," he says.
Rural areas tend to see the most stinkbugs, but urban living will not spare you.
Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Chester County Cooperative Extensions all say their residents have seen stinkbugs over the last two years.
George Hamilton, an entomologist at Rutgers University, says stinkbugs are thought to have entered New Jersey in 1999 and have since spread to every county.
The Rutgers team started a Web site in 2004 that has logged about 430 stinkbug complaints - about half in the last year alone.
The team tracks the bug's spread in New Jersey with a trap placed on vegetable farms. The trap uses ultraviolet light to attract night-flying insects such as stinkbugs.
Anne Nielsen, a Rutgers researcher, says that the 60 black-light traps show that this stinkbug species had spread through 12 New Jersey counties by 2005.
Regional pest control agencies have also reported increased stinkbug complaints.
Tom Houck of Feasterville's Five Star Exterminating Company has gotten 50 to 60 calls for help this fall with stinkbugs. The company sprays the outside of buildings, shrubs, and trees with a pesticide.
At Havertown's Cunningham Pest Control, owner Vince Cunningham has been dealing with stinkbugs in the Main Line area for the last two years. This month has been the worst he's seen, with more than 20 calls about the pest.
"I've seen a handful to 100 on a wall," he says. "They'll find any crack or crevice."
People try everything: swatting, vacuuming, pest control. But within the last month, as temperatures have fallen, the pesky bugs have kept burrowing indoors, looking for a warm spot to hibernate until they emerge in the spring to mate. Often they rest in attics.
..."It looks like some prehistoric type thing," says Cunningham.
But the bugs' real threat is to plants. Once they are on your turf, there is no completely effective way to eradicate them.
...Stinkbugs are harmless to humans. Still...
Before you see stinkbugs: Seal all cracks with silicone caulk around windows, doors and baseboards.
If you see stinkbugs: Vacuum or trap and release them outdoors. Be sure to seal all cracks.
