As a follow up to a stink bug article posted in 2006 from the Inquirer, we now have a product to help reduce the bugs before they enter your home. This appeared in the News of Delaware County Haverford Edition yesterday:

Township exterminator warns residents of smelly invaders

In the heat of summer you probably aren’t thinking about stinkbugs. But you should.

These Neanderthal like insects that plague some homes in the dead of winter are there because they have been awakened from their hibernation by a warm winters day. They crawl out of your bedroom curtain folds or closet linens or any small un-disturbed crack or crevice, just to creep, or even fly, to safety. Even the neatest of homeowners cannot reach all of the areas they have nestled into.

“I’ve seen them in the screen slot of a window frame,” says Vincent Cunningham, owner of Cunningham Pest Control of Havertown.

These Asian imported insects, triangular and usually a gray shade in our area, can be anywhere from black to bright green in color and are also known as a box elder bug.

When you do find them, be forewarned to not vacuum them up because, hence their name, they stink. The same holds true if you pick them up with a tissue and dispose of them that way. The smell that is exuded from these insects can remain on your hands even after several washes with soap.

Late August and September is when they will be coming into your home, or office building, to find a nice warm place to stay for the winter. It only takes a fraction of an inch opening for them to take up residence through a window, door, foundation crack, etc.

Cunningham Pest Control has had positive results in treating these insects with an exterior spray but you must have the treatment done before your unwanted guests arrive.

“We have had some homes that have had hundreds of stinkbugs”, says Cunningham. “And to think that they’ve only been introduced to our country in the last 10 years.”