Wife googles to brown marmorated stink bug.

Originally from Asia. No natural predators. Imagine that.

They're everywhere at my place. A friend in England says they are blessed with them too. He calls them 'shield bugs' because of the body shape.

They are coming in the house for the winter. The good news is that they leave in the spring.

I gently scoop them onto a piece of paper and throw outside. I've never had one "stink" on me. Supposedly, they do that when they are upset.

I just caught seven in the living room. I found a spot of weatherstripping that needs replacing on the backdoor. I hope that helps. They are ridiculous.

We have had huge problems with them for the last couple of years. Never had any issues with ladybugs.

They don't seem to have any negative effects other than the ick factor. And they are damned stubborn - like they know you are trying to get them back outside when you catch them.

I gently scoop them onto a piece of paper and throw outside. I've never had one "stink" on me.

Same here on both. Except today and yesterday I've just been grabbing them and throwing them out. I'm sure they're coming right back, but this is a no-kill facility. Except for those brown creepy crawlies.

Found one drowned in the dogs' water bowl today. The whole thing had a foul odor about it. I've been using the shop vac to suck them off the high ceilings in the dining room and kitchen but they come right back in.

I've encountered many more spiders this year than I usually do too.

I guess they're house centipedes.

Scoop them onto a paper plate, Tess? Help them get back outside, Jah? Factchecker?

I'm infested, too--and I wanna think I'm a "nice" person--but I've been vacuuming them up like Kenny has been and it won't bother me one whit to then douse that vacuum cleaner bag with gasoline and set it aflame!

And I've always liked that about you. :-)

My vacuum cleaner and I are probably bound for the gaping jaws of hell...

Saw that too about centipedes preying on (other) pests. A symbiotic balance? Isn't it weird how we react based on appearances and yuck factor? I think it may have been one of Sam Venable's better columns where I remember it pointed out how everyone loves chipmunks 'cause they're so cute, yet they don't behave much differently than mice. That's kind of sad there's such prejudice.

We thought it was these centipedes that feed off the adhesives in cardboard, which we always have too much of. Is that roaches or something else? Also, the Wikipedia link does say centipedes can sting, though they usually don't. It gets confusing.

Dammit, I'm going to try to start leaving them alone. We have a lot of spiders and webs.

Thanks for the insights, Rikki and all y'all.

I've had them for 3 years. Now they are 3 times as worse than in the beginning. I would advise not to wait for the terminator. They only get worse. My neighbors only have a few and I now have hundreds. I have always used toilet paper to snatch them up and then down the toilet. I came home today and they were all over the house. I found out that they put the stick on one house and then over time my house became the hive through the stink. The TERMINATOR will be here tomorrow from Dodson's. If you see more than 10 on your house please don't wait or you will be sorry..Todsy I used a whole roll of toilet paper to kill maybe 300.

They've increased exponentially at my place, just since this thread opened on Saturday.

After vacuuming up 8 or 10 here in my office this aft, I stepped from the room onto my adjacent back covered porch to find probably 300 swarming there, too (which I also vacuumed, using the vac's extension poles).

It was like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Not The Birds but The Bugs???

We're smack in the middle of 24 undeveloped acres of woods (not all of that ours), so it may be that we've begun getting more than our share for that reason?

Scaring them, huh? Might try that tomorrow, assuming the problem presists.

But that trowel sounds like a rather heavy-handed flyswatter, don't you think? Capable of chipping the concrete on my covered porch, too!

Think I'll just round up a couple of old magazines I don't mind tossing after they've been soiled.

Cheaper than a "terminator," anyway...

I think I may have some of your bugs here, Tam. I spent two thirty-minute sessions yesterday and two more today with the shop vac. Each time I thought I was done and shut the machine down, I looked around and there was a dozen or so more. Of course I'm somewhat handicapped what with my 'help' from Faith who loves to play with the hose.

I've also been flailing with a fly swatter.

My son says our local Fox affiliate did a story on local stinkbug infestation just moments ago.

(I don't watch TV, so I can't tell you what channel that was.)

Their scent signals distress, so it would make sense if their fellows took it as a hint to fly off. Insects are highly sensitive to pheromones, so squishing one or two is as effective as squishing dozens.

Don't make these things a bigger mess or cost than they need to be. The scent gets released when you suck them up with a vacuum just as well as if you squash one. Chase them around a bit, rough them up, but don't make yourself wipe up bug guts. They are slow, clumsy and less stinky than lots of native species.

If you discover they have turned your curtains into an encampment, detach curtain from rod, walk it outside and shake it off. They'll release plenty of pheromones. Shake them out when it is going to frost and many will die.

Pay what you will, but they are here to stay. Invasive species don't go extinct. They are the opposite of extinct. Termination is a yearly cost.

i kill reluctantly, but...

notice that if you disturb a bug on the wall, it will usually just let go and drop before trying to fly. So take a small (eg 8 or 16 oz or so) flat-sided container, fill it half full of water with one drop of dishwash liquid, hold it against the wall just below the bug, and let the bug drop into that. A lid is useful to flick the bug and then cover the container

To my knowledge, these stink bugs don't drill?

I'll have minor problems with carpenter bees every few years. In the last such incident, they went after some wood furnishings on my front covered porch, leaving a clean, perfectly circular "tunnel" about a half an inch in diameter in a tabletop.

Could this be your varmint?

If so, here is some online advice for ridding yourself of them.

(Looks like this company also carries a Strube Sticky Stink Bug Trap, for use indoors, for $54.95. Since it's out of stock right now anyway, guess I don't need to ponder just yet whether I'd like this atrocity suspended from the ceiling in my office...)

I wouldn't have guessed, but then you didn't mention cedar. I had a cedar house that had the same problem. It was usually knot holes they'd go after, though. Once the holes were plugged with silicone or whatever, the problem generally diminished.

Funny how woodpeckers are a favorite when they stay in there place in the woods. Good luck with that. I was glad to not get a cedar house again, I must say.

(Off-topic)

Well, now I have to ask: We have throngs of woodpeckers in the surrounding woods, but they've never gone after our brick-and-vinyl house. Is it susceptible (the vinyl siding part, I mean)???

I tried the dish washing liquid / water combo today in a small glass container on bugs within easy reach. A very long hose on the shop vac is still necessary for the high ceilings.

It was surprising how many of these things will actually dive into the liquid, especially if they are clinging to something in a head-down position. A pencil nudging them from behind helps.

I've never heard of any birds going after vinyl, that I can recall. I believe woodpeckers are going after a food source within the wood. Who knows why they stay and toss spun fiberglas everywhere once they've broken through. Maybe they're disappointed in their meal.

Tortoise beetle which I've found on my potatoes in the past! I don't use chemicals/pestisides just seed blankets

THE STORY ABOUT LADY BUGS GOES BACK FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY.
FARMERS WERE PLAGUED WITH APHIDS ON THIER CROPS.
THEY ALL WENT TO CHURCH TO PRAY TO THE BLESSED MOTHER MARY TO SAVE THEIR CROPS SO THEY WOULD NOT STARVE FOR THE WINTER.
WHEN THEY ARRIVED HOME, THERE WAS AN INFESTATION OF LADY BUGS, AS THEY ATE UP ALL OF THE APHIDS. THE CROPS WERE SAVED.
THE FARMERS CALLED THEM THE BUGS OF THE LADY, OR LADY BUGS.
LADYBUGS EAT THE APHIDS OFF OF PLANTS. THEY ARE OUR FRIENDS.
WHEN i SEE A FEW LADYBUGS IN THE HOUSE, I CAPTURE THEM AND PUT THEM ON MY PLANTS. IF I HAVE A SWARM OF THEM, I VACUUM THEM UP AND EMPTY THE BAG OUTSIDE. I LOVE LADYBUGS, AS I PLAYED WITH THEM AS A CHILD.