Stinkbugs - October 2, 2024

I hope you haven't found this post by accident, looking for advice on how to deter/get rid of/kill stinkbugs.  If I knew, I'd tell you, but it would be a waste of time to continue reading.  

Modern science should invent a stinkbug that smells good.  I'm sure they'll get right on that, once they solve the mosquito thing. 

Anyway, we have tried all sorts of things, and yet here they are, crawling around (inside and outside) our back porch screens.  We keep a spray bottle of water/soap (with a hefty shot of bleach to give it some *sting*) on the back porch, and the first thing we do when we come out to the porch is start squirting. The squirter is set to "Stream."  It knocks some off, some fly away, away, but others are like, "Is that all you got?" If he's on the *inside* of the screen, the answer is, "No, as a matter of fact, it's not," and I fire up the old Dyson and suck him up.

(Don't try this in the house; the vacuum cleaner fan will blow stinkbug air.)

You would not believe how satisfying it is to hear (and feel) him go THWUMP down that vacuum cleaner hose.  

It doesn't kill them, though, it just pisses them off.  And they crawl around inside the cannister or bag, spewing stink. This Dyson has a clear canister; I can see them scurrying around inside it.  Hear them scratching, sometimes, or flying against the glass. I usually just leave them in there until the canister needs emptying, and then I dump them in a bucket of soapy water, where they drown.

Of course, then you have to deal with the bucket of stinkbug carcasses.

* * * * * *

I interrupt this post to report the results of an experiment that came to mind while I was writing about bleach in the stinkbug bottle.  I don't really like to put bleach in the spray.  Vinegar might be a good substitute.  I dumped what was in the bottle, washed it out, and made a 50/50 vinegar and water mix, with three or four squirts of dishwashing liquid.  Shook it up and came outside to try it out.  THEY HATE THIS VINEGAR/SOAP/WATER mix worse than they hated the bleach.   I stood there and watched them stagger and then fall to the ground, but I did not go outside to see if they laid there or staggered away.