Saturday, September 25, 2010

Invaded!


I know I am not alone in decrying the invasion of the sink bug, but good gracious where did these things come from?

They are all over the exterior of my house. And they are inside my garage (and occasionally in other parts of the house, but mostly in the garage).

Nothing seems to kill them. James put down pesticides around the exterior of the house and sprayed the windows and door crevices and still they come. We don't use pesticides in the house; apparently it wouldn't help, anyway.

I don't know if birds eat these things but I hope so. Something needs to. If you suck them up in a vacuum, they make the vacuum smell very bad.

And if you apply insecticides inside, carpet beetles come and feast on the stink bug carcases, so don't do that.

From what I have learned, stink bugs came down through Pennsylvania (which is an interesting migration pattern; just like the Scots-Irish immigrants in the 1700s). The stink bugs are a native to Asian countries, such as China and Japan, and did not come to the US until the late 1990s.

The bugs attack fruits and many other plants and cause a lot of problems in orchards and for farmers with other crops.

Apparently they are here to stay.

5 comments:

  1. Okay, so I heard that you can use that fly spray for cows, and it works wonders. I don't think it kills them, I think this just deters them or forces them to another area. Since you are already on a farm, you probably have some of this in your garage, no?

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  2. Michelle I hadn't heard that. Will have to give it a try! Thanks!

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  3. Anita, Caroline was just outside and came back in, crying. One landed in her hair, stinking up the entire room. I just put her in the tub. They are the worst I've ever seen! We hired Bugman over in Rocky Mt. to spray the house. The spray killed about 85% of them. If you want more info, email me. Hope you're doing well - miss ya!

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  4. I read that there is a cedar spray you can use on them but have not tried it. Gross bugs!

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  5. Friends of ours said they put soapy water in their shop vac and vacuum them up from outside the house. This has cut down on numbers. We do this with the ladybugs that invade our house and it has really cut down on how many we have.

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