When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home

Great article. There are few things on this earth I absolutely cannot tolerate in any amount: cilantro and these insects. My first exposure to them was in Virginia around 2012. Don’t ever take a shop-vac to a huge cluster of them: you’ll just blast cilantro stink at an ungodly CFM all over your home.

Now I live in Michigan and have, anecdotally, watched their population skyrocket here. Last year my strategy was simple but worked well because I was diligent about doing it many times a day for a week or two until they were mostly all dead around my home.

I’d put on nitrile mechanics gloves and fill a 2 liter soda bottle with dawn dish detergent and hot water. Shake it up to get some bubbles going. Then I’d wander my home with the bottle collecting the bugs. They’d usually die instantly after getting stuck in the foam. You’d watch them eventually sink to the bottom. I’d either grab one off my home with my left hand (gloved!) or by gently squeezing the bottle, holding it near a bug, and releasing, it would almost suck those clumsy little bastards in with a gentle vacuum.

Put the cap on and let them surely die for a few days. Then pour it out in the corner of the yard and try again.

If I see one I won’t rest until they are all dead.

That was a depressing read. As an engineer though I'm already imagining mechanical ways to try to mitigate their population. Given their attraction to warmth I could imagine a cylinder with vents that warms itself to invite in the bugs, then when full it seals itself and flushes with a solvent or incinerates with a gas flame. Once clean it re-opens for the next batch.

No doubt there is something wrong with that but it would be an interesting project to build and figure out if you could exterminate large quantities of these bugs with that technique.

I remember the first few summers they invaded Maryland en masse. They were everywhere, like the article describes. I got pretty good at picking them up with papers and throwing them in the toilet without them spraying their smell.

My mother noticed they were coming through the chimney so she sprayed up there with some sort of bug spray.

Bad idea. Hundreds of them died and fell all at once, each releasing their stink reserves in death. There were several vacuum cleaner bags worth of them. The living room smelled like soapy rotten cilantro for a week.

They were so new, they didn’t really have natural predators. I was so happy to see a robin eat one one day. They didn’t come back in nearly as great a number after that.

Wow. These guys can be found around my property in the summer. I had no idea these were stink bugs and despite handling them when I was younger, I've never smelled anything foul about them.

After some googling, the bug that I am familiar with as a stink bug is also known as a pinacate bug. These are up to an inch and a half long, and I never see more than two at a time. When I thought of 26k of these invading a house, I was shocked. Finding out this other beetle is also a stink bug was fun to learn. I could imagine an invasion of these.

These stink bugs are similar to box elder bugs, a kissing beetle, which can swarm when it warms up. These guys, I've had collect up in window sills. There are vastly more outside than in (they are flying around, gathering everywhere), but can be just an annoyance inside as they keep to windows.

These smaller stink bugs have an apparent vector of the Tree of Heaven, another invasive species that is actively combatted in my area. So it makes sense we would have the smaller stink bugs too. I was also surprised to read they were first documented in 1996 in America as I can recall these at least as early as 1990 or 1992. As a little kid, I would have to look out for them on the blackberries I picked out of my yard.

These are called "bärfisar" in swedish ("berry farts"). Don't think we have the house invading kind... yet. Looked it up, there are over 6000 variants, we have 28 here.

Had some problems with flour beetles once, they didn't exactly smell like roses either. Not sure if I ever crushed a berry fart though so don't know how it compares. Probably much worse.

Been dealing with these things over the winter. I'm both glad and creeped out by having read this now. I have a method to kill them that works and doesn't smell, but is quite annoying - I shoot them with my salt gun a few times. The real key is to get a near-range shot to the underside. Sometimes It takes a number of them, but I can usually do it in 3. One to knock em down from their perch, one to stun, one to kill.

The salt it leaves behind is annoying to clean, of course, but I've found it to be quite effective.

We're completely invaded in NH - best trick I've learned is leave a shallow pan of water in kitchen with desk light shining on it all nite - rinse and repeat every day :-(

I’d recommend enjoying some [salsa de jumiles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumiles) - stinkbug salsa.

Great article! I haven't actually seen these yet even though they appear to be present in my area. One thing I'll say for all the HNers that may grow roses - monitor the (mentioned) Japanese Beetle map: https://www.pioneer.com/CMRoot/pioneer/US/images/agronomy/li...

These things are absolutely crazy as well.

When I heard that there was a need for an insecticide that could be used in the home it made me think the unthinkable...

What about DDT? If it works it is not terribly toxic to humans but is pretty good at killing insets in general. The devastating consequences to the environment would be avoided if used in the home. I believe it is still used for mosquito control in Africa.

I see in the Wikipedia article it is banned by international treaty except for disease control purposes due to the environmental dangers of it's agricultural use. But I guess it would be good to know if it works...

Man if I get these, I’m moving into the city.

It says that pesticides are not that effective because the stinkbug's long legs keep them from much contact with the pesticide on a surface. Maybe could use pesticide balls with little spikes all over them (like burrs) to make better contact with the stinkbug.

As submitter, I found this to be a good backgrounder on the history and dynamics of this phenomenon, though it's weak on the aspect of residential control, at least for modest infestations: detergent-and-water bait stations, kill jars (have a tightly-fitting lid to avoid the stink), or spray bottles, work well.

Dawn dishwashing detergent is frequently mentioned (I've found any of several detergents works well), in a weak solution. Trader Joe's Cleary & Sage Multi-Purpose Cleaner cut to 1/4, 1/8, or weaker strength, pump hand soaps at ~5-10 pumps per 1 litre bottle, are all effective.

The major problem is when you have a large infestation and need to break the cycle. I don't have a solution for this, yet.

The buggers absolutely cluster on the back surfaces of furniture, wall-hangings, curtains, etc., as well as inside lampshades and other spaces. Frequent checks of these are useful. They also turn up behind books and other shelved items. And inside dressers, cabinets, closets, etc.

The other element of the story I find interesting are the dynamics involved: transport (and commerce) systems and infestations, unintended consequences, private benefits vs. socialised costs, the requirement for regulation and inspection, and comparison with earlier swarming infestations.

On transport, this passage especially:

Prior to the era of planetwide transportation networks, species routinely took millennia to establish themselves in new places. Today, thousands move around the world every day—by ship and plane and freight and pallet and packing crate, by business meetings in Switzerland and military deployments in Pakistan and tourism in Hawaii. At present, this vast influx of new species costs the United States about a hundred and twenty billion dollars a year and is, after habitat destruction, the main reason the world has lost so much biodiversity.

In another context, I'd turned up a reference to epidemiology: If a phenomenon follows transport or communications networks, it's an epidemic. This seems to be a general rule. (Sadly the reference is resisting attempts at rediscovering it.)

James Burke, commenting on his wildly successful 1980 television programme Connections several decades later, on how he'd continue the themes of the first series, mentioned for the jet airliner, epidemics. That is, any transportation system will become involved in the spread of disease or other dishygenic agents. That's a valuable lesson.

The fact that it was importers and exporters who didn't practice sufficient sanitation who brought about the spread of this epidemic reflects on the privatised benefit / socialised cost element.

And the fact that there are now significant restrictions, inspections, and insect-control regimes (including fumigating and/or heat-treating imports and exports, including such goods as automobiles), speaks to regulation and the concept of well and appropriately regulated activities.

There's swarming behaviour itself and the role it plays ecologically. Typically these involve flying or air-transmissible creatures or agents, with birds (the passenger pigeon), and grasshopper/locust behavioural phase-switching organisms, as key exemplars. A swarming or flocking mode allows for a seeking out and amortisation of some nutrient or food potential, in a fast-acting fashion. There are obvious analogues to various human, commercial, and economic behaviours here as well.

I would expect to see some photos but there is none :-(

I heard they are quite tasty, though. Seriously!

Well written: both interesting to read and apparently accurate on detail and sources.

Just found one in the Arizona desert. Oh boy. I thought I was safe here.