Specifically the Brown Marmorated Stinkbug which has apparently been in the US less than 15 yrs. This is my 1st experience with any kind of stinkbug.
Suspend SC (Deltamethrin 4.75%) kills them but they die slowly and you have to squirt them directly. Walking across a dry film layer of the posion seems to have no effect.
But here's the rub: Everybody goes ballistic about their odor when squished. Well, over the past seven days, I have squished about about two dozen inside the house and at least 1,000 outside on the cedar siding or in the garage with a fly swatter. I cannot smell a thing even though possessing an excellent olfactory sense. Hell, I can smell a fart at 20 yards. Guess I should be thankful small blessings in dealing with this nuisance.
I have a weak nose, and I haven't squashed more than one, and that was months ago, when I only had one. I've swatted them away on 10 or 20 occasions and never smelled anything.
But the number started increasing, and I was ignoring them, figuring they'd go away like ants and even flies do, until I read that they don't have a set time for dying and they can live inside all winter.
So I googled and today I put a quart or two of water in my small shop vac and some dish soap until it bubbled when sloshed, and went vacuuming. They're not hard to get, especially on the window screen, and all told, I got about 45.
They don't take much evasive action. The ones on the curtains are hard because the vac sucks the curtain in, but shaking the curtain makes them fall off and go to the window or land on the window sill. The ones in the ceiling fixture are impossible until they decide to walk around the glass shade. Then I pick em off one at a time. I got all four.
When done each time I plugged up the vac so they don't come out the hose they wennt in. I don't know if they can make it out the vents, or if the soapy water will kill them, or if they will hang on to the top and not fall in the water.
I got most on the first try, and went back 3 more times for a few more more, including on the ceiling fixture. They're almost entirely in one room.
I'm not going to open the vac until I'm outside, in case they are alive. And then I'll pour them out dead or alive.
Of all the suggestions I read on the net, this seems the best.
Other probalby good ones where using the hand held battery vac, or a spray botle with soapy water, but I gave away my mother's portable vac after she died and in 10 years, this is the first time I've had any desire to have one, and with the spray bottle, you still have to pick them up.
A vacuum with a hose seems like the right thing, and a shop vac can hold soapy water in the bottom.
They made the headlines in today's Sunday paper here:
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If I pick up and crush one in a tissue or grab one crawling down my shirt the other day, my fingers smell but it is temporary. Odor does not travel far. I've been using a hand held vacuum to pick-up those that get in the house. Insecticides not recommended in article.
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