On top of changing leaves, cooler temperatures and Halloween activities, October is also known for something less pleasant — the return of stink bugs to Johnson County.
When temperatures start to go down, stink bugs start trying to head indoors in search of warmer spaces.
According to the Johnson County K-State Research and Extension Office, eastern Kansas has seen an increase in the small bugs in recent years, ever since the “exotic, invasive” species was first unintentionally introduced to the U.S. from Asia in the late 1990s.
“The stink bugs are outside during the summer, feeding on our plant materials, and honestly most people don’t notice them,” said Dennis Patton, horticulture agent with the Johnson County K-State Research and Extension Office. “When they’re crawling on your curtains or on your floor or on your wall inside the house, you tend to notice them more than out in the shrubbery.”
Tips for dealing with stink bugs
The K-State Research and Extension Office offers several tips for dealing with stink bugs that may get inside your home:
How to spot them: Stink bugs are primarily known for their pungent smell once they’re squashed, but they can also be readily identified by sight.
- Adult stink bugs are typically about 12 to 17 millimeters long with “shield” shaped bodies that are usually speckled brown or green.
- Patton said there are several different types of stink bug, but the one that typically invades the home is the brown marmorated stink bug.
- Stink bug eggs are a brighter green and can usually be found on the underside of leaves.
What’s their harm? According to K-State Research and Extension Office, the biggest nuisance a stink bug can bring indoors is their odor, which they emit as a defensive mechanism when disturbed or squashed.
- They don’t typically bite humans or carry diseases, nor do they chew on fabric.
- Outside is where they cause the most harm, due to their tendency to feed on crops and outdoor plants.
Keeping them outside: Before they start trying to go inside houses, stink bugs like to seek shelter in undisturbed outdoor areas like brush piles or tree bark.
- If you find a stink bug’s host plant or overwintering site, spraying the host site with an insecticide can successfully stop them at the source.
- Keeping gaps, cracks and crevices of the house sealed up with caulking or steel wool can also help keep the bugs from getting inside.
- “What happens is (the stink bug) is trying to mimic its overwintering sites in its native habitat — which would be protected cracks and crevices in trees, rock outcroppings and debris and those types of things,” Patton said. “Our homes make that perfect kind of overwintering more that they need to survive.”
What if they get inside? Insecticides don’t typically work on stink bugs once they’ve already gotten inside.
- Instead, putting a dish of soapy water under a bright light can attract the bugs and be a more effective trap.
- They can also be vacuumed up and disposed of, but that may result in the odor staying in the vacuum once the bugs are gone.
- However, Patton said vacuuming them up or carefully picking them up might be a better option that crushing them, since the material in them that’s released once they’re crushed can sometimes cause a rash.
