Stink Bugs Are About To Crawl Into NYC Homes: What To Do

NEW YORK CITY — It's that time again: stink bugs are about to crawl into your home, looking for a reprieve from the cooler temperatures arriving outside.

As soon as fall arrive, stink bugs will be looking for a place to freeload over the winter. You’ll recognize them by their marbled or streaked appearance.

They’re noxious in ways other than their smell, which has been compared to rotting meat and is emitted when they feel threatened.

They're often found in New York City sinks and bathtubs after creeping inside through drains.

26,000-Strong Stink Bug Invasion

Fortunately, not every homeowner has a stink bug horror story like that of Pam Stone and Paul Zimmerman, who discovered 26,000 stink bugs that invaded their home as the cooler air of fall came to South Carolina. They had left doors open leading to a second-story deck outside their bedroom and the stink bugs marched right in.

The couple’s experience, recounted by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker, was “like a horror movie,” Stone said.

They were on every visible surface and on many that weren’t visible. Squashing them wasn’t the answer, of course, because that's exactly when they throw off that smell. But when the couple carried some outside, more stink bugs came in.

This went on for days, with Stone and Zimmerman finding them in the strangest places.

Stone, who is an actress, comedian and horse trainer, sprang off her horse like she’d been catapulted when she discovered her saddle was crawling with them.

Your home may not be invaded by a horde of tens of thousands, but a wildlife biologist in Maryland, entomologists in Virginia and bank employees in West Virginia reported larger infestations — about a million in one place, according to one estimate — of the shield-shaped menace, The New Yorker report said.

Scared yet?

When stink bugs feed on crops, damage can include everything from bruises and blemishes to aborted sweet corn kernels to a change in the sugar levels in some fruits.

Stink bugs damage ornamental trees as well as fruits and vegetables, and they pose such a threat that the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the Stop the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug strike force. It's a team of 50 researchers from 18 land-grant universities closely tracking the migration of the invasive, fast-moving pest.

Stink Bug Control Tips

On the home front, your best defense against stink bugs is to arm yourself with weather stripping, caulking and tape, and make your home a fortress. Seal up gaps and crevices around foundations and any area where doors, windows, chimneys and utility pipes are cut into the exterior. Any opening large enough for a stink bug to crawl through should be sealed.

The best thing to do if you find them inside is gently sweep them into a bucket, then fill it with a couple of inches of soapy water. You could vacuum them up, but perhaps as a last resort because it will trigger stink bugs’ notorious odor and make your vacuum cleaner smell nasty.

Some companies recommend a special stink bug vacuum — a cheap, handheld model used only for that chore. The bag should be tossed in a thick, disposable trash bag and taken far from the house.

Poison can quickly kill the stink bugs, but that will also trigger their stench. Professional extermination is another option.

Or, Just Live With Stink Bugs

Or, if you can bear the thought of living communally with stink bugs inside your home, you could just leave them alone.

Their piercing, sucking mouthparts — tiny shields about a half-inch long and wide, which they curiously tuck between their legs when they’re not piercing and sucking the juice from plants — are not good for biting people. Stink bugs can’t sting you.

They don’t nest or lay eggs or reproduce. They don’t feed on anything or anyone in your house. They just move in to take a load off for a few months — scientifically, they enter a dormant phase known as diapause.

You’re unlikely to even know they’re there unless you do something to disturb them.

Reported by Beth Dalby