How to Control Stink Bugs in Your Home

The annual stink bug race is on and stopping them before they make it inside your home is the best chance a homeowner will have to limited their home invasion. These are brown marmorated stink bugs, and they are native to Asia. The stink bug supposedly originated in a shipment of goods at a Walmart store in Pennsylvania sometime before 1998. They were first recorded in Lynchburg in 2005. Now they are in 33 states.
They only want to over-winter inside your home. These Stink bugs will find any entrance they can to gain access to your home. They are simply looking for a warm spot to hang out for the winter.
Really, the best way to control them is to prevent them from coming inside. This can be done by filling all your cracks and crevices that the stink bugs can gain access to, windows, door jams, weep holes, etc. Plug up any utility pipes with silicone caulk and by screening attic and crawl space vents. If your doors and windows are not covered by tight-fitting screens, keep them shut. Seal your house up as tight as possible.
The next step to is to apply an insecticides spray on the exterior of your house. This may will help control stink bugs but it needs to be applied when the bugs first appear or right before a drop in temperature. Do a good perimeter treatment with something like Talstar. You will want to focus on all the areas that we just recommended creating a tight seal with, such as doors, windows and attic vents. Using Talstar should give you a good amount of control; they will come in contact with the chemical as they try to make entry into your home.
Using a vacuum cleaner for stink bugs that do make it inside is a low cost effective method of control. For some homeowners this is not an option as the population is so extensive, using a aerosol pyrethrin like PT 565 is a good option to spray directly on the stink bugs for a quick kill.
Remember to be thorough with your inspections of the entry points, and when perimeter spraying using a residual insecticide. Treating before the stink bug is urged to seek shelter inside your home for the winter is the key to keeping your home stink bug free!