One day, you’re enjoying your home, pest-free. The next, an army of stink bugs invades! How did this happen?
Fall and winter is peak stink bug season. This time of year, it’s important to know how stink bugs get into your home—so you can keep them out. Keep reading to learn how these awful-smelling pests enter your house and what you can do about them.
Why Do Stink Bugs Come Into Your Home?
Stink bugs come into your home starting in fall in order to find shelter from the cold. This shield-shaped insect is part of a group of pests that “overwinter,” or find someplace warm to spend the winter. Since your home is warm, cozy, and well-lit, it’s inviting to stink bugs.
If you have a vegetable or herb garden, it’s likely that stink bugs are especially attracted to your yard and home. (Stink bugs typically eat fruit and vegetable crops.)
How Do Stink Bugs Get In?
Stink bugs enter your home through cracks, crevices, and holes. Though stink bugs are on the larger side, they are somewhat flat—which allows them to squeeze through tears in screens and cracks in window frames, doors, and your home’s foundation.
Once they find their way inside, they typically hide in voids in the wall until spring, when they become active again.
How Do You Keep Stink Bugs Out?
While stink bugs aren’t harmful to people or animals, you still don’t want them in your home. As their name suggests, stink bugs release a foul odor when threatened or crushed. In large numbers, their presence can result in an awful odor in your home that lingers.
To keep this annoying pest out, it’s important to seal up any cracks and crevices around your home. We recommend the following:
- Make sure the caulk around windows is in good condition, replacing it if necessary.
- Repair or replace window or door screens that have holes. (Don’t open your windows unless you have a screen.)
- Add weatherstripping to entry doors, or replace the weatherstripping if it is deteriorated. Install door sweeps if daylight is visible at the bottom of the door.
- Rake debris and edible vegetation from your home’s foundation to avoid attracting pests. (Mulch should also be six inches away from the foundation.)
- Inspect your foundation for cracks, and use caulk to seal any you find.
- Install screens on exterior vents.
- Secure any cracks or crevices in your crawl space or attic.
- Trim shrubs and trees back so they don’t touch the sides of your house.
- Inspect firewood to ensure stink bugs aren’t hitchhiking inside.
Taking these steps can help keep not only stink bugs, but many other species of pests, out of your home this winter (not to mention the seasons to come).
Need Help with an Infestation?
If stink bugs or other pests are already in your home, we’re here to help.
Contact Scherzinger Pest Control, a trusted pest control company in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas, including Dayton, OH, and now Columbus, OH. We’ve been pioneers, engineering new standards for ways of eliminating and controlling bugs and pests. Contact us by phone at 1-877-748-9888 or through our website, Facebook, or Twitter.
