The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Invasion!

Much alarm Tuesday afternoon back at home, as shifts in the weather have triggered large numbers of stinkbugs to start looking for ways into homes for the winter.

Having been enjoying the fall weather we had our windows open and when these beetles suddenly swarmed yesterday they found a few open spaces around the edges of screen frames, apparently. Dozens were killed or caught in the late afternoon and evening, and even the kids (who did most of the catching and killing before I came home) were creeped out by it after a while. A few beetles are annoying, but finding several in every fold of the drapes and having some of them taking flight around the room -- it's not what we're used to indoors.

I told her to close the windows and put the AC back on (something I was planning to do for a day or so anyway as our temps are heading back up into the 80s today with rain coming on) and have the kids continue taking care of what they could find. I decided to pick up insecticide, and decided I'd try the plant-based Raid Earth Options rather than go with the straight petroleum-based types. (We've been having a little problem with fruit flies recently, too, so I picked up a can of the flying insect killer, too.) Not an instant killer by any stretch, along with using it around the windows, on the drapes to get any that may have eluded us I also gave a short blast of it into a pop-top container with a dozen or so of them caught alive inside. Over the course of 45 minutes or so they went from frantic to obviously dying, which helped settle everyone's mind that any who evaded the capture and kill sweep were likely dying or already dead. The clove scent is also easier to take than the standard , perfumed petroleum variety.

Tonight I'll open the windows long enough to spray on and around the edges of the screens and then reclose them. Tomorrow, when cooler temps resume, we should be able to open the windws again. I might run some masking tape over the edges to make sure we have a seal, too. The screens themselves are fine, but these are vertically sliding arrangements and while the closed windows are secure there are obviously gaps between the sliding screen frames.

Once we've gotten a good frost I expect we'll be past this problem for the season.

We've never had this obvious a problem before, and checking around I quickly found that it's reportedly a big year for stinkbugs here in Southeastern PA at least, with reports of screens on windows and doors crawling with them as they try to get in.