Extermination Methods | How To Kill Stink Bugs

How To Kill Stink Bugs By Using Their Own Pheromones Against Them

Stink bugs get their name because they have the dubious distinction of being one of the rare members of the insect kingdom who emit a foul odor as a deterrent against imminent threats. This odor is used to stave off most predators who try to assault them, not unlike how a skunk might emit its noxious odors when they feel threatened by a marauder looking to hunt them down. It is for this reason, it is believed, that stink bugs do not have any known predators in the wild (unless you count wasps, which prey upon unhatched stink bug eggs as opposed to living stink bugs). Killing stink bugs comes with a trade off: You get sprayed by a puff of noxious odors.

Now if you have ever come into contact with a stink bug and tried to squash it, then you no doubt have smelled their trademark odor. Some people say it doesn’t bother them. Some people say it is extremely nasty and putrid. And then there are even some people who say that the odor that stink bugs emit bears a striking resemblance to the smell of cilantro. Well, that is not a coincidence. It just so happens to be that the chemical that is released by stink bugs is composed of trans-2-decenal and trans-2-octenal. This is the same chemical compound that is found in cilantro!

And that is what makes killing stink bugs so challenging: If you try to sqaush them, you could end up with that odor on your hands, your clothes, your furniture, your flooring or walls. And that is perhaps the last thing you want to do, as the residual odor is known to serve as a signal for other stink bugs to come closer.

If your home has been infiltrated by a huge swath of stink bugs, then you may have noticed that they generally tend to stick together in clusters. How do they do that? They do that by releasing what is known as an aggregation pheromone. This aggregation pheromone should not be confused with the self-defense cilantro-smelling odor that they emit when they are threatened. This pheromone is entirely different. It is used to attract other stink bugs, much like a homing beacon, so they can find each other and form clusters like they do. Stink bugs are always on the prowl, in search of warm, and bright places to take up domicile. When other stink bugs are flying by, and they detect that pheromone, they will take the presence of that chemical to mean that there are other stink bugs nearby who have already “blazed the trail” and found such a place for them that is habitable and hospitable.

For many people, this can spell disaster: The last thing you would want to do is to kill one stink bug, only to have a whole army of stink bugs come to take its place. But on the other hand, it is possible to use stink bugs’ weapon of self-defense against them.

Yes, it’s true. Think about it. Stink bugs will instinctively flock toward wherever the source of the aggregation hormones are emanating from. So if we, as humans, chose to, we can leverage this to our advantage. We can set up a trap! The idea is so elementary as to be flawless in nature!

By attracting more stink bugs toward one particular location, you could then entrap them within an enclosure. Or you could get them stuck to some adhesive fly paper or even industrial strength duct tape. Or you could drown them in a container filled with dish soap or dish detergent (which has been known to be lethal to stink bugs). You can get really creative with this.

So the question is: How exactly do you kill stink bugs by using their own pheromones against them? Well, one way would be simply to set up a trap near an existing cluster of stink bugs. Another would be to set up a stink bug pheromone trap, which you could either construct yourself or which you can buy commercially. You can buy synthetically engineered stink bug pheromone sprays. Essentially, you lure stink bugs into an encasing with a trap door from which the pheromone is being released into the atmosphere. And then when enough of these bugs have entered into the encasing, you can then shut the trap door. You can then dispose of these bugs as you see fit. The encasing doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It could be anything as simple as a jar or a bottle, with an odor dispenser placed inside it.

Fortunately, these pheromones are odorless to humans, but stink bugs are highly sensitive to them.

So there’s no sense in feeling helpless and frightened in the face of a horde of stink bugs. There are many ways how to kill stink bugs can kill stink bugs by using their own pheromones against them. Any variation of the method described above will do, as long as you have a source that emits the pheromones and any type of receptacle that can be used to capture and encase them.

How To Kill Stink Bugs By Siccing Predators On Them

Extermination Methods, How To Kill Stink Bugs

Seeking new, more efficient, and less repugnant ways of how to kill stink bugs has become a subject of preoccupation for many people across the United States. Although stink bugs have been around on the planet earth for thousands of years, they are a relatively new arrival here in the US. Stink bugs are indigenous to southeastern Asia and are commonplace in the Koreas, Japan, and China. It was not until sometime in the past decade that they were first spotted here on American soil.

While nobody knows for certain how they got here, the prevailing theory is that they were inadvertently brought here as stowaways aboard shipping crates from Asia. Over the past decade, they have managed to adapt to our climate and have multiplied by the millions. Having first been spotted in Allentown, Pennsylvania, they have now been sighted in over 30 states across the continental US. And their numbers are expected to get worst. While they may be a nuisance to most people, they actually pose a threat to the agricultural industry.

Stink bugs are unique among the insect kingdom in that they have been endowed by nature with their own distinct form of self-defense mechanism to help their species service. Unlike other insects that might bite you or sting you, stink bugs will release a putrid odor into the air whenever they are frightened or attacked. And it is for this reason, many scientists speculate, that stink bugs actually do not have any natural predators that would hunt them down and kill them. Generally speaking, stink bugs are at the top of the food chain, in this respect.

With regard to the issue of natural predators, however, researches have discovered that there is one, after all: However, this predator doesn’t go after live stink bugs themselves. Instead, it targets the unborn eggs that stink bugs lay. And that predator happens to be the wasp. Wasps have been found to prey upon stink bug eggs.

Experts believe that one way to keep the stink bug population under control and to keep it in check, preventing it from growing much more rapidly than it already has been over the past decade, there needs to be a natural predator in the wild that can feed on them. This of course would supplement other efforts at how to kill stink bugs, such as through the use of pesticides, traps, and the like. We can do our part to kill and exterminate stink bugs as we come into contact with them. But for those stink bugs that are still out in the wild, there would need to be a way to keep their population under control naturally.

Otherwise, as we have seen, the stink bug epidemic has only been growing. The growth rate of their population has not yet peaked. In fact, the epidemic has had enough of an impact so as to gain the attention and focus of the US federal government! The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has actually been conducting research and studies into the environmental impact that stink bugs have been having on the agricultural industry, and has actually floated the idea of introducing wasps into the environment, albeit, in a controlled manner.

The way this would work is that wasps would be introduced into regions where there are known stink bug eggs. The wasps would go to work, devouring them, thus preventing new stink bugs from being born. The intended consequence of this would be a slowing down in the growth rate of the stink bug population at the local level. At the very least, if this were applied in regions in the vicinity of farms, this can help to minimize any damage to crops that stink bugs might normally cause.

(Stink bugs are a threat to agriculture because they feed on fruits. They will pierce the skin of fruits and suck the juices out.)

Now some might cry foul, claiming that this is an example of employing a “scorched earth policy” – by killing off stink bugs, we will be solving one problem, but creating a new one. By introducing more wasps into the environment, we would merely be replacing one problem with another: trading out stink bugs for wasps.

But desperate times call for desperate measures, as the saying goes. It remains to be seen where the government will take this initiative. In the meantime, let’s review some tips on other ways how to kill stink bugs.

How To Kill Stink Bugs – Employing a “Scorched Earth Policy”

Extermination Methods, How To Kill Stink Bugs, Stink Bug Facts

Do you remember the 1999 box-office hit movie “The Matrix” in which mankind’s only hope to win the war against the machines was to use nuclear weaponry to permanently scorch the sky, creating a permanent, massive cloud layer too thick and too dense for adequate sunlight to penetrate, for the robots to be able to draw their solar energy from? Well (spoiler alert), that strategy didn’t work too well and it actually backfired, as the robots learned to quickly adapt, and then enslave the human race to draw upon their body heat for an endless, abundant source of energy to power themselves.

Mankind’s quest to figure out how to kill stink bugs is beginning to follow a similar plot line. Or at least it will, if certain scientists within the federal government have their way. Indeed, if the government is getting involved in solving a problem, then you know it has got to be serious! The stink bug epidemic is something that was brought upon by accident not too long ago, perhaps within the past decade. Initially, it was just a handful of stink bugs brought here from overseas through some shipping crates where they may have gone through customs inspections unnoticed, the first report of their presence here being in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Now fast forward to today, and stink bugs have officially been confirmed as having spread out to over 33 states in the continental United States alone.

What is the big deal about stink bugs? After all, there are thousands of different species of insects present in North America at any given moment. What is so special about them that has got the government funding research projects to investigate and thwart the spread of these bugs? Why is the government spending taxpayer dollars to learn ways how to kill stink bugs? Stink bugs are not known to be harmful to human beings in anyway. They don’t bite. They don’t sting. They don’t suck our blood. They don’t even attack other animals or insects. They are peaceful vegetarians by nature. (Looks can be deceiving. They may look like eerily menacing reptilian bugs, but in reality they are harmless, no matter how annoying they may be.) The threat that stink bugs pose to our way of life is purely economic: Stink bugs, in large numbers, are known to destroy farms.

Yes, stink bugs pose a major threat to the agricultural industry. Stink bugs eat all kinds of fruits and vegetables. And they do so by piercing the skin of the food and then sucking the juices out while injecting it with their saliva. So if swarms of stink bugs were to do this on entire farms, it goes without saying that entire crops can be destroyed in this manner. Even in their native domicile of southeast Asia, where stink bugs originate from, they pose a significant threat to agricultural crops there as well. Damage to the agricultural industry has the potential to result in a loss of millions of dollars per year, if the situation is left unchecked.

So what exactly is the government doing to thwart the spread of stink bugs? They are looking at the problem from all angles. They are researching everything from the use of pesticides to seeking to gain an understanding of whether or not stink bugs have any natural predators who pose a threat to them. They are not only looking into how to kill stink bugs but also into how to simply keep the stink bug population under control.

Scientists have not been able to find any evidence that stink bugs are under attack from any other animals or insects in North America. However, by doing a study of these bugs in the context of their natural habitat, in the Far East, they have managed to develop a clearer picture of where they fall in the natural hierarchy of the “food chain”.

As it turns out, bats are confirmed as being avid, hearty eaters of stink bugs. According to one study, a brown bat can eat as many as one thousand brown marmorated (marmorated means having a marble, or streaked appearance, according to the dictionary ) stink bugs within a single hour! How is that for population control? How does this sound: You set up traps for stink bugs – cages filled with bats, that also contain fruit, light and heat (the three things that stink bugs are attracted to) as bait. So when the stink bug is lured toward the cage, the bats are there to eat them up. No need to call an exterminator! No messy stink bug corpses to clean up. No stink. And best of all: free food for bats! Nature will take care of how to kill stink bugs on our behalf, without any intervention from us humans.

Of course this is highly impractical! How many people does the government think are going to be willing to keep bats as pets in our back yards, to keep the stink bugs away? If you think stink bugs are scary looking enough, you haven’t really gotten a good look at bats! Bats, as portrayed in “Batman”, are cute little birds. But if you have ever seen a real bat, then you know that they look like giant, oversized, flying rats!

And then there are other studies that have been done, that reveal that stink bugs do in fact have another predator, which happens to also be in the insect kingdom: wasps. However, the interest that wasps have towards stink bugs is not between the wasp and the living stink bug. Rather, wasps are interested in eating the eggs laid by stink bugs! Yes, wasps pose a threat to the stink bug population at large, by consuming their unborn eggs, but do not pose a threat to the living stink bug population.

Therefore, the introduction of wasps into the environment wherein stink bugs can be found would only be beneficial in terms of population control of the latter. Does this mean that the government might actually be exploring the possibility of introducing wasps into environments where stink bugs are in proximity, as a means of population control?

This sounds good in theory, doesn’t it? We want to keep the stink bug population under control, so therefore we sic wasps on them. But then what happens when the stink bugs are gone? Will we have inherited a new problem? An overpopulation of wasps in our environment. That would seem to be the ironic, “catch 22” of the situation, wouldn’t? Trading our stink bug problem for a wasp problem?

It almost seems as though the mere idea of introducing wasps into our environment would be somewhat akin to the “scorched earth” policy, where in order to destroy the stink bug population, we make the environment worse – not only for them, but also for us humans too!

Not exactly the type of scenario would ever hope to have to play out. But if some scientists have their way, then we might actually be seeing the controlled release of wasps into our environment as a means to quell the explosive growth of the stink bug population in North America. While their aim may be to figure out the best and most efficient way how to kill stink bugs, they may actually be exchanging one problem for another.

How To Kill Stink Bugs With Dish Soap

Extermination Methods, How To Kill Stink Bugs

Who would have thought that you could kill stink bugs with something as seemingly innocuous as dish washing detergent! But it is true. It wasn’t exactly discovered in a laboratory. It was not as if some entomologist was running clinical trials with stink bugs in some laboratory somewhere, trying out different chemical agents to see which ones would harm the bugs and which ones wouldn’t.

The use of dish soap to kill stink bugs was seemingly discovered by accident – by regular people like you and me, trying different things to thwart the onslaught of their infestation into our homes. And then the next thing you knew, this idea of using dish soap as a means how to kill stink bugs suddenly went viral, and it has become a commonly accepted household solution for keeping the stink bug problem at bay.

Stink bugs have only been a problem in North America for about a decade or so now. For thousands of years, they had actually been native insects from southeastern Asia. For thousands of years, southeastern Asia had been their habitat, in countries such as Japan, China, and the Koreas. It was only recently that the stink bug problem became a crisis here in North America, after it is believed that a handful of these bugs accidentally came abroad from overseas in shipping crates that were not properly inspected before leaving their home ports back home. Now, the stink bug problem has become widespread in the United States, spanning well over 33 states across the continent.

There are many ways how to kill stink bugs. Unfortunately, the most common solution that most people think of when it comes to killing bugs is to simply squash them. That solution might work well and good with ants and roaches. But stink bugs are a whole different story. If you try to kill a stink bug, let alone try to frighten one, it releases a terribly foul stench, as a deterrent. This natural self-defense mechanism is potent enough to drive away just about any predator, and it is definitely unpleasant for human beings as well.

You don’t want this stench to get on your clothes or on your skin – not because it is harmful, but because it is a nuisance. While it is a matter subject to debate, it is believed, among some circles, that when stink bugs release their odor, it alerts and attracts other stink bugs toward it, thereby increasing the concentration of their population within one area such as a particular home. Also, you don’t want the remnants and residue of stink bug odor to be stuck to your furniture, to the floors, or to the walls of your house either.

And it is for this reason that it might be in your best interests to find other ways to kill stink bugs and to eliminate their presence entirely. There are numerous ways to deal with the problem of stink bugs. Some ways rely on some creativity and imagination to eradicate the stink bug problem on your own, in a do-it-yourself fashion. And some ways rely on calling up professional exterminators to do the job for you.

Let’s take the example of dish washing soap, for example. Of course, it is common sense that if you submerge any living creature, including humans, in a pool of dish washing soap for an extended period of time, it can be extremely harmful, if not fatal. But stink bugs are a special case: You don’t even need to submerge them in dish washing soap.

It has been found if stink bugs come into physical contact with dish soap, this can be extremely paralyzing, if not lethal, for them. There is something about the chemical composition of dish soap that has been proven to be harmful to stink bugs. But there is one caveat though: Stink bugs have a protective “armor” – an exoskeleton that gives them their characteristic “reptilian” look. This armor is seemingly impervious to the dish soap. The soap is only harmful to the bug if it comes into contact with its underside, where all of its organs are. So you can be looking down at a stink bug and spraying it with a bottle of dish soap all you want, and it won’t have any effect on it (except that it might get a little slippery for the bug.)

… Which brings us to a discussion on the different ways how you can maximize the effectiveness of dish soap to kill a stink bug:

1. One way is to use the submersion technique. You could, quite literally scoop up a stink bug with a paper towel, or somehow trick it to climbing onto a piece of paper, a sandal, or any other object, and then quickly submerge it into a container full of dish soap. The bug should be a goner within minutes.

2. If the thought of doing any of the above makes you queasy, then another alternative might be to grab a spray bottle full of dish soap, as mentioned earlier, and keep it ready. When you see a stink bug, get ready, aim, and fire! Spray that little bugger until it falls to the ground, turns over onto its back, leaving its belly exposed, and then spray that thing hard until it passes out. As mentioned earlier, it is important to make sure that you are spraying its underside. Spraying its upper body is futile. At the very least, the stink bug might lie still for a few minutes, but then it will get up again and move about its business.

3. If you really want to be hands off with having to deal with or interact with stink bugs in the process of capturing and killing them, then you can set up some sort of a stink bug trap. This usually involves a light source, a source of heat, some fruit as bait, some duct tape, and a container of dish soap. The stink bug will be attracted toward the trap because of these three things: light, heat, and fruit, all of which are attractive to these bugs. Once the stink bug comes into proximity with these things and gets stuck to the duct tape, you can then submerge the duct tape into the dish soap container and seal the lid.

Dish soap works. You should definitely give it a try. But it may not work in all situations. If your house is heavily overrun by stink bugs, you may think to yourself “how much dish soap am I going to have to use”? You don’t want your whole house smelling like dish soap. If the problem is just way too overwhelming, you might need a little help.

In a situation like this, you might want to call up a professional exterminator who is professionally trained on how to kill stink bugs.

How To Kill Stink Bugs – Thwarting The Kamikaze Attack

Extermination Methods, How To Kill Stink Bugs, Protecting Your Home

What is the difference between a kamikaze warrior and a stink bug?

Both will swoop down out of the sky to impact an object on the ground, but the only difference is that whereas the kamikaze warrior is willing to die, we wish stink bugs would die.

Indeed, one of the characteristic features of stink bugs is that they sure know how to make an entrance onto the scene: They will swoop down from on high and impact a particular object or surface on the ground, as though they were gearing up for a kamikaze attack. (It is not unheard of for stink bugs to die in the process of doing this, but typically most stink bugs survive the process.)

Stink bugs are deemed by many people as being more annoying than just about any other typical household insect. Unlike flies, mosquitoes, and ants, stink bugs bear a distinctively “reptilian” appearance, considering that their entire back is covered by a protective exoskeleton shell. What makes stink bugs such an annoying nuisance is that they are seemingly stubborn and resilient when it comes to seeking shelter in a warm place. Stink bugs will quite literally stop at nothing to do whatever it takes to gain entry into the protective confines of your house, no matter what it takes. They are hardwired instinctively to seek out warm places to hide during the autumn and winter seasons, and unfortunately for us humans, our homes are considered prime real estate for stink bugs to seek refuge in during these cold seasons.

Why is it that stink bugs seem to emerge out of nowhere? You could be minding your own business, sitting at a desk, or sitting at the dinner table, or cooking dinner in the kitchen, and then all of the sudden, out of the blue, without any prior warning, you hear a unique buzzing sound, and then bam! A stink bug will suddenly appear, having made an abrupt and hard impact onto the surface after crash landing, kamikaze style, from a higher surface or from the ceiling, a wall, or an overhead air duct. (Stink bugs make buzzing sounds, similar to the common housefly, but a little bit louder.)

Indeed, stink bugs are extremely resilient creatures. It is like a bad horror movie: You see one stink bug in the house and you kill it, only to find another stink bug in the house that very same day or some time a few days later has taken its place. If it seems as though your house is being overrun by stink bugs, then it is no doubt time to take some sort of action to do something about them and taking whatever preventative actions are necessary in order to prevent future stink bug infestations as well.

Once stink bugs gain access into your house, typically you will find them lingering and loitering around windows, window sills, doors, skylights, crevices, cracks or gaps in the walls, or near sources of abundant light in your house, such as lamps.

And if you haven’t already figured it out through first hand experience, you should be made aware of the fact that stink bugs can fly. Yes, indeed, stink bugs are flying insects. They may be creepy crawlers, but they are also insects. And one of their characteristics , as mentioned above, is that they sure know how to make an entrance into a room! Very often, you will find stink bugs suddenly swoop onto a table or other surface, seemingly out of nowhere. Their arrival is preceded by a distinct buzzing sound. Yes, stink bugs make a buzzing sound when they fly. And then they will land with great force onto the surface.

The manner in which stink bugs will make an entrance into a room, sweeping down from on high, is very similar to the way a Japanese kamikaze World War II pilot would swoop down from out of the sky, resulting in a surprise attack upon the enemy. Of course, the main difference between a real Japanese kamikaze attack versus the kamizake style entrance that a stink bug makes into the room is that the stink bug doesn’t do it with the intent to kill any prey, let alone to kill itself. (The Japanese kamikaze air force pilots of yore were conditioned to take on these stunts with the full knowledge and intention of engaging in a suicide mission, for the greater good.)

It is rather sadly ironic that stink bugs are natives of Japan, the nation that relied heavily on kamikaze dive bombers, and that these bugs themselves also engage in dive bombing by instinct. While other insects will make a graceful and soft landing onto whatever surface they wish to land upon, stink bugs will very often “dive bomb” their way from place to place, particularly from high to low.

For this reason, you must be very vigilant about protecting your home if you suspect or are aware of the fact that there is a population of stink bugs in your home. Stink bugs do not discriminate or have any deliberate intention, there is no rhyme or reason to where, why, and how they choose their targets for dive bombing.

Many people will report that stink bugs have dive bombed right into their pots while cooking in the kitchen, or that the stink bug will end up on their shirt. As far as food is concerned, it is extremely important, for this reason, that you cover any food or refrigerate it, so that stink bugs cannot dive bomb onto these fruits and feed off of them. Or the stink bugs might even dive bomb onto your person, seemingly out of nowhere at random. If you suffer from entomophobia (fear of insects), this might no doubt freak you out of course.

The good news is that while the mere thought of stink bugs staging “kamikaze” style entrances into a room, you can actually also take this kamikaze dive-bombing behavior and turn it around to your advantage as an effective means for how to kill stink bugs:

For example, you can set up stink bug traps to entice and lure them toward the trap. They will kamikaze right into the trap, and never be able to break free. For example, one type of trap that you could set up would consist of a light source adjacent to a bowl of dish soap…. If the stink bug dive bombs toward the light source to seek its warmth and illumination, it will land in the dish, and when the dish soap makes contact with the stink bug’s belly, it will poison it. (Dish soap is among a number of different household solutions that have been determined, through trial and error, to be lethal to stink bugs.)

There are other types of traps you can set up as well, but the use of dish washing detergent has been proven to be extremely effective at paralyzing and killing stink bugs, for the most part. Other traps might be ones that cause the stink bugs to become confined into a box or a container in which they will eventually starve, suffocate, and die. Another type of trap might simply be a bug zapper, that kills the stink bug as soon as it makes contact with the light source.

There is no way to prevent stink bugs from dive bombing. It is in their nature. As stated above, their dive bombing does not appear to be deliberately aimed toward any particular targets such as food or light, as they have been known to dive bomb directly onto people’s shirts or onto desks or tables, even though there is no food present.

So the best prevention in this case is to be prepared to deal with them and to capture them when this dive bombing does occur.

There are many ways how to kill stink bugs. One way is to set up traps for them when they engage in their “kamikaze attacks”. While it is not possible always to predict when and where a stink bug might emerge and engage in this type of dive bombing activity, it is possible to lure them and entice them to dive bomb toward a light source, a source of heat, or towards fresh fruits that they thrive on.

When all else fails, you can always set up an appointment with your local exterminator. They would be the experts on how to kill stink bugs.

How To Kill Stink Bugs – Can Wasps Be The Answer?

Extermination Methods, Stink Bug Facts

For many years, it was believed that there was no way to control the explosive growth of the stink bug population that has begun to plague the North American continent over the past few years. Each and every year, the population of stink bugs in North America has been rising at an alarming rate. Initially clustered in the northeastern regions of the United States, you can now find stink bugs spread across the entire continent, all the way to the west coast. Carrying their infamously nefarious stench with them wherever they go, this menace has been a source of major annoyance for the general population, while at the same time it has proven to be a ruinous force for the agricultural population.

Up until recently, there was no known way to keep the stink bug population in check. There had been no known predators in our environment that could kill stink bugs.

Researchers in the United States who have been commissioned with the task of studying stink bugs and identifying ways of how to kill stink bugs and keep their population under control have determined that there are indeed natural predators in the food chain that can be used to threaten the stink bug population:

Stink bugs, meet the Asian wasp.

What is interesting is that Asian wasps don’t attack stink bugs directly. Even if they were to try to, the foul stench that stink bugs emanate would be enough to drive the wasps away. Instead, what Asians wasps do is infiltrate the nests of stink bugs and attack the eggs that they lay. By doing this, the Asian wasp is able to keep the stink bug population under control, keeping new baby stink bugs from ever hatching.

Of course, this is not to say that the Asian wasp is a benign creature in its own right. We obviously don’t want to see the stink bug problem be replaced by an Asian wasp problem. But by introducing these wasps into the environment where stink bugs procreate and create their nests, it is hoped that we can keep the population from growing any larger than it has.

Left unchecked, we may find that the stink bug problem will only get worse in the upcoming years to come. This is only one way to address the problem of how to kill stink bugs: Let nature take its course.

In the meantime, of course, we need to do our part to address the stink bug problem. Other methods for how to mitigate the stink bug problem include taking measures to prevent stink bugs from entering your home by sealing it properly, setting up stink bug traps, power washing your home.

If you aren’t sure what to do to address the stink bug problem on your own, or you just don’t have the stomach to deal with the problem by yourself because stink bugs make you squeamish, then you can always enlist the help of a professional extermination service and sic them on these annoying creatures. A professional extermination service will be able to advise you as to what is the best way how to kill stink bugs.

How To Kill Stink Bugs Using Stink Bug Traps

Extermination Methods, Protecting Your Home, Sprays and Traps

There are many different strategies for how to kill stink bugs. Some are more effective than others. And some are more desirable than others. By now, you probably have already figured out that while squashing stink bugs may seem like the most common sense way to deal with them, as you would with any other bug, the reality is that this is probably the least desirable way to deal with them, due to the foul odor that they emanate when they get frightened. (Hence the name “stink” bugs, because of the foul stench they release as a way to detract predators.)

One hands-off way how to kill stink bugs is to by using stink bug traps in order to stop them dead. A stink bug trap is designed to attract these critters, luring them toward it, and then trapping them so that they cannot escape, while the lethal agents within the trap get to work to put the stink bugs out of their misery.

There are three ways in ways stink bug traps can work for you:

Stink bugs are attracted to light. So in dark areas of your home or at night, or outside near your home, if you place a lighted stink bug trap there, stink bugs will be drawn to the light.
As with any other species of animal or insect, stink bugs are attracted to pheromones, which are airborne hormones that are used for attracting a mate. So a stink bug trap that emanates these stink bug pheromones can serve as an extremely effective means to draw these bugs toward the trap.
Those stink bug traps also work very well that have a stash of their food available in the trap, laid out in such a way that stink bugs that happen to be in the proximity of the trap will be able to sense the food and thus be drawn toward it.

There are all kinds of stink bug traps out there. Some employ only one of the three methods, whereas there are other traps that employ all three methods. This latter type of trap that combines multiple methods of stink bug attraction generally tend to be more effective since they increase the odds of being able to lure these bugs toward them.

So how do these stink bug traps work? Once the bug is lured into the trap, what happens? Typically there will either be some type of adhesive material that will prevent the stink bug from escaping, or the entry way into the trap will not allow the bugs to escape once they enter it.

And what is inside the trap? What exactly is used to actually exterminate a stink bug? The answer varies. You may be surprised to find that dousing stink bugs with dish washing liquid detergent is sufficient to kill them. Yes, you read correctly! You don’t need some synthetic, toxic chemical bug spray. Dish washing liquid detergent has been proven to be lethal to stink bugs! So a solution of this detergent is all you need inside the trap to exterminate stink bugs.

If you need professional help to rid yourself of your stink bug problem, then perhaps it may be worth considering to call up your local exterminator, who would be an expert on how to kill stink bugs.