Febreze - Secret Weapon in War Against Chinese Stink Beetles

Built like a miniature tank with wings. It's weapon is chemical in nature as it expels a type of gas or odor that stinks so bad it is enough to bring a grown man down to his knees.

Now I don't live in a rural area, the pests that we do have are of the most common variety and that's just the way it is just outside of Washington DC in Northern Virginia. As such the enemy invader is completely unknown to us in this area.

This enemy is new to these parts and as winter is on it's way this small monster is heading indoors just like the rest of us. The only problem is that these evil monsters want to find solace in our homes rather then their own.

What is this evil enemy of which I speak?

It's the dreaded Chinese Stink Beetle, I call it a monster. As do most of my neighbors and the title fits as this monster is as hard as a Pecan and shaped like a brown slightly rounded on the flanks, medieval shield. The type that you would expect a knight to carry into battle except that it's brown and has legs.

I have personally seen these bugs get sprayed with lye and just shrug it off as if it were nothing where most other bugs would be on the ground in death throws.

I have sprayed them with some regular household poison and although the bug ended up being sick, it was still alive and seemingly getting better eight hours later.

These little monsters were everywhere in my home, well hidden under framed pictures and in cracks and crevices.

The only good thing about them is that they don't breed during the winter months they just want a warm place to hang while the snows cause havoc outdoors.

I'll admit it, I have a certain respect for them as they fly very badly, I mean REALLY badly. They are tough as tough gets and before I realized that there were hundreds, if not thousands of them, in my home, I sort of liked them.

That is all before I found out what they were.

Instantly I ran to my computer and started reading up on them and a chill went down my spine when I read a report that a woman, somewhere in the United States, had her vinyl siding taken down only to find that her walls were so infested that she couldn't see the wooden framing of her home.

So I grabbed the little yet powerful Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner and I started hunting, it is exactly at this point that I found out why they are called Stink Beetles. You see, they suddenly felt threatened and started to emit the most horrid odor I had ever smelled. It was sort of like lemon pledge mixed with sour milk that had been standing in the sun with a hint of rotting flesh.

Believe me when I tell you that the stink is horrible and when it is released by several dozen beetles inside of a bedroom the vapor is just overwhelming. I quickly grabbed some Lysol and started spraying and it helped but only briefly for once the little aerosol bits of the deodorizer had settled the stench of the beetles was just as strong as before.

Not to sound like a commercial I recalled that a certain competitor of Lysol claimed not to cover up odors but that it eliminated them, I am speaking of Febreze. It was almost ironic that as soon as I had thought of that product I suddenly noticed one of the Febreze adverts playing on the TV.

I'm sure you've seen it, it's the one where the mom comes into her sons room and asks him if he isn't expecting company, he tells her that he is to which she replies that his room stinks and would need to be washed. Washed with Febreze rather then actual soap and water.

In any case, I rand down to the store bought several bottles of Febreze. No, actually bottle is the wrong word for it, I bought several JUGS of Febreze.

I was in a panic as it was getting late and there was no way I was going to be able to sleep in that stench those monsters left behind and I knew that the following day I was going to do battle with them again in the rest of the house.

Well, I can not tell you how glad I am with my Febreze purchase, almost instantly after I started spraying the deodorizer in every direction the smell started to subside. It was still noticeable but with each pass of the spray the stench from the beetles had all but subsided and the air was breathable again.

I slept pretty well that night, the air was breathable again and the next day when I started my battle with those monsters spraying some Febreze into the battlefield made things tolerable. Now I don't know if the makers of Febreze would recommend spraying their product on one of those anti dust masks that you can buy at the Home Depot but that's what I did and it did wonders.

I would like to make it perfectly clear that nobody should use the product in the way I did as I don't know if it will or won't harm you and I was making a calculated guess that just happened to work out.

Finally, I knew I was fighting a losing battle and I called in the pro's but when they quoted me their price for dealing with these monsters I told them that I will continue the fight on my own. I don't want to throw monetary figures around but their quote almost caused me to go prematurely gray.

So I went on a shopping spree for the hardest hitting bug foggers. I put several in the upper and lower attic (I live in a split level) so the amount of poison that was released in the attic's was well over the suggested amount.

I kept seeing beetles crawling out of the woodwork and they seemed drunk so I guess I was making headway. I was using paper towels to pick the drunken beetles and toss them into either the toilet or into a container of water outdoors.

Finally, I ended up fumigating the entire house and I mean fumigating every room very heavily. I'm certain if someone had struck a match I would no longer have a house as it would have achieved orbit around the earth.

It's been a month to maybe a month and a half and I'm starting to see a few beetles here and there again so I'm preparing to fumigate again but until then I'm using the paper towel method and using Febreze quite liberally and I am able to deal with the stench. I take that back, there simply isn't any stink when I use Febreze.

I don't want this article to sound like I'm trying to sell Febreze because I'm not but when something works you keep at it.

As for the bugs, well, lets just say that I'm gearing up for a formidable attack upon the Stink Beetles in the very near future.

I'll update this article with a follow up depending on how bad things get in round two of my war against these monsters.

By Rob Korczak
www.robertkorczak.com