How Do Stinkbugs Enter Your Home, Do Stinkbugs Damage Your Home or Health

How do stinkbugs enter your home? What are the effects of a stinkbug? What is the odor a stinkbug gives off? Do stinkbugs damage your home or health? What is the solution to preventing stinkbugs from entering your home? Here are some answers to common questions about stinkbugs.

Inside or outside I'm sure you've seen or heard those stinky little flying stinkbugs buzzing around. There is nothing worse than the odor they produce. Not to mention when one appears in your home there are more that will come out of hiding as soon as you turn on the lights.

Stinkbugs love light and many of them will fly around light bulbs or land on the outside of your windows in hopes of gaining entry. Stinkbugs will come inside during the early fall because the weather is cooling down. During summer months they stay in fields, crop fields, and yards because it's still warm.

A few years ago we had an abundance of ladybugs now we have an abundance of stinkbugs. Did the stinkbugs eat the ladybugs and make them extinct? I guess we will never know the answer to that question. It just seems a bit weird that we had ladybugs one year and now the next it's all about stinkbugs.

Stinkbugs can live for many years. If stinkbugs live in a cooler climate they will search for a place to hibernate for the winter. This means your home will become a stinkbug haven during winter months.

How Do Stinkbugs Enter a Home

Stinkbugs are sneaky insects. They will find the smallest easiest way to enter your home. Stinkbugs will enter your home under siding, windows and door frames, crawlspaces and vent openings, as wells as under roof shingles. If you leave a porch light on at night and open your door they will sneak right in the front door, uninvited of course.

What Are the Effects of Stinkbugs

Stinkbugs can kill your plant life by piercing the plant with their mouth and injecting the plant with digestive enzymes to extract plant juices. In doing this it will cause disease in the plants and cause them to die. Stinkbugs will feed on almost any plant including honeydews, beans, cabbage and peppers. If your plants have suddenly died most likely the stinkbug played a part in the plant dying. Stinkbugs can be helpful because some of them will eat other insects, which helps to cut down on other plant-eating insects. However, one is just as bad as the other is.

What Is the Odor Stinkbugs Give Off

The odor a stinkbug releases is stinky in every sense of the word. The odor is their defense when they are disturbed or threatened. The odor prevents lizards and birds from eating them. Once the odor is released in your home it is difficult to get rid of the smell. The odor can linger for a long time making the homeowner upset. The odor can sometimes cause stinkbugs to return to your home the following year because they consider it home now because of the smell.

Do Stinkbugs Damage Your Home or Health

No, they cannot damage your home or your health. Stinkbugs do not cause damage or transmit disease. In fact they are harmless other than the fact they are a nuisance and they stink.

What Is the Solution to Preventing Stinkbugs from Entering Your Home

First you need to keep the stinkbugs from wanting to surround or enter your home. The way to prevent this is to weed your yard and your garden. Stinkbugs use weeds to cover themselves and once the weeds are gone they have no place to hide. Without their cover they are less likely to stay around your home.

Insecticides are another way to get rid of stinkbugs. It's best to have a professional rid the outside of your home from stinkbugs. If stinkbugs have entered your home find out how they are getting inside. Seal up cracks and crevices that they may have used as an entry point. Try not to kill a stinkbug by crushing them especially if the stinkbugs are inside your home. If killed or crushed they will release the odor in your home and you will most likely have them return again next year because they think it's their home. Use an old vacuum cleaner to suck them up and take them as far away from your home as possible and empty the vacuum cleaner out. Repeat the vacuuming process as many times as necessary until the stinkbugs are gone from your home. For more information on getting rid of stinkbugs visit How to get rid of stinkbugs, what is a stinkbug.