Let's get one thing straight:

I am not an "EWW BUGS!" person. But when I remove a window air conditioner (in my bedroom, no less) from it's chassis and no less than 75 stink bugs fly out into my face, onto my arms, and all over the room, I WILL scream like a little girl.

There's no shame. We all would have done the same.

Forgiven

Yeah, that doesn't sound like too much fun.

what is with those damn things.. they are everywhere! We had Mary J Blige come to the Borgata Yesterday.. when we laid out her LED Curtain.. it was infested with them.

I get the occasional one in my bathroom for some reason

As was explained on the local news one day here, they are an asian species brought over in those nice shipping containers....

So they have no natural enemies here, yet.

Brian

Yeah that is kinda unexpected guess i don't blame you.

they like warm places... they are in my shop, in my battery chargers, tv etc...

lookin for a nice place for winter, they wait by the doors to get in. harmless as far as i can tell

I just spent about an hour reading up on them online and then about two hours playing exterminator. After this morning's incident, and another incident wherein my fiancee put a hat on this morning, to discover twenty minutes later that there was one crawling on her head (it was under the hat on top of the dresser), I went crazy.

Apparently the best solution is to spray them with a water/dish soap combination out of a spray bottle, then pick them up with a gloved hand and drop them into a jar or plastic bag filled also with soapy water. Spraying them directly with soap eliminates their stink, because the soap coats them, and then dropping them into soapy water speeds up their death, and prevents their rotting corpses from attracting more, live stinkbugs.

Sealing entry points is also recommended, but I live in an apartment that's the second floor of a circa 1840s farmhouse...it has more holes than a cheese grater. Sooooo it seems that killing several hundred a day until winter kills them all is going to be the only solution.

And just now I think I've figured out which window they come in...I'll probably be caulking that window up, and if my landlord has a problem with it, I'm catching 100 live ones and releasing them in his house.

haha i've been in Panama (the country) on an island for the last few months...

got to deal with no-se-ums (which honestly are the worst of it), 4+" grasshoppers and my fav...

the cicata those things are SICK... get up to 3-4" long from what we saw and if you pock it with a broom/stick they SCREAM... like literally make a noise while they fly around and dive bomb you...

Datsun1500 wrote: I wonder who made that up? They have been here for a long, long time.

No the ones you are seeing now are of the asian variety, not the normal species that are already here. That comes from the normal WVU extension agent on the toob.

Brian

for a vid of the ciceda :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy12sppepRQ

Cicadas are gorgeous things, I've been fascinated with them since I was little.

What are stink bugs? I don't know if we have those up here.

I've been by your island in Panama, I suspect. Can you see the Canal from there? Then I've seen it. I was on the flying bridge for <1 hour with my shirt off. Probably 30-40 minutes. Burnt to a crisp. Took me a couple weeks to get over that. The weather there is ALMOST as bad a Louisiana.

donalson wrote: the cicata those things are SICK... get up to 3-4" long from what we saw and if you pock it with a broom/stick they SCREAM... like literally make a noise while they fly around and dive bomb you...

Ciceda's aren't bad. Annoying, but they don't do anything. Around here, they come ever 17 years. Its pretty crazy. They are EVERYWHERE for one summer, every 17 years. I ate a live one for $30. Would have been better fried or covered in chocolate. Or both. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CfDY3L7CM

Stink bug, there are quite a few in my house right now. My cat is fascinated by them.

So........

forgot to ask.....

How loud did you scream?

These are the stink bugs we get up here Lesley, My neighbour has millions of them. He sprays them with soap and water, and it kills them, but they keep coming back. Maybe because he leaves the dead one on the ground. There are mounds of dead bodies.

Datsun1500 wrote:

Twin_Cam wrote: Sooooo it seems that killing several hundred a day until winter kills them all is going to be the only solution.

The reports here keep saying if you think they are bad now, wait until it gets cold and they all come in the house to get warm..... The first few weeks of winter will mean more in the house....

Not if I kill them all as they come in. I'm the stinkbug harbinger of death, you don't even know. Our infestation isn't really that bad, anyway, compared to some I've read about. Unless of course I knock a hole in the wall and hundreds come pouring out, in which case I'll be moving and taking my security deposit with me, thank you very much.

And I screamed pretty loud. Not 13-year-old at a Jonas Brothers concert loud, but pretty loud.

At least it wasn't scorpions. I had a few months where I'd find a couple in the house every week. Even though they were only an inch and a half long, they weren't fun to find in the shower.

In reply to HappyJack:

Do those stink? I thought they were the ones that made a weird buzzing noise. Did you get a window net? I bought one, but never used it (it's at James' hangar). You are welcome to it.

MadScientistMatt wrote: At least it wasn't scorpions. I had a few months where I'd find a couple in the house every week. Even though they were only an inch and a half long, they weren't fun to find in the shower.

Scorpions lived in my house before I did, and it was new.

Yeah, they were the inch and a halfers, but they really liked strolling across the freshly-laid carpet. I liked to stretch-out on that carpet too, but that was before and after......

I just found a 4" long centipede in my boot. Live. Yes, my foot was in said boot.
I didn't scream like a girl, but I did immediately go check if they were poisonous (they are) and if that poison is lethal (it isn't.)

I love Indonesia.

Lesley wrote: In reply to HappyJack: Do those stink? I thought they were the ones that made a weird buzzing noise. Did you get a window net? I bought one, but never used it (it's at James' hangar). You are welcome to it.

Apparently they only stink if you touch them. I never noticed a smell, but then I don't fondle bugs. Managed to borrow a window net for the race. We should do coffee soon and I'll fill you in on the experience of Dan's old car.

For the stinkbugs (the tan "shield-looking" ones):

I grab them by the antenna if they're inside (yes, they do bite, but my fingertips are tough enough...), pitch in the toilet, and flush. (if you leave them in, they will make the smell there too)

They're kind of fun to flick if on the outside of the screens.