Stink Bugs Among 5 Insects Crawling Into RI Houses Right Now

RHODE ISLAND — Although they’re not the only intruders, stink bugs get most of the attention when it comes to insects making a beeline to get into Rhode Island houses as temperatures begin to cool with the beginning of fall.

Stink bugs are shield-shaped insects with a marbled or streaked — marmorated — appearance. These invasive bugs, which likely hitched a ride to the United States in a shipping container, have spread to 47 states, including Rhode Island.

We’ll get to what you need to do to stop their invasion in a bit — and you’ll want to, because they’ve earned their common name. More importantly, they’ve caused severe agricultural and nuisance damage in a dozen states, mainly those in the mid-Atlantic region, but also in Michigan and Oregon.

Other winged or multi-legged creatures to guard against include another stinker, Asian lady beetles, as well as western conifer seed bugs, box elder bugs and cluster flies.

Here’s what to do about these bugs (some of the same strategies work on all five fall invaders):

If You Squash It, It’ll Stink

Brown marmorated stink bugs cause multiple problems when they’re outside chewing through fruit orchards as if they’re at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Not every homeowner has a stink bug horror story like that of Pam Stone and Paul Zimmerman, who discovered that 26,000 stink bugs invaded their home as the cool air of fall came to South Carolina.

They had left doors open leading to a second-story deck outside their bedroom, and the stink bugs took over as if they owned the place. The couple’s experience, hilariously recounted by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker, was like something from a horror movie, Stone said. Their fight against stink bugs went on for days as they found stink bugs in obvious and surprising places, including Stone’s riding saddle.

There are a handful of reports of similar horde-like invasions — including those reported by a wildlife biologist in Maryland, an entomologist in Virginia and employees of a bank in West Virginia, where an estimated 1 million stink bugs set up camp for the winter.

In most cases, though, you may not even know stink bugs have taken up residence until they crawl out of their hiding places in the spring.

What to do: Your best defense is to arm yourself with weather stripping, caulking and tape, and make your home a fortress.

Seal up gaps and crevices around foundations and any area where doors, windows, chimneys and utility pipes are cut into the exterior. Any opening large enough for a stink bug to crawl through should be sealed.

If you do find them inside, don’t squash them, because they’ll emit a stench some have described as similar to rotten vegetables or a skunk. The best thing to do if you find them inside is gently sweep them into a bucket, then fill it with a couple of inches of soapy water. You could vacuum them up, but perhaps do that as a last resort because it will trigger stink bugs’ notorious odor and make your vacuum cleaner smell nasty.

Another Stinker: Asian Lady Beetles

The multicolored Asian lady beetle can be a real stinker, too.

Generally considered beneficial, they feed on plant pests — especially aphids, which they gobble up like steak. But they’re also troublemakers and can affect the quality of your life when large numbers of them invade buildings, often emitting a noxious odor and the orange staining fluid before dying.

What to do: Stop them before they get in your house. Beetles come in a variety of colors — from pale tan to a brilliant red-orange — and can have no spots, many spots, or large or small spots. To correctly identify Asian lady beetles, look for black-and-white markings directly behind the head.

In the fall, large swarms of these beetles collect on the sunlit side of buildings before moving into their hibernation sites. To control them, apply an insecticide approved for outdoor use. You should also caulk places where the beetles can get inside. Check attic windows and repair them if necessary, and make sure the weather seal is tight on basement windows.

Despite your best efforts, a few may sneak in. Don’t use insecticides, even those approved for indoor use. Instead, suck them up using a hand-held or other vacuum with a bag that can be emptied.

A Stink Bug Look-Alike

If you made your home impermeable to Asian lady beetles, you should be good to go in your battle against western conifer seed bugs — unless you have loosely hung vinyl siding, and no amount of caulking is going to keep these insects out of your home.

You’re likely to find these bugs in areas with evergreen trees old enough to produce cones, because they like to feed on the goo inside the conifer seeds. They closely resemble stink bugs but have wider hind legs.

Western conifer seed bugs have the potential to bite humans with their piercing, sucking mouthparts. It was probably an accident or a fluke, according to researchers in Budapest, Hungary, but a bite by one of these bugs resulted in a fairly painful irritation and a lesion that lasted 48 hours, and the area the bug chomped remained red for about a month.

But don’t worry too much about this.

What to do: Deal with it? Once they’re inside walls, there’s not much you can do. It’s likely you’ll continue to see them throughout the winter. Insecticides approved for indoor use can be expensive, and it’s nearly impossible to treat every surface. These bugs are lethargic, so you should be able to vacuum them up.

Box elder Bugs

These rather attractive bugs are dark gray or black, and their red-edged wings form a V-shape in the middle of their backs.

They are found wherever box elder trees are nearby; and in the fall, they look for dry, protected sites, including attics and wall cavities, to spend the winter. They’re harmless.

What to do: Your best weapon of defense is a caulking gun here, too. Once they’re in, even aggressive and costly insecticide applications may not be effective because it is nearly impossible to treat every hidden area that may be harboring insects.

Sealing cracks around electrical outlet boxes, switches and light fixtures, and around window and baseboard molding on the inside walls will help keep the bugs trapped within the walls. In older homes with double-hung windows equipped with pulleys, insects commonly enter living areas through the pulley opening. Masking tape applied over the opening will keep insects from entering through this route. Vacuuming up the sluggish, slow-moving bugs works, too.

Nasty Cluster Flies

Cluster flies look a lot like the common housefly but have a patch of yellow hairs under their wings. They get in your house by squeezing through cracks and other entry points.

If they’re in your home, they’re likely to remain active throughout the winter months. They’re harmless enough. But they are, after all, flies, and no one wants them buzzing around.

What to do: Get a flyswatter. Indoor aerosol insecticides are effective, too. Cluster flies are slow movers, so the vacuum cleaner is an effective weapon.