WTH!!! I'm getting invaded over here!

Jstas

steveinaz wrote: »

We get them every year in the warehouse, but ours look different. Just like a large black beetle...and you're absolutely right DO NOT vacuum them up, you will pay for that error.

Those are native ones. Black shield bugs or something like that? Live in the south west and Central America. The ones Antny is talking about are the ones in the picture I posted and they are everywhere here now. This time of year, if you leave a porch light on in the early evening, there will be so many of them covering the light that you won't even know the light is on.

They aren't adapted to this climate very well either which is why they crawl in your house. To hide from the cold. They all die every winter but the eggs just go dormant until the humidity goes up in the spring. Then the eggs hatch and they all become adults in a matter of weeks. Depending on how the weather pans out, they can spawn as many as 3 times in one season which is what happened last year.

You can't even use the little **** as bait either. If they hit the water, this oily film spreads across the top of the water and you can watch the fish run from it.

And yeah, I know alot about them because being an avid fisherman, I get pamphlets on all kinds of stuff from the game warden's office when I stop to pick up permits and register licenses. They have pamphlets and booklets out every year about invasive species that you are allowed to hunt, fish, stomp in to extinction. The pamphlet on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug was 17 pages thick and had a link to a website on the bug that was quite expansive. It's a pest in China as well but here the birds that normally eat the other stink bugs won't touch these. They destroy crops, especially tomatoes and other leafy vegetables and they can cause property damage as well as carry diseases. They are a real threat, especially in NJ where there are rare and protected plants and animals that are a food source or compete for the same food sources as these swarms of these things.

Jstas

Joe08867 wrote: »

We used to get infested with Lady Bugs but now it is these friggin things. Luckily, we have house spiders or Garden Orb spiders around that love eating these things. Personally I kill them every chance I get. The smell awful and are weird looking too.

But ladybugs are native and help control pests. They don't do anything with stink bugs though since they are half the size.

I've seen the black ants out by the shed take one down when it got too close to the colony but they will do that with anything.

I saw a wasp attacking one before too but again, I don't think it was predatory, just defensive. There is apparently a wasp in China that preys on them and that helps keep populations down. There's also a fungus that kills them but it takes time to gestate and the bugs often die from exposure before the fungus can mature and produce spores. At least here. In China it can wipe out a generation's worth of bugs.

Last year, they did so much damage to the fruit tress here in NJ, PA, DE and MD that stuff like peaches were really hard to get. I'm surprised the corn survived but we saw a price spike as well as reduced availability from the stupid bugs.

ryanjoachim

steveinaz wrote: »

We get them every year in the warehouse, but ours look different. Just like a large black beetle...and you're absolutely right DO NOT vacuum them up, you will pay for that error.

I'm curious now...why not vacuum?

Jstas

ryanjoachim wrote: »

I'm curious now...why not vacuum?

'Cause they release their stinky gas inside the vacuum cleaner.

The compound that stinks is "trans-2-decenal and trans-2-Octenal" and it doesn't break down easily. UV light destroys it pretty quickly but how much UV light is there in your vacuum cleaner?

Those compounds though are commonly used in food processing as flavoring compounds and aroma compounds.

http://chenected.aiche.org/chemicals/stink-bug-breakdown/

But trans-2-decenal is listed as a hazardous chemical under the "Irritants" category as an irritant to eyes.

http://www.alfa.com/en/GP100W.pgm?DSSTK=L05901

The trans-2-Octenal is listed as an irritant as well but to the skin instead and even at that it's a possible irritant, not definitive. That usually means that the stuff might bother certain people but not all people.

http://www.alfa.com/en/GP100W.pgm?DSSTK=A18830&rnd=036272511

Joe08867

Jstas, Don't get me wrong I never minded Ladybugs except they would infest one of my bedrooms. It was the weirdest thing. Not one bug and then all of a sudden hundreds of Ladybugs. At least they were cute and didn't stink.

ryanjoachim

Jstas wrote: »

'Cause they release their stinky gas inside the vacuum cleaner.

That's what I suspected. Thanks for the info!

BlueFox

steveinaz wrote: »

We get them every year in the warehouse, but ours look different. Just like a large black beetle...and you're absolutely right DO NOT vacuum them up, you will pay for that error.

They look different because they are not the same bug. :rolleyes:

mrbigbluelight

Jstas wrote: »

Personally, I like putting them in a jar with a hearty helping of some caustic hydrocarbon and watch them writhe in a chemical warfare induced death.

While not officially sanctioned by PETA, whatever works ... works !

My parents came from farming ancestors, and had quite a number of home remedies.
One that they read from an article in "Organic Gardening", though, was pretty effective.
Basically, you collect a boatload of bugs in your garden/home, put them all in a blender, and blend them up into a nice slurry. Put that slurry into a larger container, dilute with water, store for a bit, then use in any variety of sprayer.
Worked real well and wasn't bug specific. Spray the mix and EVERYTHING stayed away.
They'd have a little cucumber patch that they'd let over-ripen and then collect a billion sow bugs from underneath the cukes. Don't know if that was the secret ingredient, but ...... whatever it was, worked.

George Grand wrote: »

I think they're cute.

And Mr. Grand, we'd all like to believe that they think you're cute, too.

BlueFox

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

Basically, you collect a boatload of bugs in your garden/home, put them all in a blender, and blend them up into a nice slurry.

Sounds like something a body-builder would drink. Of course, if it was marketed as an aphrodisiac then a lot of people would be drinking it. :eek: