Stinky September: Thwarting the Coming Stink Bug Invasion

As the kids return to school, the last days of summer wind down and the days become cooler. For many, this late summer weather is some of the most enjoyable of the year. However, there is always that one, looming, recurring nuisance at this time every year: stink bugs. Yes, September is here, and September is usually the month where stink bugs decide that it is a little too cold outside for their liking. Like many insects, stink bugs seek refuge from the cold fall and winter months during the late summer, surviving the cold by sneaking into your house. So how do you get all the nasty insects out of your house and keep them out?

The Answer is Exclusion

Here is the simple, unfortunate truth: It is impossible to completely and permanently eradicate stink bugs from your home. There are no pesticides which have proven effective in keeping the pests out of your home throughout the entire year. You could try cleaning them out of your home, but there are so many crevices they can hide that it is almost guaranteed that anything less than a thorough and involved cleaning process will leave some of them behind. What’s worse, stink bugs reproduce so quickly that this one-time treatment will likely seem as though it did nothing at all.

However, there is still something which you can do to greatly reduce the degree to which stink bugs invade your home. By blocking as many potential entry points as possible (for example, sealing windows), and then manually removing all of the stink bugs from your home, the stink bug population of your home during the winter will be significantly lowered. This process is known as exclusion.

Exclusion focuses on preventing future entry by reducing the number of entry points into your home. Sealing windows, as well as filling cracks in the structure of your home, are just two of the ways in which Connor’s fulfills this goal. If the only way into or out of your home is through the doors, then it becomes much easier to keep the bugs outside. This is also where exclusion is still not 100% effective: There will always be a stink bug or two which manages to fly through an open door and cause a small infestation. However, what exclusion does accomplish is a greatly reduced burden on the homeowner regarding how many stink bugs they have to remove from their home throughout the winter.

In addition to filling possible entry points, the exclusion process includes a thorough cleaning of your house from the pests. This allows you to effectively start your newly-excluded house with a “clean slate,” which means less work for you in the short-term, and translates into less work overall. Fewer initial stink bugs mean a slower reproduction rate, and a slower reproduction rate means a more manageable stink bug population.

While not perfect, exclusion is by far the most effective stink bug control method. No pest control method will completely eradicate stink bugs from your home, but with Connor’s exclusion program, you can get pretty close.