Does crushing stink bugs or Asian lady beetles attract more of the same, or is this a myth?

I agree with your reasoning. I would think that the smell of dead bugs would be a deterrent to more bugs from moving in.

If I were you, I’d call an exterminator to get an expert opinion…and get rid of the bugs…

@HungryGuy it’s not just our house. This is a common issue in this area every year. I don’t think an exterminator would help if the majority of the people living in a 20 mile radius are having the same problem, would it?

I know that yellow jackets are attracted to a site where another yellow jacket has been killed. This is as a defense mechanism. If the hive is under attack, the rest want to help defend it.

Like you say, it seems hard to imagine an evolutionary advantage for stick bugs to be attracted to the site of other dead stink bugs.

Found it!!!!

Why does the brown marmorated stink bug collect in large clusters?
When a brown marmorated stink bug finds a site that is suitable for overwintering it releases a chemical called an aggregation pheromone. The aggregation pheromone is a scent that attracts other brown marmorated stink bugs to the area. The aggregation pheromone is not the same chemical that causes them to stink.

Disgusting. :\

Here’s what you do about them.

“Presently, there are no viable strategies for control of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.” is what it says. lol.

Asian Lady Beetles

That link goes to an article about them. Scroll down to page 2. They are beneficial bugs. They cluster for the winter. They get in through cracks in the house. The best way to keep them out is to seal up the house. Same for stink bugs.

Do your best to prevent them from entering your home. Placement of screens over windows, doors and vents, removal of window air conditioners and caulking cracks in windows and doorframes will deter the adults from entering. Removal of window air conditioners is important, as numerous BMSB will enter this way. If small numbers occur indoors, they can be removed either by hand or by using a shop-vacuum.

If large numbers are observed or have been observed in previous years, you may wish to contact your local pest control company who can do a perimeter pesticide spray. This must be done at the appropriate time (when the insects first appear) and control may be difficult to achieve. It is important to consider the effects of pesticides in your home before any pesticide applications occur.

That article says they don’t bite, but they do. Looks like this is a downside to living in a 100 year old home. Maybe in the spring we will see about having someone come and spray.

We had them last year, I picked’em up and pitched’em outside by the score pretty much daily. They’re harmless and if you take a little care they don’t spray. I figured they’re just attracted to the warmth that builds up on the west side of our house.

This year I scrubbed the areas they were attracted to pretty well with soap-water and so far haven’t seen any come in. Based on what @wundayatta found maybe the soap interfered with their depositing congregation pheromones or maybe they just found a better home with a less stringent eviction policy.

We had an unusual number of assassin bugs this year too maybe they had something to do with the decline in stink bugs.

@wonderingwhy oh, it would be impossible to wash it… maybe with a pressure washer, I don’t know. I’ve seen entire sides of buildings covered with them. My own home, included. They just swarm. It’s gross.

@ANef_is_Enuf – Exterminators can put a chemical barrier around the perimeter of your home to keep the bugs out. You’ll have to have it repeated every couple of years, though.

If you can convince your neighbors to do the same, that’ll help too.

But you can’t do anything about that 20 mile radius, all you can do is protect your own home…

Bugs are cool and very valuable to bio-diversity.
One should never kill anything recklessly simply because it is a considered a pest.
Obviously if you are totally infested you may need to do something about it, but, Lady Beetles, especially, are very valuable little creatures that eat Aphids and other microscopic bugs that threaten crops and gardens.
Spraying for anything kills the good along with what is considered the “bad” bugs.

Bugs swarm during their breeding seasons, it’s just what they do. I say leave ‘em alone if they aren’t 3 inches deep in your house.
I have a HUGE ant colony in a hollow Oak tree in my yard, only once in 5 years have I had to spray.
They do their thing and unless they are outta control in my kitchen, I leave them alone.
I even spray their tree with water in hot weather so they have AC and drinking water, as I do with a 5 year old Bee colony in another tree.

I’d only use pesticides under the most dire of invasions. The chemicals in pesticides are very bad for woman, breast cancer, and other trickle down poisoning effects. Just use caution and discrimination before bringing out the big guns.

@Coloma irrational and extreme fear of bugs = I don’t give a hoot how beneficial they are. I have the heebie jeebies all day, every day. One of those stink bugs crawled out of my mom’s pillowcase a few weeks ago (at her house), and now I thoroughly check my bed every time I go to sleep. It’s no way to live. lol.

@ANef_is_Enuf Gotcha, yeah, we had that with caterpillars a many years back, some days the whole side of the house just writhed with them. You might want to try hosing them off, they’re persistent but maybe as it gets colder they’ll get the idea. Try to make pesticide a last resort if you can, hopefully they’ll just move on. Good luck :)

@ANef_is_Enuf

Come over here in the summer, shit, I wake up to tree frogs on my pillow. lol

In the springs here we get a HUGE hatching of Oak tree catapillars that coincides with all the nesting songbirds. They hang by little web threads from the trees, and are EVERYWHERE.
I love it…it is so cool to watch a mama bird stuffing her beak with those guys and carrying them off to her babies.

The only bugs I have an issue with are fleas, ticks and I think Jeruselam Crickets are creepy. haha

I live in a Tarantula migration path and every October the big guys are lumbering along looking for hairy spider love. I get a kick out of them, and I absolutely ADORE Preying Mantises.

Oh, and Neffie… Be glad you don’t live in New York. Our bugs will eat your bugs for lunch :-p

I’m okay with frogs. Snakes, toads, lizards, mice, rats… fine. Tarantulas, hell no. Hell. No. I actually got a chill just thinking about it.

I’ve always found the bugs in the south to be far worse. I guess because they have all year ‘round to grow. Beats me.

Sigh.
I was putting clean sheets on my bed this afternoon and of course one of those stink bugs fell out of my clean, folded linens right onto my bed. Then, my poor husband had to shake everything out and examine it for me while I shuddered and jumped all over the room like some kind of weirdo. :\

Does this mean you’ll be headed for the city and some nice, air tight brand new home?

I wish. :)

@ANef_is_Enuf – I have a vacant apartment for rent :-p

@HungryGuy something about “our bugs will eat your bugs for lunch” makes it seem less appealing.

@ANef_is_Enuf – Oh well :-p