Stink Bugs, Jasper and North Georgia Mountains, Can You Smell the Stink Bubs

Welcome again to the Faith Pest Control podcast. Hi, I’m Mike Stewart, your host and we’re here today with pest expert Fred Talley of Faith Pest Control. Who services all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia Blue Ridge, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia and pretty much anywhere in the North Georgia mountains, if you have pest problems. Fred Talley is the man to take care of those problems for you. When it comes to bugs and talking about bugs. There is a stinky bug, stink bugs people have been asking about.

So Fred, are you here to tell us all about stink bugs?
I am here Mikey.
Well, what are these stinkbugs? And I’m sure they don’t smell good. Or they leave an odor that lets us know they’re there. You’d think by the name they would? What kind of problems do they cause? And what do you guys do to solve that problem?
So if you’ve ever seen a it’s a rather large bug, I say large probably as big as is big as the end of your thumb, a greenish, oval type man, but the telltale sign is it looks like it has a shield on its back. And they’re found. Well, they’re found almost totally throughout the United States. Not quite, but they’re definitely in North Georgia. Current Prime conditions for stinkbugs are warm summers, and mild wet winters. Thank North Georgia here. That’s exactly the climate we have. They get their common name due to the odor that they produce they if it’s smashed, or they feel threatened, they emit this. They have a gland on their abdomen and they emit this scent that’s horrid. Climate change really has been blamed for their their recent spread. And a new study shows that I looked up that the invasions are actually expected to get worse. They are a huge nuisance to homeowners and business owners whom have the misfortune of having them come inside their home or office you know to overwinter. They don’t truly infest, I guess the Merriam Webster definition of infest the home or office as because they don’t feed. They don’t make or they neither do they lay eggs inside. They’re simply coming inside where it’s warm and just hanging out until spring. They don’t bite, they don’t stain they’re not harmful to humans or pets. Actually, they’re not dangerous at all. They can be noisy, or they although they don’t reproduce or cause physical damage inside. Again, they can emit their classic odor, if crushed or even threatened or irritated by humans. If you’ve smashed them, which I do not recommend they can. It’s possible they can stain you know, whatever surface that you smash them on. Once they discover how to get inside your home, they they stage a what I would call a slow motion invasion. All winter long coming inside is seemingly in overwhelming numbers. The technical name is actually the barn barn, brown marmorated stink bug. And they’re native to eastern Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, that area of the world. They were first found in Pennsylvania in the in the late 90s. And they’re you they got here purely accidentally, as in just in the introduction of most other non native bugs. Primarily, they are a an agricultural problem. They will infest plants and fruit trees. But for homeowners business owners, they’re more a nuisance. They enter your home really looking for a warm place to hang out. As is fairly normal for other nuisance insects like ladybugs or boxelder bugs on warm days. They’re attracted to the southern side or southwestern side of houses. And really all they’re searching for is places to go protected places for them to be able to overwinter out in the wild in their natural setting, they spend their winters in cracks under like if you’ve seen dead trees still standing in the woods the bark looks like it’s peeling away from the trunk. And they’ll get up in that crack into to overwinter in there. They begin their hunt for overwintering sites in the fall before it gets so cold that they need to be overwintering. It’s very common to find them on the exterior surface of your home as well as in the shrubs. In in the like leaf litter on your on your on the ground. And other types of vegetation like trees fruit trees are pretty bad as well. They will often get inside your home through cracks in the in the foundation, and roof as well as gaps around windows and doors and screens just same place every other bug gets in where pipes and or wires penetrate through an exterior wall that holes not sealed up well. They’ll get in there. When they enter your home. They will normally congregate around or close to their entry points such as windows and doors. They will they can or do seek out narrow cracks in spaces that they’re able to hide in such as under or behind the baseboard the door and when to trim the base of light fixtures for the meet to ceiling or wall around exhaust fans in the house. They seek out these areas preferring high in cool but but not cold locations after they come into have made their way into the interior of your home. That they’re extremely hard to control at that point. This is because they’ll they will stay tucked away inside mostly inaccessible areas. If they do come out of their hiding places, the best way to eliminate them is to vacuum them up. And I would highly recommend that you do not use your good to vacuum for this don’t don’t use the rainbow, I would invest in a cheap shop vac type unit to use. Because what’s going to happen is your inevitably going to crush some of them just during the vacuum and process them going through the suction and the hose getting beat around inside the canister area. And it’s going to it’s just going to stain it’s going to stink terribly. In the recent past the stinkbug has actually seen as an agricultural problem, not a structural problem. But they’ve caused the production of one of George’s Lord largest exports, which is hazelnuts to drop in the number I thought I had heard or read was 60% but I’m not 100% sure about that. So I didn’t wasn’t even actually even going to mention that part. They have spread rapidly in Georgia and have damaged millions of dollars worth of hazelnuts as well as other crops, grapes, corn, peaches, apples, vegetables. That really is the biggest threat that stinkbugs pose for us is the is the agricultural market. They’re a nuisance. Nobody wants them in their house. But after getting established inside, it can take up to a couple of seasons to to get them out of the inside. Just a few points some major points just to go over about the bugs. They’re not native here there are native eastern Asia. Accidental Denley imported into Pennsylvania in the late 90s. In the sad or the bad part for us is there are no natural predators for them in the United States. They have spread to almost all 50 states the smell the smell is been described because I’ve never crushed one I don’t want to find out the smell. But it’s been described to me is anything from like smelling like a skunk to dirty socks. They are again they’re creating havoc for the for commercial agriculture. They can cause scabs on On bruising, scabs and bruising on fruit and vegetables. Now the scabs are more like I guess you’d call it a rust on on the on the vegetables and fruit so they can’t sell it as is number one grade product it has to be a lesser grade product so they can’t charge as much for it. They’re very creative about getting in your home. There are cracks in screens door jams, roofs, walls around your house stinkbugs will find them and and penetrate them.
If you live in or near a wooded area or you have vegetable garden, you may have a higher risk of getting stink bugs in your house. If you get them in your house, and you have potted plants in your home, that may be where you find them congregating. They will not buy they won’t bite you they won’t bite your pets they pose no danger to humans. They will not destroy indoor, non plant material such as rugs, upholstered furniture, your clothes, carpet draperies, all they want to do is hang out and stay warm. Again vacuuming is the is the most efficient way of getting rid of them once they get inside. Just remember use a cheap shot vac not the prize Kirby stinkbugs Black Light is in luminescence and they cannot swim. So you can you can make a an improvised stinkbug trap is just sticking a small bowl of soapy water underneath a desk lamp. But there are commercial traps available to the general public that you just Google them. There’s there’s plenty available in Fallout sales call an exterminator. There are products on the market that are effective against them. But this is not going to be a one and done situation is going to take time to eliminate all that are their fates pest control, we offer a free 100% make you let me start that over at Faith pest control, we offer a free consultation and a 100% make you happy money back guarantee. Do you hire faith pest control to get rid of your bug problem, the end of 30 days you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free. Until you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy. We’ll give you back every penny you spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time and trouble just for fooling with us. Bottom line is I want you to be happy with the service we provide. Or you won’t pay a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. call fate pest control today 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions you may have.
Oh, great information. A

s always, Fred, hey, if you’re in the north Georgia mountains in Jasper, Blue Ridge, Ellijay, anywhere in the North Georgia mountains and you have problems with stinkbugs. Listen to this podcast over and over again and share it with your friends. So you know what to do. And then of course, if you’re like me and you just don’t want to deal with it, call Fred and Fred will take care of it for you to make sure that you get the problem solved. We do this podcast as a community service for all the fine folks in Jasper Blue Ridge, llj north Georgia mountains anywhere the surface area of fight pest control, and you can get this podcast on our website. Or you can get it where you get your podcasts like Apple, Google podcast, Spotify, and Amazon even just you can ask your Alexa Hey, play the faith pest control podcast latest episode, and the latest episode will start playing and you can listen right there on your speaker devices. So until next time, this is Mike Stewart for the faith pest control podcast.