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I've been finding them in my house too in the Chicago area. I mainly find them dead in the basement I caught a live one yesterday. Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. I think they are coming down the fireplace chimney or the water heater chimney as I am obsessive about sealing holes and weather stripping. We just had -25 deg F a week ago how are they still around?
How would bugs inside ever not be a problem?! Like in what world would that be? Certainly not the first world lol.
The good news is sealing a place against almost all bugs isn’t expensive it’s just time consuming. You know where they can’t come from, pretty clearly, like can a bug ever just come through a solid wall? No. The middle of a window? Absolutely not, impossible. So then you figure ok they could come from the frames around a window, if not sealed properly. Or vents. Or under doors. Or spaces where wall meets floor, perhaps, in examples of bad architecture.
There are some helpful YouTube videos on installing metal mesh under the vents on floors without affecting vent function, very cheap and easy. Is it possible the tiniest spider or bug could squeeze through the pinhole mesh? Yes, but anything even the size of a BB couldn’t. Caulking other areas is your friend. Weather stripping and sealing any possible holes.
I’ve heard but can’t confirm that sliding glass doors are the worst for heat / air retention and as such also pose issues with bugs potentially. Some of these issues you can’t fix if you don’t own your place. I have a second much stronger and thicker dual pane soundproof window behind my dual pane windows on every upstairs bedroom that makes them impenetrable for things like that and very quiet.
Attic openings are always poorly constructed and I personally would rather not buy a home with an attic ever again, roofs should be flat like office buildings if you ask me, but if I did I would rip out the cheesy wooden cut out piece that opens to the attic and install a perfectly sealed metal door so there’s one fewer source of bugs.
Bugs in general are a construction quality issue. I’ve spent 6 years total living in steel and concrete high rise condos and in those 6 years guess how many spiders I ever saw? Zero. Not one ever. In houses it feels like weekly or biweekly and that’s in new construction. These guys slap houses together and simply don’t seal them. If you’re not using mechanical ventilation for a house you know it’s built horribly.
How would bugs inside ever not be a problem?! Like in what world would that be? Certainly not the first world lol.
The good news is sealing a place against almost all bugs isn’t expensive it’s just time consuming. You know where they can’t come from, pretty clearly, like can a bug ever just come through a solid wall? No. The middle of a window? Absolutely not, impossible. So then you figure ok they could come from the frames around a window, if not sealed properly. Or vents. Or under doors. Or spaces where wall meets floor, perhaps, in examples of bad architecture.
There are some helpful YouTube videos on installing metal mesh under the vents on floors without affecting vent function, very cheap and easy. Is it possible the tiniest spider or bug could squeeze through the pinhole mesh? Yes, but anything even the size of a BB couldn’t. Caulking other areas is your friend. Weather stripping and sealing any possible holes.
I’ve heard but can’t confirm that sliding glass doors are the worst for heat / air retention and as such also pose issues with bugs potentially. Some of these issues you can’t fix if you don’t own your place. I have a second much stronger and thicker dual pane soundproof window behind my dual pane windows on every upstairs bedroom that makes them impenetrable for things like that and very quiet.
Attic openings are always poorly constructed and I personally would rather not buy a home with an attic ever again, roofs should be flat like office buildings if you ask me, but if I did I would rip out the cheesy wooden cut out piece that opens to the attic and install a perfectly sealed metal door so there’s one fewer source of bugs.
Bugs in general are a construction quality issue. I’ve spent 6 years total living in steel and concrete high rise condos and in those 6 years guess how many spiders I ever saw? Zero. Not one ever. In houses it feels like weekly or biweekly and that’s in new construction. These guys slap houses together and simply don’t seal them. If you’re not using mechanical ventilation for a house you know it’s built horribly.
If you really think you can seal a house so insects can't get in, you are dreaming.
What world do you live in where an insect in your living space is so traumatic that you would "rip out the cheesy wooden cut out piece that opens to the attic and install a perfectly sealed metal door so there’s one fewer source of bugs"?
I have managed to live 55+ years in houses where I occasionally find an insect, and have not been adversely affected. Sure, I'll take action when an ant or cockroach infestation occurs, but the occasional spider or stink bug? Come on. I either step on 'em or scoop 'em up and toss 'em outside.
What do you do if you find a gecko in the house? Call 911? What about a mouse?
I read this morning that the polar vortex has killed 95% of stink bugs. I guess the remaining 5% is in your house.
HA! Actually we had a polar vortex snap (I am not in the direct cross hairs) and I have seen much much less. Like 1 per week. Crossing fingers that they were all killed.
I live next to the woods as well, but interestingly a lot of the trees that were there were cut down this fall. So I wonder if that didn't displace them and send them running for my place.
It is weird that the bugs seem to come in a pattern. I don't see them any time in the day but at night, when I first go up to my bedroom. My bedroom is on the western side of the building and I wonder if they don't follow the sun.
It is a super bummer.
Who do you people think you are? These bugs are a major pest problem
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We were getting them once or twice a week, and almost always in the 2nd upstairs bathroom. I finally realized that the screen on the bathroom exhaust fan outlet was 1/4" screen that would keep out birds, but not bugs. I put some window screen on the inside of the grill on the bathroom fan, and have not had any since. In the cold weather they seek the warmth from any small opening and enter. If you have any can lights, they could be entering through the attic and between floors or inside the walls and in through the can light, if there is space around the bulb. We used to get an occasional yellow jacket in the house that way, but I replaced all of our can light bulbs with the LED retrofit kits from Costco, and now they are totally sealed.
I know this is an old thread but I'll add my experience. For years I lived in a place that was plagued with Asian lady beetles and stink bugs every winter. They came through in the fall, my outside west side of the house would be black with them, bred in the walls or ceilings, and I had hundreds of the "lady bugs' every day, and the stink bugs a few times a week, except one winter I had hundreds of stink bugs, 8-10 a day. They always came in pairs. Gawd it was horrible.
I discovered though that the stink bugs die swiftly in temperatures under 20 degrees so it it was cold enough I just put them outside. Otherwise, I drowned them in a bowl of soapy water. Squishing them was not an option.
The lady beetles were a nightmare, as nothing really kills them unless you squash them. I'd vacuum them up but they my gosh the stench.
Thankfully, my new home doesn't appear to be in one of those Asian lady beetle corridors. I haven't seen a stink bug or a lady beetle, ether one, since I moved.
I see them often here in Chicago. But I never smell them....
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