Brown Marmorated stink bugs were first identified in the Mid-Atlantic region of North America in September 1998, little did the biologists knew that they will turn out to be a big nuisance for the urban as well as agricultural aspects of the region. These stink bugs are the natives of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, China, and other north Asian countries which probably hitched a ride to North America in a Cargo and the climate of the continent turned out to be ideal for their reproduction. Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs, today, are detested by homeowners because they seek shelter for overwintering in man-made buildings and ruin their gardens and destroy curb appeal. It is a very difficult task to keep these notorious insects away from houses, office spaces, and other buildings in the fall. Here, we have compiled a list for you with the best repellents to stop brown marmorated stink bugs, along with various homemade and natural ways to eliminate these from your vicinity.
Table of Contents
- Top 9 Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Repellents Reviews
- Homemade Repellents to Shake Off Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
- Other Non-toxic Ways to Prevent Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
- What Attracts Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs to My House?
- How Can I Recognize Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs in My House?
- Damages Caused by Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs in Farms
- Damages Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs Cause in Urban Settings
Top 9 Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Repellents Reviews
All hacks apart, there are commercially produced products also which will help you get rid of these stink bugs without any ado. They are easy to install, cost-effective, and efficient methods of getting your house rid of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs.
1. Bug Repellent Bracelets
Infused with 100% natural essential oils such as that of lemongrass, citronella, and Geranoil, bug repellent bracelets are one of the most hassle-free ways to keep the bugs away. These small, waterproof, and comfortable bracelets will not only keep bugs and insects away from your toddlers, they are completely safe.
Well, you do not want your toddlers, kids, and infants running into a bug, or an entire army while they are out of sight. Therefore, the bug repellent bracelets are the product for you to keep your children safe. In addition to that, they come in adjustable sizes and can last a lifetime.
2. Electric Bug Zapper
As the spring arrives, it becomes all the more important to opt for products which will keep your house safe from invasion of bugs and insects. Here’s where the electric bug zapper comes into the picture. All you have to do is, plug the device in in any outlet in the affected area and watch as it does its job. The zapper attracts bugs through the light and as soon as the bugs enter the zapper, zap! It is an effective way to deal with your worries.
3. Rescue Stink Bug Attractant
Stink Bug attractant sticks by Rescue emits pheromone, the same chemical which is released by brown marmorated stink bugs to attract mates during mating season. Once the bugs get attracted to the attractstick, they get trapped and, gradually, they dehydrate and die. These attractants are easy to install as each stick has a hole on top for hanging it wherever. It lasts you for a good seven weeks.
4. Pro-pest Pheromone Bug Trap
If you are looking for a non-toxic, yet, effective way to deal with brown marmorated stink bugs, you can always invest a little in these bug traps. They are sheet-like traps, equipped with glue and pheromone attractants. The pheromone is the same chemical released by stink bugs to attract their mates, therefore, stink bugs get attracted to these traps and stick to the sheet.
5. SBTL Stink Trap Light
If you are tired setting up baits for stink bugs which turn out to be of little use, opt for this revolutionary innovation by Sterling International. SBTL Light Trap can be installed in indoor spaces as well as attics to attract stink bugs towards light. The overwintering bugs get trapped into this device and once you feel that the collar has reached its capacity, you can replace it with the replacement collar.
6. Pests Ultrasonic Bug Repellent
The ultra-powerful waves emitted by this ultrasonic bug repellent causes pests, rodents, insects, and bugs to stay away from its vicinity. All you have to worry about is, finding out an outlet at the most likely places from where stink bugs can enter your house and plug the repellent in. this will save you thousands of dollars on pest control and will last you a lifetime.
7. Electric Bug Zapper
The electric bug zapper by Hoont is a commercially viable way to trap and kill the bugs by attracting them with light. The bugs get attracted towards the light in the device and fall victim to the current.
8. Neem Oil Extract Concentrate
Acting as an insecticide, fungicide, and miticide, Neem Oil extract is your to-go companion for having an organic produce. Neem oil is a natural insect repellents and it is easy to spray them on the plants to keep the bugs away. It is a completely safe alternate for protecting the garden from attack of the o=insects as its scent drives them away.
9. Agfabric Standard Garden Netting
Another effective way to protect your vegetable and fruit bearing plants from stink bugs is to cover them with netting. The row covers not only protect your plants from bugs and insects, they also help maintain a moderate temperature for them by protecting them from frost and excessive heat. They are available in various sizes and can last for 3-10 years, making them worth the money.
These products not only target brown marmorated stink bugs, but help you keep other pests and insects away too. Though, not all of these products are effective in their own and require the assistance of other products, they are easily available for a price.
Apart from the above products, you can also use homemade repellents to shake-off brown marmorated stink bugs from your house and garden.
Homemade Repellents to Shake Off Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
The best part about using homemade solutions is that they are natural, cost-effective and hassle-free ways to get rid of stink bugs.
- An effective way to get rid of stink bugs is to place cloves of garlic or cotton swabs soaked in garlic oil in and around the house. The smell of garlic will repel the stink bugs and they will not enter your house. You can also make a mixture of garlic powder and water and spray it around your house, especially at the places you think the bugs are most likely to enter.
- Soapy water. Spraying the stink bugs with soapy water when they are overwintering is another natural repellent to eliminate stink bugs. You have all the ingredients for the solution handy, the solution will only take a few minutes to put together, and it is very easy too. Remember to use a mild detergent so you do not end up causing damage to your own property.
- Neem oil solution. Neem oil is a naturally existing insecticide which has excellent anti-bacterial abilities. It is perfectly safe to spray neem oil around your house if you fear a stink bug infestation in the near future. The characteristic smell of the oil will keep the bugs at bay. You can mix neem oil with some warm water and spray it around all the potential entry points. While the neem oil will not kill the bugs, you will notice its effects in the long-term.
- Hairspray is another handy solution to get rid of the stink bugs. All you have to do is, spray the solution on the bugs directly. The spray will paralyze the stink bugs and you can then easily vacuum them, or sweep them away. Flushing them or putting them into the soapy water before discarding them will be better to make sure they do not establish themselves in the landfills.
- Mint leaves and peppermint oil. When it comes to using a pungent aroma to get rid of the stink bugs, people prefer mint over garlic any day. Mix some peppermint oil and water in a spray bottle and spray it around the house to get rid of brown marmorated stink bugs. If you want to use freshly available mint leaves in your garden, grind them and spray them in with water, instead.
- Hot Peppers. Well, if you want to go extreme on the bugs, you soak some hot peppers into water and use that solution to spray upon the stink bugs. Capsaicin present in the peppers will burn the outer cover of the bugs, forcing them to death. Jalapenos and habaneros are very hot peppers and should be used very carefully.
There you have it! The ultimate guide to what works for getting rid of the nuisance created by brown marmorated stink bugs in your home and garden.
Other Non-toxic Ways to Prevent Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
It is always better to prevent the brown marmorated stink bugs from entering your house and garden rather than dealing with them later. Here are some ways you can keep this notorious bugs at bay.
- The first and the foremost solution is to prevent the very entry of brown marmorated stink bugs in your house. You can do so by sealing all the entry points more than 1/8th of an inch with good quality silicon-latex caulk or foam sealants. Make sure that you have all the damaged or broken doors, windows and screens repaired before fall. You can also install weather stripping around the door frames for further protection against bugs. Gable vents are often overlooked by the homeowners which let the bugs infest your house. Cover them with screens too.
- Once you are done with sealing all the possible gaps which could enable the bugs to enter your house, now you can look after the proper positioning of the exterior and interior lights to keep the bugs away. Install the exterior lights away from the main entrance door, probably near a window which is screened to prevent these bugs from entering your house. Make sure that you keep the door shut most of the time and the lights off when they are not in use.
- Another way you can stop these bugs from getting attracted to your house it by keeping it clean. Yes, when there is debris or unkempt vegetation in your yard, it is more likely to attract bugs and insects of different kinds.
What Attracts Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs to My House?
Brown marmorated stink bugs feed upon fruits and vegetables such as apples, peaches, sweet corn, tomatoes, pepper, soybeans and more, making the gardens with blooming fruit and vegetable growing plants an ideal place for these stink bugs. Huge fruit trees serve as ideal host trees for these bugs.
To take shelter in the houses and other buildings they look for gaps around window and door frames, spaces in window air-conditioner fittings, sidings, vents, utility pipes, screens, and under fascia boards. Once you block these pathways for them to enter your house, you will be saved the trouble of working day and night to get rid of them.
Another attractant for brown marmorated stink bugs in your house is, lights. They get attracted towards light fittings as they provide them warmth.
How Can I Recognize Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs in My House?
Well, before going through the natural repellents to eliminate brown marmorated stink bugs, you should first be able to recognise if the bugs that you see in your house are, in fact, brown marmorated stink bugs. Read along to know more about what a brown marmorated stink bug looks like and how it behaves.
- Brown marmorated stink bugs have the characteristic shield-like shape, common to most stink bugs. As the adjective ‘marmorated’ suggests, the upper shield-like wings of the bug have a veined or variegated ‘marble-like’ pattern on it which can be in various shades of brown. This provides them with a camouflage against the tree barks in the background.
- The size of adults varies from 12-17 mm, which is perfect to help them hide in the cracks and crevices in your home or on the barks of trees. They are almost as wide as they are long and have a flat body.
- They can be distinguished from other stink bugs by observing the light bands on the antennae and hind legs.
- They have a stink gland which is located beneath the thorax, at the dorsal surface of the abdomen.
- A female lays 20-30 eggs at one go, which can be found underside the leaves, attached to it. They are light yellow in colour.
- The nymphs take 35-45 days to grow up and have slightly brighter markings of red and yellow on the wings and they are sized from 2.4 to 12 mm depending upon which of the 5 nymphal stages they are into.
Largely, brown marmorated stink bugs are super-inactive during the winters and can often be found resting in the window sidings, cracks around baseboards, around the trims of the doors and windows and many other such spots where they can fit into.
Damages Caused by Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs in Farms
This frequent mating of the brown marmorated stink bugs and deposition of egg masses which quickly turn into adults is leading to a rapid rise in the population of these stink bugs. They have been causing a loss of millions of dollars to the farmers by infesting farms growing pepper, peaches, tomatoes, apples, sweet corn, soybeans and other such crops.
The brown marmorated stink bug is an invasive pest which attacks the fields with thousands of its counterparts. They use their proboscis to pierce into the fruits and suck out plant fluids which are rich in carbohydrates. This leaves a mealy effect and a depression on fruits which results in deformation and destruction of seeds, transfer of food pathogens, and rotting of the entire crop.
With the increasing global warming, the threat of losing more crops to brown marmorated stink bugs is increasing as their population will keep growing at a faster pace if the temperature becomes warmer. Therefore, it is important for the authorities to help farmers by coming up with the best repellents to stop brown marmorated stink bugs.
Solutions for the Farmers against Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs
- The habit of brown marmorated stink bugs to suck the nutrients from beneath the fruit makes it impossible to tackle the issue through insecticides, therefore, the Pheromone Traps are the best solution for the farmers. These traps release artificial Pheromone and provide a warming effect, attracting bugs from across the field. Then these traps can be moved away as the bugs start collecting around them. Pheromone traps do sound like one of the best repellents to stop brown marmorated stink bugs, but they are known for their ‘over spilling’ effect. That is, the pheromone invites the bugs from the neighbouring fields as well. Plus, these traps do not guarantee the protection against damage to the crops.
- The spraying of the edges of a field with pyrethroid is an effective way to keep the new insects from coming in, then again, this is of no use for the old ones who are already established in the unaffected areas. In addition to that, they have also been observed to have started building resistance against the insecticide.
- Another effective way is to monitor the fields regularly and sweep off the bugs and check the underside of the leaves for egg masses. The best time to counter the bug population is as soon as possible, because they have just emerged out in the spring after overwintering as they haven’t eaten anything for 6 months.
- A biological defence against brown marmorated stink bugs as devised by Asian biologists is the introduction of stink bug predators in the fields which themselves can be tackled by insecticides and pesticides. Though Chinese Wasp is a well-known enemy of the stink bugs, its introduction can again turn out to be disastrous to the fields. Therefore, researchers are putting in their best efforts in finding out a predator species which already exists in the country to tackle the problem.
If this works out, it will be an effective natural repellent to eliminate brown marmorated stink bugs.
The infestation of fields by brown marmorated stink bugs is a very sensitive issue to maintain the food security and stop them from becoming an agricultural epidemic.
Damages Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs Cause in Urban Settings
Brown marmorated stink bugs have not only made the farms their home, they have adapted equally well with the urban settings in various states in the Mid-Atlantic region. They have become a regular feature in the manmade buildings, making life difficult for the homeowners. This is so because they seek shelter in the buildings, houses, office spaces, and warehouses until the winters are over. They aren’t usually active when speaking of their winter hibernation, neither do the cause any structural or cosmetic damage to your house when overwintering. Then again, what could be the reason why they are called a nuisance? Well, keep reading along to know about the damages they cause to the households.
- Brown marmorated stink bugs do not bite or sting, yet, whenever they feel threatened, they emit a foul smell from their stink glands, which is somewhat like that of coriander. This stink gives your house an unpleasant aura.
- Even though they are not a threat to the structural or cosmetic well-being of your house, the warmth of the house enables them to move. As a result, they can be seen lousily roaming about the light fixtures as they are attracted towards the light. Due to this, they are found stuck in places such as inside the fans and light fittings which are difficult to clean.
- When one group of bugs find your house suitable for overwintering, the bugs release Pheromone to invite their counterparts. Hence, if your house is infested by brown marmorated stink bugs, there are thousands of them at a time which will make the situation much worse for your garden once they emerge in the spring season.
- When these bugs are overwintering in your house, they might attract their predators in your house too, leading to further infestation.
- In garden landscapes, brown marmorated stink bugs attack the fruit trees, vegetable-growing plants, and ornamental plants. They pierce the fruit with their proboscis and suck the plant fluids containing carbohydrate. This deprives the plants of the adequate nutrition.
- They collect in huge number on the tree canopies for mating and lay eggs on the underside of trees. These egg masses give rise to more larvae which take 35-45 days and 5 nymphal stages from 2.4-12 mm to grow into adults. The previous generative gives rise to an all new generation in every spring. Due to which, this infestation will become an annual thing in your house if you do not go for natural ways to eliminate brown marmorated stink bugs immediately.