When temperatures drop and days shorten throughout September and October, stink bugs instinctively hunt for a safe place to wait out the winter. Unfortunately, the warm, protected walls of your house are exactly what they are looking for.
Stink bugs are, if nothing else, consistent. Right when the weather starts to cool, they start heading for shelter indoors. If you’re unlucky, that means your house.
As late summer turns to fall and the daylight hours shrink and temperatures slide, especially once daytime highs settle into the 50s and 60s, stink bugs switch from feeding mode to shelter-seeking mode. It’s their instinct.
This usually happens in September and October in the Worcester area. It intensifies on warm, sunny afternoons, when the bugs grow active and congregate on sun-warmed walls before working their way inside. A warm spell right after the first cool nights often produces a noticeable surge, almost overnight.
Stink bugs head to the warm, south- and west-facing sides of buildings. From there they slip through gaps into wall voids and attics, sometimes crawlspaces, and stay dormant until spring. You may not see them all winter, then they turn up indoors on the first warm days as they try to get back out.
This is why early fall is the right time to act if you want to deal with stink bugs. By the time you're seeing them cluster on the siding, the migration is already underway. The time to act is just before, in late summer and very early fall, while they're still outside and haven't found their way in yet.
As cooler weather approaches, seal the entry points. That includes gaps around windows, doors, utility lines, and vents, before the move begins. And don't crush the ones you do find, since crushing releases the smell. Vacuum them up instead.
If you're tired of the same fall stink bug invasion every year, Mosquito Squad of Worcester can help. Mosquito Squad offers exterior perimeter treatments timed before the migration to help keep them out. These are applied by a trained technician alongside the barrier service that delivers up to 90% reduction in mosquito activity on a 21-day cycle.
