These Pest Are Heading Into Your Warm Home, Here's How You Can Prevent The Invasion
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA)-- Walking around a home in Moon Township pest expert Russ Rusiski points out the vulnerable spots for pest incursions, "window casings, door casings, behind shutters" are just a few.
Right now stink bugs are making the journey from outside to inside driven by the dropping temperatures.
Rusiski has seen his share of stink bugs and freaked out customers.
"Sometimes it's from one bug and I've been in houses where you can literally walk through the house and touch a stink bug anywhere you are standing."
Ehrlich Pest Control entomologist Chad Gore, Ph.D. says, "We'll probably be seeing a bit more than we've seen in the recent past."
He adds the migration indoors is coming a bit later this fall due to the warm September.
"Until we get really good frost or freezing we're still going to continue to see them."
Once that freeze comes all that is coming in will be snuggled into our attics, basements, eves, and walls. The experts don't advise using pesticides indoors because you have to know where they are and how to spray and other critters will come to feast on the dead bugs.
Rusiski says you could set an indoor trap but, "I think they give you more peace of mind than anything."
Dr. Gore says if you do see a stink bug, "Throw it in soapy water, flush it down the toilet if you want to waste the water. Me, personally, I just squash it and throw it in the garbage."
But it's not just stink bugs trying to escape the cold. Dr. Gore says the Multicolored Lady Asian Beetles are also finding their way inside.
"Some years we have huge populations of them and some years not so much, but we always have some of them," said Dr. Gore.
And Rusiski says, while they require a slightly larger opening than the bugs, mice are also squeezing in. "Now that the nights are getting colder they are starting to come in again in bigger numbers and we see that in the calls we get."
That's what brought Rusiski to a home in Moon Township today.
The homeowner didn't like what she was hearing in her walls.
"Definite movement and then we saw the cat staring at the wall."
The bug experts point out the efforts of critters to get into your home have nothing to do with the cleanliness of your home.
They are just cold and trying to survive.
Rusiski says, "The best thing you can do is seal all openings and treat before they can come in."
And one final point. If you see any sign of mice deal with it quickly. A female can have six to eight babies every month.
Dr. Gore is currently attending Pestworld 2019, the annual convention of the pest control industry.
Pestworld's website has a list of Stink Bug control techniques which can be found here.
