HelpfulGardener.com

Through this winter we've been seeing the occasional stinkbug in our house, maybe one or two a month. But suddenly it seems like a bunch of them must have hatched out somewhere. In the past couple weeks we have killed at least a dozen, maybe more (my partner who does the bug killing duty doesn't tell me how many of them she has dispatched )

So last night when it got dark, I set up a stinkbug trap: A large clear glass bowl filled with very soapy water, with a bright light shining directly on it. I used glass because that way the light glows through it. Within the first hour, it had four stinkbugs floating in it. But when I got up this AM, it was still just the same four. So is that all there were? Were there more, but their four dead companions warned them off? or?

But I did notice this AM that the water had a bunch of little blue eggs in it, so presumably one or more of the dead ones was a gravid female. So LOTS of stinkbugs that didn't live to hatch out!

I'm going to try it again tonight with a white plastic bowl. I saw in the fungus gnat thread, someone saying white works best for them. See if there are more of them!

At least it makes me feel safer in the bedroom! They seemed to keep appearing in there and once Jamie had one on her pillow! euww, euww! If the trap is on, they are more likely to be over there by the light than by us!

Haha stupid stinkbugs! I've had a couple times when I've reached for a door knob or hand towel and found a surprise stinkbug hiding out So far they've been minimal in our area this spring. I'm hoping that means the harsh winter had some perks. Did you find the white bowl method to be effective?

In sc, we had severe freezing and heavy snow that lasted days. Very unlike SC. But the news reported that it was devastating to the stinkbug population. >90% die off ( how do they figure that?). I hope hope hope the same is true for squash bugs! Stink bugs and squash bugs are my garden's worst of pests. (Aside from my new overrun of slugs)

I caught about 8 stinkbugs with the bowl trap. I have no idea what percent of the population that was , but we quit seeing them in the house after that, probably because it got warm enough that they all found their way outdoors. I saw the first one in my garden today.

Maybe I will try setting up the trap outdoors near the garden some night and see what happens....

Wonder if that method would work on squash bugs?

worth a try; they are pretty similar.