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Urban Stink Bugs! Another Reason to Make Your Home Green

Reblogger Gloria Todor
Real Estate Agent with Premier Property Sales & Rentals RS284559

Stink bugs are here and you can take action to keep them out of your house.  Please read this post by Pat about her experience and great advice on how to keep these unwanted critters out of your house.

Thanks Pat!

Original content by Patricia Kennedy AB95346

Tuesday I was previewing a $3.5 million dollar home in one of the District's most elegant neighborhoods when I heard a shriek from a colleague who pointed out an extended family of stink bugs congregating on the screens of the extremely well-appointed master bedroom. 

I knew stink bugs had invaded out far suburbs - one of my favorite clients bought a home in Lovettsville, VA, and the little guys were trying for some aggressive looking home invasions during the walk-through.  But here, right in DC?  The seat of government?

The nerve!

It seems pretty inevitable that one of these days soon, I will find these creepy creatures on my own window screens.  So I hopped on Google to find out how to keep them outside.

First, they don't like the cold, but they are not into flying south for the winter.  Instead, they try to enter nice warm houses.  They especially like attics. 

So to keep them out, you need to seal up your home.  I'll need to put a screen on my chimney top, replace a missing pane in one of the attic dormers, and do a whole lot of caulking and weatherstripping.

I look at it as a double whammy - I lower both my electric bills and my exterminator bills!

The good thing is that stink bugs do not carry disease and they won't eat the wood in your attic's rafters.  The bad thing is that they are major reekers.

 

Comments(2)

Patricia Kennedy
RLAH@properties - Washington, DC
Home in the Capital

These little fellows are pretty creepy.  I found one stuck to my slacks leg the other day!  I flicked him (or her) off without triggering the stinky thing.  But geeze!

Oct 07, 2010 02:41 PM
Gloria Todor
Premier Property Sales & Rentals - Springfield, PA
& Doug Durren (484) 431-3686 in SE PA

Pat, They are very slow moving creatures.  The first time I experienced their smell was when I happend to vacuum a punch of dead ones near a fireplace where they had come in and it was not a pleasant smell.

Thanks for your post and commenting!!
Gloria

Oct 07, 2010 03:42 PM