The end of the stinkbugs?

I haven't posted about it specifically, but we were infested with stinkbugs when we stopped in Hershey, Pennsylvania, back in October, 2021. They were just thick there - all over the outside of the windows on the rig - even when we pulled our jacks up preparing to leave they were all over the wooden blocks that we use under the jacks. We tried to make sure that none got inside, cleaned them all off of the jack blocks, but... we were infested.

This was also during the time that we were sick with COVID, specifically when we had lost our senses of smell and taste - which had a benefit that we would just squish the stinkbugs, not worrying about whether they were going to stink or not! It was SO satisfying to just *squish* them! After we recovered from COVID and got our sense of smell back, we continued to squish them, and were surprised to find that we didn't smell anything! All these years when I've had a stinkbug in the house or RV, I would carefully capture it in a tissue or paper towel and throw it outside -- who knew?!? I have become convinced that the stinkbug association has a really good marketing team who has done a good job letting everyone know that you had better not squish a stinkbug, but now I know that it is all false!

We had despaired ever getting rid of them. We never found a nest or where they were coming from. We just found some every day - for weeks we were killing 10-15 a day. If we were in a cooler area, we would see fewer and wonder if they were gone, but then a warm day would arrive and we'd find them on the warm, sun-facing windows, and we'd be back to squishing. The good news was that they were ungainly and flew and moved relatively slowly, so it was easy to capture them in a tissue or paper towel and squish!

One of our friends who went to Mexico with us thought that we should have declared we were bringing an alien species into the country. She put a bug deterrent down all around her rig to try to ensure that none infested her space!

We read that they have about a 6 month lifespan... since we picked them up in October, and since we didn't think we were seeing any young ones (but how would we know?), maybe they would all eventually die off?

In just the past couple of weeks, we have noticed that we are no longer seeing them. Could it be that our infestation is finally over?!?!?

I saw a dead one on our entry step a few days ago and took a picture so I could write a blog entry about them...

I flipped him over so you can see what they look like on their backs -- they are about 1/2" long. We found this article: https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/terrestrial/invertebrates/brown-marmorated-stink-bug.

I have been told that there are other bugs/beetles called stink bugs (a large black beetle in California that is also called a dung beetle) which do actually have an awful stink. Our experience of them not stinking may have been only our particular bugs, and could be indicative that we just don't have very sensitive noses!