Tell me about this bug

[Jimster]

It is winter here but i keep finding this kind of bug-especially in the bedroom by windows and on bedspreads. They generally crawl but can fly. It is dark on top with antenna and legs and kind of a white color under neath. i thought these were “stink bugs” but since i keep finding them i am beginning to wonder.

 

[Jan M.]

They look like stink bugs.

 

[Jimster]

Yes thats what i thought but we have killed about 25 between the 4 bedrooms and in the previous 20 years never even had one. So I am confused.

 

[WalnutBaron]

It's what's called a brown marmorated stink bug, native to eastern Asia. It's a serious agricultural pest in the Eastern U.S., attacking apples, apricots, Asian pears, cherries, corn, grapes, peaches, tomatoes, and soybeans. It has no native predators. Since you seem to have a colony of them, I suggest you contact your local county ag department to find out if they have a service to remove them. They're overwintering in your home before they head to colonize and create damage to crops.

 

[Timeshare Von]

Yep . . . run of the mill stink bugs

 

[clifffaith]

Yuck! And now you have me looking around to make sure no hairy millipede bug is creeping up on me. Never saw one before moving into this house seven years ago, and I swear the damn things come in pairs. We won't see one for months, then we find two in 24 hours. Little suckers can run like the wind too when they know you're after them. I've seen one in my doctor's waiting room, and one in a customer's house -- of course I worry that the one crawled out of my purse and one was in the tools or boxes we carried in because each was within a couple feet of me when I noticed them. Got a round of applause at the doctor's office for stomping on it, and at the customer's I cleaned the smashed carcass up before she saw it.

 

[dioxide45]

We have those bugs all over, they get in to everything in the fall trying to keep warm over the winter. We have opened boxes that we thought were sealed in the garage and found dead ones in them. Though they don't creep me out as much as these suckers do.

 

[Jan M.]

Yes thats what i thought but we have killed about 25 between the 4 bedrooms and in the previous 20 years never even had one. So I am confused.

We got them big time the last year we lived in Pennsylvania. They seemed to come in cycles and we guessed they must have laid eggs in the Fall when the weather started getting cooler. I would pick them up in a tissue and flush them down the toilet rather than squash them and have them stink. The occasional palmetto bug we get in our house here in Florida, always in our bathroom, didn't come as quite as big of a shock after putting up with those stink bugs. Although getting up in the night to use the bathroom and seeing a big old palmetto bug still grosses me out.

 

[Panina]

We got them big time the last year we lived in Pennsylvania. They seemed to come in cycles and we guessed they must have laid eggs in the Fall when the weather started getting cooler. I would pick them up in a tissue and flush them down the toilet rather than squash them and have them stink. The occasional palmetto bug we get in our house here in Florida, always in our bathroom, didn't come as quite as big of a shock after putting up with those stink bugs. Although getting up in the night to use the bathroom and seeing a big old palmetto bug still grosses me out.

I hate those Palmetto bugs. The first time I saw one in SC I scream the hugest cockroach I ever seen. To me they are cockroaches called by another name in the south.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I hate those Palmetto bugs. The first time I saw one in SC I scream the hugest cockroach I ever seen. To me they are cockroaches called by another name in the south.

It is just a cockroach by a more palatable name. It is just an american cockroach.

https://www.catseyepest.com/blog/palmetto-bug-vs-cockroach-whats-difference

 

[moonstone]

I hate those Palmetto bugs. The first time I saw one in SC I scream the hugest cockroach I ever seen. To me they are cockroaches called by another name in the south.

The first time I ever saw a Palmetto Bug (huge cockroach) was about 40 yrs ago when DH & I used his parents RV which was stored in FL. Another family member had used it 2 mos before we did & left a part loaf of bread in the cupboard. There must have been at least 2 dozen of those gross things in the trailer! I woke up one night with one crawling up my arm! It was the worst vacation I've ever had. We bought our first timeshare that same week -the only good part of the vacation!

We are currently in Belize and those darn things are here too! The other night I was sitting at the kitchen table in our apartment when something caught my eye across the room. A Palmetto bug was wiggling out from under the baseboard and then started heading in my direction. I threw a paper towel over it then stomped on it. I shot some bug spray under the baseboard in case it had any friends in there.

We were told by a local here to keep the plugs in all the drains as the bugs will come up the drain system. Yuck!!


~Diane

 

[VacationForever]

We have found a handful of scorpions around the year in our 4th storey condo. EEEEK. They come in through the drain system as well. I think one of our cats got stung next to the butt a few months ago. Nasty huge open wound about size of a quarter, recovered after many vet visits, injections and daily applications of cream. My husband spotted one outside our shower about a week ago. I had just walked out of the shower and he asked if I saw that brown thing. First look I said it was strange as it looked like a bee within a spider web. He reached for a tissue and that was when I said it could be a scorpion curled up and might be alive. He went to pick it up and it started moving fast. I stepped on it with my slippers and squished it well. That is one huge downside of living in scorpion country.

 

[BJRSanDiego]

We have found a handful of scorpions around the year in our 4th storey condo. EEEEK. They come in through the drain system as well. I think one of our cats got stung next to the butt a few months ago. Nasty huge open wound about size of a quarter, recovered after many vet visits, injections and daily applications of cream. My husband spotted one outside our shower about a week ago. I had just walked out of the shower and he asked if I saw that brown thing. First look I said it was strange as it looked like a bee within a spider web. He reached for a tissue and that was when I said it could be a scorpion curled up and might be alive. He went to pick it up and it started moving fast. I stepped on it with my slippers and squished it well. That is one huge downside of living in scorpion country.

We occasionally get a scorpion in the house. First thing that we do is to get a scissors and either snip it in the middle or snip off its stinger.

When you say that they come through the drain system, do you mean like through the plumbing pipes and out of sinks?

 

[VacationForever]

We occasionally get a scorpion in the house. First thing that we do is to get a scissors and either snip it in the middle or snip off its stinger.

When you say that they come through the drain system, do you mean like through the plumbing pipes and out of sinks?

Yes.

 

[pedro47]

When I was working our insect terminator control person said that we had German cockroaches in the bathroom. A cockroach is still a cockroach small or large in opinion.

 

[clifffaith]

We have those bugs all over, they get in to everything in the fall trying to keep warm over the winter. We have opened boxes that we thought were sealed in the garage and found dead ones in them. Though they don't creep me out as much as these suckers do.
View attachment 5356

Gack, that's it! Now I feel like something's crawling on me as well as you've made me check the walls and ceiling again!

 

[Patri]

I just spotted two stinkbugs inside my TV! They were walking across the screen. I'll just have to leave them in there. I hope they die. If they find their way out, I will pinch them to death.

 

[VacationForever]

I just spotted two stinkbugs inside my TV! They were walking across the screen. I'll just have to leave them in there. I hope they die. If they find their way out, I will pinch them to death.

Is the a flat screen or an old tube type? I know, stupid question. I don't see how they can get inside a flat screen tv.

 

[VacationForever]

We have those bugs all over, they get in to everything in the fall trying to keep warm over the winter. We have opened boxes that we thought were sealed in the garage and found dead ones in them. Though they don't creep me out as much as these suckers do.
View attachment 5356

But what bug is it? It is creeeeeeepy. I had seen millipedes but they were black.

 

[dioxide45]

But what bug is it? It is creeeeeeepy. I had seen millipedes but they were black.

House Centipede
Scientific Name: Scutigera coleoptrata

 

[VacationForever]

House Centipede
Scientific Name: Scutigera coleoptrata

More EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK... I grew up with centipedes (they don't look exactly like your pic) everywhere around the house - we lived in a shophouse, kind of hard to explain... Centipedes were supposed to be poisonous and many of the ones we found were humongous, some as long as 6 to 8 inches. We killed them with flipflops or sandals, whatever we were wearing or could get our hands on. I used to play on my father's bed and one time, I found a centipede in a corner of the bed. My father used to store stuff for his business under the bed so it was quite filthy. Let's say I had a traumatized childhood.

 

[tschwa2]

The first year we had stink bugs I would take them outside and release them. For everyone I took out, it seemed like 2 got back in. They were bad for a few years. We don't have as many now a days. I flush them down the toilet.

 

[theo]

I have seen these stink bugs at a brother's home in Massachusetts. He claims never to have seen them before this year and he is a very observant guy. Have never seen them in Maine. Perhaps like opossum, maybe they are moving north into areas previously beyond their historical range. Maybe just more invasive Asian insect "arrival", I frankly dunno.

I do like like that "marmorated" adjective in their name however, as pointed out by Walnut Baron above --- even if the little buggers are pests and stink.

 

[clifffaith]

What kind of smell does a stink bug give off?

 

[dioxide45]

What kind of smell does a stink bug give off?

It only stinks if you crush it. I have never done it to find out.