You're About to get the Stink Bugs, America.
But no, they won't be Man-Faced.
By Becky Crew
Man-Faced Stink Bugs can come in several colours, such as red, yellow, orange and cream, and it’s thought that these mostly bold colours exist to warn predators that the bug is either poisonous or at least tastes horrible. The bizarre face pattern could also function as a defence mechanism, with the pseudo-eyespots drawing attention away from the vulnerable head area.
Also known as shield bugs, Man-Faced Stink Bugs have a thick, hardened extension of the thorax, called a scutellum, that covers and protects the top of its abdomen. It sometimes has two prominent black dots on its scutellum, but always has a pair of big, black spots on its leathery wings.
The effect is that of a face, complete with eyes, nose, hair, a slit for a mouth, and some kind of head ornamentation. All that is actually the body of the bug seen from above.
Millions of brown marmorated stink bugs (Halyomorpha halys) are expected to invade the east coast of the United States in the coming months, seeking refuge in people’s homes as the temperature drops. And even better, if they find a suitable house, they’ll use those pheromones to attract a whole bunch of other stink bugs to join them.
Right now the best advice is to remove the hoards of stink bugs from your home manually. Because even if a commercial pesticide happens to work on them, their carcasses will attract other insects into your house if not disposed of properly.
Brace yourself though, because these manual methods for extraction can get pretty brutal:
Drown them in a gallon jug of soapy water
Hang a wet towel outside your house to attract the stink bugs, which you can then knock into soapy water or vacuum them up
Take them outside and squash them. The kill odour will ward off any nearby interested parties
Suck them up in your vacuum cleaner, although they will stink it up.
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