The stink bug, which is often a random guest of urban apartments, is scientifically called the tree shields. It is a known pest of forest and garden plants, feeding on their sap and often leading to the death of the entire plant. The saying “Mal bug and stinker” originates from these insects, which are famous for their unpleasant smell.
Why do the bugs smell and how do they use it?
Perhaps many wonder why the bugs stink and why they need this very specific smell. In fact, these insects have a rather well-developed sense of smell, which allows us to perceive and classify smells emitted by their other brethren.
Not only bugs stinkers, but all bugs, even aquatic ones, have special glands located on the back of the cephalothorax. There is an odorous liquid in these glands that the bug can use in case of danger.It is poisonous to other insects, can cause spasm, paralysis, and even death, but does not affect the bug itself.
Bedbugs also use their scent to find and attract a suitable mate and scare off their rivals for food or a female.
To understand how bedbugs smell, you need to imagine the smell of a bit rotten cognac. This smell has become a real hallmark of bed bugs (with large clusters, they smell very intense, but the smell of several bugs is very difficult to feel).
But the most stinky bug is tree shielder. Its glands secrete a liquid that smells several times stronger than other bedbugs.
It is interesting…
The bed bug detects a person precisely by the smell of blood, which he very subtly picks up. But the nest of the bugs themselves can be found by specially trained dogs, which are specially taught to smell a bug. In the United States, one such trained dog costs more than $ 10,000 and is a good helper for a professional exterminator.
Who are called bedbugs stinkers?
The stink bug (woody shield) has a body length of about 10-12 mm, an oval flat shape.As can be seen in the photo, the color of the shvitnik can vary from bright green to yellowish and brownish:
It is worth noting that many relatives of this species are quite bright and noticeable. Like all members of the genus, the stink bug has a piercing-sucking mouth apparatus, allowing it to pierce the surface layers of the stems and leaves of plants and feed on their juices.
In the cold season, the woody tree shrimp falls into a kind of hibernation, leaving it with the arrival of spring. When a more or less warm temperature is established and sprouts begin to appear from under the ground, the stink bug will go in search of a permanent place of residence. Most of all bugs love to be on raspberry and gooseberry bushes, they often occupy larch and alder.
Immediately after moving to plant crops, the moths mate and lay eggs. After 2 weeks from the eggs appear the larvae, which also begin to actively feed and harm the plants. The larvae look like miniature adults, but before they are completely transformed, they will have several molts with a complete change of chitinous cover.
A stink bug in an apartment does not cause any harm to a person and is not a domestic parasite at all. It can accidentally fly into an open window in the summer, but it can never multiply in such conditions.
In order to get rid of an insect that has accidentally entered the house, it is easiest to throw it on the street. It is worth noting that a dead or crushed stink bug will stink even more than a living one.
In order to prevent the penetration of wood shields into the apartment, it is enough to use window mosquito nets.
Variety of stink bugs
The family of shchitnikov has many representatives, each of which has its own characteristics. These stinky bugs are rewarded by nature with an original bright color and a stocky body covered with a dense shell.
A characteristic feature that helps to distinguish shields from other bugs is the protrusions on the cephalothorax, which have a somewhat rectangular shape. Due to these projections, the bug seems to be even more massive and dangerous, although in fact it is harmless:
The bug usually stinks "from fear"; this is its natural defensive reaction. Although bugs are considered bitter and tasteless, birds eat them with pleasure.
The photographs show several types of shields, which have a pronounced and strong “aroma”:
- Palomena is green.This beautiful bug is notable for the fact that it has a green color, which by the autumn becomes reddish-brown.
- Shrubby red-legged. One of the largest members of the family (15 mm), his body has the color of old bronze.
- Shchitnik two-toothed. One of the few carnivorous bugs, with great pleasure eats caterpillars and therefore is a useful insect.
- Berry Shchitnik. It prefers to eat those berries that are poisonous to humans (henbane, wolfberry), without refusing, however, from currants with raspberries.
- Northern cruciferous bug. On its back you can see a very beautiful pattern resembling a frightening African mask.
Reproduction of shields and their harm to agriculture
The main food of the stink bug is the juices of various plants, among which there are many cultivated and specially cultivated by man. After the shielder settles on the plant, it begins to die rapidly and ceases to bear fruit. Naturally, contamination of the fields and gardens with such bugs causes significant losses, since the affected plants either produce less yield or do not bear fruit at all.
Each bug has a small proboscis with which it produces its own food.This device helps them to easily pierce the stems, leaves or fruits of plants and drink the juice inside.
In the saliva of the stink bug, there is poison that they release into the plants at the end of the meal. It is he who causes wilting. Predatory shchitniki in the same way pierce the skin of the caterpillars and literally suck out their liquid contents.
Stink bugs lay eggs directly on those plants where they are parasitic. Usually the number of eggs in the clutch does not exceed 30-40, but this number may differ slightly depending on the species. All eggs of the shields have their original shape, similar to vessels or chests.
Shchitniki very quickly develop resistance to various poisons, with the help of which they are trying to poison in agriculture. For this reason, insecticide producers themselves have to constantly improve the means used, trying to outrun the bugs for at least a year or two and prevent them from completely ruining the crop.
It is interesting…
The development of genetically modified products is partly due to problems in the fight against bedbugs: getting a variety of plants unfit for bedbugs is easier and faster,than to produce the same variety by breeding or constantly develop new poisons.
The main sabotage of bugs stinks occurs in gardens and gardens, at home they do not parasitize and do not multiply. In late summer, when the bugs are looking for good conditions for wintering, they may accidentally fly into the apartment. The best (and humane) option is to simply release the bug - it does not bite people and can not do anything dangerous.
To fight these insects with insecticides is necessary only in the conditions of agriculture, where the woody shielder threatens the crop of cultivated plants and its number is large enough.
Unique frames: pairing bed bugs
Forest bugs in an apartment are, generally speaking, a rather rare phenomenon, because they are not human parasites and can only accidentally get into the house. ...
The green tree bug is a rather rare guest in a human home, since it is not a human parasite and does not need anything in the house. ...
Its name sounds beautiful and unusual - Palomena prasina, but, despite the unusualness of such a name, this well-known insect is a wood bug ...
And here is not true that these bugs do not bite people! Yesterday, my mother was bitten in the neck. He says it was as painful as if he had bitten a gadfly. This year we have an awful lot of bugs, what is the reason? And in the garden they burst tomatoes, apples and pears!
Is this bite dangerous? Brown was.
An abomination disgusting! I am afraid of them since childhood! Now I am already over 30 and I have two children, but these creatures still terrify me. If such a guest gets into the apartment, I get a real panic! I understand that such a reaction is too much, but I can’t do anything with myself. It was always interesting, are there any similar people experiencing a similar disgust for bedbugs stinkers?
There are such people - I can not stand it either.And I have a lot of these creatures on the balcony, although mosquito nets are standing. What to do, I'll never know. With fear of waiting for the summer.
Yes, I'm a guy, 30 years old, and I'm terribly afraid of them. I remember, we were sitting with friends in the park, a bug fell from a tree at me, I have a panic with tantrums, I then squealed like the last snotty girl. Friends laughed at me, but I can’t do anything about it, they are very disgusting to me, although cilantro eat it))
I am terribly afraid of them. If, for example, a snake crawled into the apartment, I would have ignored it)) But when I see this abomination a panic begins. Dad always threw them away, but now I live alone and very much all is problematic.
Yes, Yana, I'm afraid of them too. Fu, an abomination!
I'm afraid very much. I start to shake, although you can just throw out the window. And shakes me from disgust. Horror. I simply covered one such guest with a lid so that I did not interfere with life. And even not to go out on the balcony, constantly looking around.
Thank God, I’m not the only one)) I’ll share my memories ... In the third grade, a classmate boy gave us, the girls, a “dark one”: he took a skunk and ran after us around the class, poking her face.It was a nightmare! Now my husband saves me from them, and I did not even try to scare them, for which I am very grateful to him. I live in Almaty, and, unfortunately, we have a lot of this abomination, because the city is “green” and the climate allows them to be fruitful ((By the way, after getting acquainted with the information about them, I began to be less afraid.
We are also in Almaty, and this year we have a lot of them in the apartment. It is already the end of November, and they are all crawling.
And do not know what they do in the winter in the house? I have no bedding, but big gray ones somewhere around 1 cm. In the fall I threw 10 pieces of them from the balcony. On all windows grid, everything is closed. But until now, at times for the past 3 months, they, like kamikazes, appear with enviable periodicity one at a time and fly around the room or crawl through the windows. With what it can be connected?
I read komenty. I decided to advise, as I understood - they also interfere with life for many. I, for example, quietly quietly (so as not to arouse suspicion in the bug) take a plastic bag and cover it with a sharp movement of my hand. The main thing is to do everything quickly so that he does not understand anything, does not get nervous and does not start to stink.The main thing is not to crush it even in a package, because from my personal experience he somehow somehow manages to stink through a sealed bag. Then you need the same package, wrapping it and turning it inside out, carefully twist the bug so that it does not crawl out. Well, then throw it away. I do this because I have a grid on the windows and throwing it out onto the street is problematic, flushing it down the toilet can get out. And this seems to me the best option. Although my questions are valid. Since the bugs sometimes crawl in the twilight in the morning on the windows and interfere with sleep. Where do they come from, if everything is clean and clogged with me - I won’t put my mind on it ...
Roman, tell me, where do you live, what do they appear in winter? Damn, you do not want such an enemy ... Thanks for the advice! I also appeared on a glassed and insulated balcony with closed plastic windows. Literally every day, one bug was pulled out, right up to the frost. Somehow I climbed into the dresser with children's things, I sorted out my son's blouses, and among them sits ... and wiggles my mustache ... I was already thrown away))
I also panic since childhood, most of all I do not like these creatures. Their appearance itself is the most disgusting of all that can be.
But it wasn’t even visible to me in the winter, but with the arrival of spring, they apparently came out of hibernation and now they are full! I always suck them up with a vacuum cleaner, touching my hands is disgusting. I wanted to buy some kind of remedy for them, but, unfortunately, there is no such remedy, the sellers are generally shocked that they can be found in houses ... I have mostly gray stinkers, and when they sit on their clothes they are not noticeable, and only at the end of the day, the other person notices a stinker on you - and you realize that she traveled on you all day long ... And this crap can fly ((
I live in the village and I have a real problem with this! Invasion, otherwise no way. Previously, they flew down the street, but literally this autumn they covered the entire house and made their way inside. I thought, with the cold disappear ... Yes, it was not there. All winter they flew around the apartment (no more than 10 pieces a day), and with the onset of spring we woke up. Now a day is not less than 20-35 pcs. I collect! And you can't crush (stink), and throwing it out on the street every time is not an option. He invented his own method: he took a small jar (from under the jam), poured detergent and water into it. Every time the beetle sits down somewhere, I open the jar and just hold it up from the bottom. Usually they themselves fall, sometimes you have to do something.Only in this way I'm saving myself ... Never had such a misfortune. What else to do - I do not know. Maybe someone had a similar situation, share how you struggled with this creature?
PS: Bedbugs are not bedding, so that they should not eat any of the vegetation. Sami dark brown-green color. They live in the daytime mainly at the windows (they sit on curtains / glass / windowsill), in the evening they circle near the chandelier. Despite the fact that I am collecting in a jar, corpses are everywhere lying around (of course, I spend cleaning the house). Why roll? Because it is not always the hunt to go for a can - it is easier to nail a sneaker.
Thank you, Denis. Useful advice. And today I discovered the whole invasion of these stinking woods. I had to urgently close all the windows in the kitchen and balcony (although from the spring they stood barely closed with curtains). Despite this, they appeared with the same regularity with which I caught them and threw them out. I do not understand where they come from. Here, it seems, the whole balcony was cleared of them, after 2 hours I went out to smoke - I counted 6 new ones, not really looking closely! And stink - guard, to nausea!
Damn, just five brothers took off from the curtains in the afternoon, and so they are full, do not cause harm.I take them to the toilet, one, however, got out, but it did not save him. In short, they are peaceful insects, and you should not crush them.
I cut off the bottom of the poltorashki and collect them in a poltorashka ... If the bug is sitting on the ceiling, then I offer a poltorashka to him from below, he jumps into it. Just throwing on the street and everything. I live in the forest))
Salute to all. When I arrived home, their mountain. I raided them for two days, they all died. Only when etching the house can not be.
Saw on TV transfer, it turns out, these stinkers eat the Colorado potato beetle and its larvae! Therefore, they began to import specially ...
At home in the closet I was sifting through things, and therefore I saw: crawling on a T-shirt, so small, well, about the size of a fly. And dark brown, even a little bit red. I do not know what it is.
Guys, this is just awful! They, well, I mean STUMB, straight army. I live in Sochi, if you don’t tell anyone, everyone has a similar problem. Advise how to get rid of them? Recently, I generally fell in food, but I did not notice, and saw through it, I thought I would go crazy.
The best cure for a headache is amputation of the head itself. Allegory, I hope, is clear?
We have been living for 2 years alone (or are they different?). We respect him (them). Firstly, there was no moth in the apartment and the web. Secondly, when it flies around the chandelier and touches the ceiling, then such a melody is obtained, it is pleasant to listen. And to us, he (they) does not climb.
At our country house in the city of Stary Oskol this summer, whole hordes were these creatures. I fear them terribly. If anyone knows, tell me how to get rid of them?
We have the same problem, my mother did not sleep all night, counted 30 pieces. Fought with them for several weeks, the decision to "catch" these creatures came by "spear". We take a mop with a damp rag and bring it to the place where they fly; they obediently sit down on a rag. Well, and after how someone likes: let out to the street, push down, flush into the toilet!
What if the child ate the bug?
The baby bug splashed in the eye. Is it dangerous?
I read how Roman catches bedbugs so as not to arouse suspicion ... 🙂 Push a couple of times on the bug with spirits or something like that - the liquid will tie the wings, will not be able to twitch,and fly away the problem - and here you can, evoking any suspicion from this guest, calmly carry it off in any humane way.
Apparently he bit me yesterday (((We also live near the forest. And in the winter they were, but not enough, slept in the corners.
On the coast and, in particular, in Sochi, they have been around for several years, especially the last two years they are just dark! What you write here, one, two, 10 caught - about anything. We have hundreds of them, without exaggeration. There are dozens in the house, we, the truth, do not have grids, here it is difficult for these windows in the rental housing, and the door is wide open often. In the summer I hang the curtain on the door and the window of the net, but this does not help much. I don’t even catch them, it’s too difficult, I’m vacuuming every day, several dozen, then my vacuum cleaner, the stench stands. The main thing - to cover the pot, and then spoil the food. Stuff things on the street, put them in, and they are sitting there in a pile. In the evening, poked at the light bulbs, we also collect with a vacuum cleaner. They sit in the trees, on the mulberry very much! Yesterday I bothered to put it in the mouth along with the mulberry tree, he released some smelly caustic liquid, the corner of his mouth was numb, still burning a little. It is rumored that they brought some caterpillars, which the Americans brought to us in the boxwood grove (they have already destroyed a lot of boxwood), but these are only rumors. And a lot of hornets are very.Scorpios small and we are not afraid and do not kill. And hornets are very dangerous.
Yes, the box was badly hurt, still not grown.
I was bitten yesterday too. The bite site is red and does not pass, as if with his teeth he sniffed.
He doesn't stink, he smells like cilantro.
I remember living in a private house as a child. A small town in Belarus. We had a garden. Well, there are strawberries, raspberries, greens. Since childhood, I can not stand these bugs. I am afraid of their terrible nasty look. So here. The toilet was on the street, everything is as it should be. And to get there, you had to go through the garden. That's horrible. There were a lot of them. Every trip to the toilet I ended up hysterical. And it was summer, bare legs. I sometimes stood for about 30 minutes and did not know how to get through. In the end, just stupidly ran, that there are forces. As I recall - is ridiculous. And then it was scary, really. About the smell. It was the case. I was walking down the street, and this heavy stinking artillery was flying towards me. Sits on my neck, and I, without thinking, smeared it with my hand. Ahahahaha I stand and do not know what to do. Ran home and quickly wash. I will never forget this stink of rotten moonshine 🙂
Here people write that they fly into houses, it is impossible to live.I lived in a small wooden house. At the same time there were no double-glazed windows. I do not know. Never seen them in the house. And thank God. My home was a fortress and protection from these monsters 🙂
I have been living in Italy for more than 10 years, first in Genoa, they were not there near the sea, and then moved to Verona, and there are unreal many of them outside the city. Probably, because the climate is more like ours (native of Sumy, Ukraine itself, but I know Russia well and many relatives there). And I’ve already seen the Maybugs here - they’re just real sweethearts 🙂
In Almaty, their summer heaps. Green did not see, only brown. I live on the first floor, a lot of greenery, on the windowsill accumulate, up paws lie. They stink terribly, I don’t know what to do, except to wait for winter ...