QUESTION:

You suggested fogging a wall void to kill BMSBs in a structure. Won't this cause a problem with dermestid beetles feeding on the carcasses, and wouldn't that be an even bigger problem than the stink bugs?

ANSWER:

Well, now there is our dilemma, and in case any of you don't know the reference to "the lady or the tiger" it refers to a story where a man was given 2 choices, both of them bad. This is correct what you say Brian. Anytime we kill any bugs or rodents inside a home and cannot remove all the little bodies and carcasses it is an open invitation to Mother Nature's cleanup crew to find them and do what they are programmed to do - recycle the dead bodies. This is true also of wasp and bee nests, roaches or bed bugs inside walls, and flies and any other bugs we kill and leave behind. Carpet beetles (dermestids) WILL find them, and now these alternate pests also are in the home.

Perhaps one solution to this could be to follow up that fogging (which would give a fairly rapid kill) with an application of an inorganic dust, such as silica gel (Drione for example) or diatomaceous earth (MotherEarth D for example), leaving a coating of this material behind to intercept any dermestids that find their way in later. These active ingredients simply do not degrade, and their hazard to humans is so low that having them in the walls or other voids for years to come does not present a health risk.

Your question also points out, much to my delight, the benefit of keeping the bugs outside in the first place, and this means exclusion. The homeowner can be made aware that allowing the bugs to find their way in can lead to other problems such as the carpet beetles. Even if we do not kill them with insecticides there likely will be a great many that do not survive the winter, and these dead bugs will remain. If we can be diligent about involving the homeowner in an honest effort at sealing all possible openings on the outside where the bugs could enter, and supplement that with applications of residual products to the exterior surfaces they gather on in the fall, we can greatly minimize the number that make it inside.

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