If you live anywhere in southern Michigan, you know the unwinnable fight against Stink Bugs every year. Around this time, when temperatures drop, those little stinkers (pun intended) start to climb into every nook and cranny of your home trying to find shelter for the winter.

It's a nuisance every year, but for some reason, it seems worse this year. WHY are the stink bugs worse this year, than in recent memory?

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Yes, I realize "tis the season" and whatnot. Every year, at this time, the stink bugs invade our homes. It's a natural progression of the year when they know winter is coming, so they seek warmth and shelter.

But WHY are they SO bad in some areas this year?

Blame the Weather

The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug likes warm, humid weather - something Michigan has a lot of during the summer. The warmer, the better for them to breed, and this summer has been one of the warmest we've experienced in some time.

In fact, when it is warmer, the bugs can have more than one clutch of eggs in the season to reproduce, which isn't normal. So when you have a warm, humid summer like we just had, it's literally a breeding ground for these guys.

So with a larger population, we get a larger influx of them trying to find shelter for the winter.

So, what can we do about it?

Short of burning your place down and starting over.... nothing, really. I mean, we can do all the things like spray insecticides, and use the oils and stuff to try and repel them. But these guys are persistent. I found one that crawled up my dryer vent, and into my dryer recently.

I live on a third-floor apartment.

So they're here, and they're annoying. But take solace in the fact that within the next month, they should all mostly be frozen and dead for the next 6 months or so.