AMES, IOWA - A ghost of summer past has been creeping around some Iowa homes this Christmas season. While most Iowans had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads over the holiday weekend, others had Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs decking the walls and ceilings of their homes.
Iowa State Entomologist Donald Lewis says it's a new species of stink bug showing up Iowa. They don't bite, and they don't make babies during the winter, but they are unsightly as they hang from the ceiling and walk up the walls. Best way to get rid of the new stink bugs?
"Vacuum them up." Lewis tells WHO Radio News. "You don't want to squash them. It could be messy and smell."
He says the new species of stink bug is not a major problem in Iowa so far, only a couple, or maybe a dozen at a time.
We're lucky.
Lewis says the new stink bug is damaging crops in some eastern states. Some people in the eastern US. Have hundreds inside their homes and tens-of-thousands on the outside of their homes.