Story Time: Stink Bug Invasion

Happy Wednesday, friend! I hope that you’ve been having an amazing week. 😊

Chris and I are officially in our last week of the first round of RV travels. Isn’t that crazy? It feels like just yesterday Chris and I started our full-time nomad journey. But it’s been four months since we left central FL.

We’ve made some great memories and have some crazy stories to tell – one of which you’ll hear about today. I’ve enjoyed sharing all our travel experiences with y’all, and I can’t wait to see what next year holds!

Just because we’re returning to FL doesn’t mean the travel stories will stop. We have some fun trips planned this holiday season while bouncing around and visiting family and friends.

Then, when January rolls around, we’ll leave Florida for almost a year! Do you have any guesses on where we’re going for round 2? Let me know in the comments at the bottom of this post.

With all that said, let’s get into today’s story. ↓ 

Leading Up to the Invasion

Let’s take it back to Pennsylvania – aka the beginning of October. Jeez, that feels like forever ago. Am I the only one who thinks these months are just flying?

Before I get into the rest of this section, I want to preface it by saying that it doesn’t have anything to do with the stink bug invasion. Instead, it gives you a glimpse into my mental state at the time. 🤪

The beginning of October was a little rough for my husband and me. Even though Chris and I no longer call Florida home, almost all of our family and friends do. If you remember anything about the start of October for Florida, it wasn’t good, thanks to Hurricane Ian.

The day Ian hit Florida filled us with anxiety about our family and friends – especially my family on the west coast. Thankfully everyone is okay, but so many weren’t as fortunate. Please keep those people in your prayers because even after a month, many people are still struggling with the damage and destruction.

After Ian left Florida, it headed north and sat east of us in the Atlantic. For four straight days, it rained, and we didn’t see the sun. Now, you can take the Floridians out of Florida, but you can’t take Florida out of the Floridians. We’re used to seeing the sun – a LOT – so four days of rain wasn’t fun. At first, we enjoyed the nap weather, but after the second day, we were over it.

It’s funny because I always thought I would love to live in rainy and moody Washington state (thanks, Twilight), but after experiencing four days of gloom and doom, I don’t know if I could do it full-time.

Things were starting to look up when the sun finally came out again. Until we realized we had some new companions in the RV…

Stink Bugs

A couple of days after the sun came out, I felt under the weather, so I spent a day in bed. While trying to relax, I heard a noise from the curtain to the right of the bed, aka my side of the bed. The noise sounded like tiny wings fluttering, so I figured a bug had gotten in the RV. So instead of just waiting for it to eventually land on my face, I sought it out to try to trap it and take it outside.

As I got up and checked the curtain, I noticed that it was no small fly – staring right back at me (or so it seemed) was an ugly stink bug.

Ugh, just thinking about them takes me back to when I was little and another toddler found one in our preschool. We were warned not to touch it, but what did the boys want to do? Play with it. One frightening stink bug later, and the small front room of the preschool reeked.

I was not going to let that happen this time.

I don’t know much about stink bugs, but thanks to little Johnny in preschool, it’s obvious you don’t want to do is scare them or piss them off – especially when you’re in a small RV.

When it came time to move the stink bug, I would be lying if I told you this wasn’t what I was thinking about the entire time. ↓

That’ll give you nightmares, LOL!

Thankfully, that’s not what happened in real life, though.

After grabbing a cup we don’t use to trap it, I squared off against my new little friend. Or should I say, friends…

When I pulled the curtain over, I realized I wasn’t dealing with one new friend but FOUR. YES! Four stink bugs were hanging out on my bedroom curtain, having a grand ol’ time.

At this moment, I did what any sensible woman would do; I screamed my husband’s name. If you’re the type of woman who doesn’t need a man to kill a bug (especially when there’s more than one), then more power to ya! As for me, I’ll stick with making my husband do it.

Even though I wanted Chris to get the job done, I had my own opinions about what he should do. I didn’t think it was right to kill them because they would smell horrible as they died, but Chris disagreed. He took it upon himself to squish every single one.

Do you want to know something crazy? Not a single one of them smelled! It made zero sense.

At this point, you’re probably like, “they probably weren’t stink bugs, Kaitlin.” I thought I was crazy for a hot second too, but when I looked up a picture of them online, I swear they’re the same!

Just looking at that picture gives me nightmares.

It makes no sense why none of them smelled, but praise the Lord they didn’t! If any of you know why this happened, please let me know. 😂

Back to the Story

After all of the ones in the curtain were successfully dead (and not stinky), I laid back in bed to try to relax again, and Chris returned to work.

At the time, we didn’t think much of the incident. Yeah, it was a little strange that so many stink bugs suddenly popped up, but thankfully, Chris killed all of them.

At least, that’s what we thought.

Not even 5 minutes later, I heard the noise of wings flapping again. I’m sure you can imagine, but this was the kind of reaction I had. ↓

It turns out there was another one. And another one. And another one.

Oh, and another one.

By the end of the day, Chirs and I collectively got rid of somewhere between 20-30 stink bugs. Yes, I ended up having to join in on the fun of getting rid of them because Chris couldn’t come to my rescue every five minutes. And yes, it was my worst nightmare.

Unlike Chris, though, I wouldn’t kill the stink bugs. So instead, I trapped them, threw them outside like the great softball player I am, and told them not to come back. Obviously, my plan was better than Chris’.

Okay, maybe not so much, but I thought I was helping.

How Long Did This Go on For?

It seemed like for the next week, all we were doing was trying to get rid of those darn stink bugs. They thought they could just come in and invade our RV WITHOUT paying rent – I know, how rude.

Even after moving to a new place – Pennsylvania to Virginia – they were still popping up. I escaped the stink bug chaos when I went to Florida for a week for my sister’s bachelorette party, but it turns out Chris didn’t find a single one while I was gone. They must like pissing me off because it didn’t take me but a day to find one (or Chris wasn’t paying too much attention while I was gone 🙃).

Fast forward to now, and we think we FINALLY have them under control. We haven’t seen one in almost a week, but sometimes I swear I can still hear their little wings flutter, which gives me PTSD.

Wanna hear something funny, though? As I was in Publix getting groceries earlier this week, I made a quick trip to the bathroom. Guess what awaited me in the bathroom. YUP. They’re following me everywhere.

How Do You Actually Get Rid of Stink Bugs?

I’ve told you about Chris and I’s methods of getting rid of stink bugs – killing or trapping them with a cup – but I figured I would take to the internet to see what actually helps get rid of them/keep them away.

CountryLiving says that a concoction of hot water, dish soap, and white vinegar will help trap them and do the trick.

Ortho warns you not to touch or squash them (oops) because they’ll emit their horrible odor, and instead to grab them with a plastic bag and kill them outside. They say you can also flush them down the toilet (probably not the best idea inside the RV – they smell worse than the sewage) or drown them in a cup of soapy water.

Almost all the websites I looked at talked about the importance of preventative work, but as an RVer, it can be challenging to ensure everything is closed off to the outside bug world.

I believe all of our stink bug “friends” made their way inside the RV on a day when we left our windows open because shortly after they appeared, I noticed one of our window screens wasn’t closed all the way. So to all my RV/van friends out there, make sure your window screens are properly closed!

Another suggestion someone gave me is to purchase some cedar blocks since they naturally repel all kinds of bugs AND help with moisture in your cabinets (a big problem for us). So catch my Amazon cart full of cedar blocks because that’s a non-toxic tip I will definitely be using.

Let’s Wrap It Up

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about full-time nomad/RV life, there will always be a new excitement or thing to figure out right around the corner. 🤪

I hope you enjoyed this storytime and have an excellent rest of your week. Hopefully, you won’t have to deal with any stink bug problems!

Side note: I think when I tell people goodnight now, I will say, “don’t let the stink bugs bite.” That’d be hilarious.

Till next time, friend,

Kaitlin ☼

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