Over the past several months my house has been invaded by stinkbugs – or to be scientifically (politically?) correct - Halyomorpha halys.  I thought I had done something wrong to warrant this intrusion into my otherwise peaceful South Jersey bliss from these really weird looking bugs.  Come to find out that these little critters hopped aboard some outgoing freight from Asia in the early 1990′s and have been spreading their stink from South Jersey through Pennsylvania and all the way to the great Pacific Northwest ever since.  And by the way, if you have ever squished one, you know where they got their name from – Phewwww!!!!

Now if you have either been plagued with these little stinkers or have customers who may be dealing with them I have some good news.  Turns out that the only known way to fight them is to keep them out of your house.  And the only way to keep them out of your house is to spread diatumaceous earth (DE) around the entry points to the house.  Which by the way, is what DE and stinkbugs have in common. 

When I read that, I not only became glad that there was something I could do to stop these little buggers from just showing up, and that is exactly what they do – weird! – but what a good idea for our members to boost their sales to their customers and perhaps new customers as well.  What a great service that would be to let your customers know that if they have been dealing with the great stinkbug invasion of 2010 you can help – sell them some DE.