# Do Guineas eat the new, improved Stinkbugs?



## jkmlad (Jun 18, 2009)

Does anyone have experience with guineas eating the new oriental stinkbugs which seem to be taking over the East Coast? Our place is over-run with the bugs, and I have read conflicting reports on whether the guineas will eat them or not. Do any of you have first-hand experience?


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## mountainlaurel (Mar 5, 2010)

They have at my house. I have 10 of them and more than once a day last summer, they would come up on the back deck and eat the stinkbugs there. We have watched them numerous times. They also go thru my garden and ate those there. I still them but I have seen them eat them .

But I STILL have them in the house and the guineas are not coming in. They mess too much 
Are yours coming out on the house now that the weather is getting warmer. Every night they drive us crazy. I have 20 in the commode the other night before I flushed it. I also get perverse pleasure in throwing them into the woodstove.


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## jkmlad (Jun 18, 2009)

LOL! My hubby, also from WV, loves throwing them into the woodstove! I keep reading about the damage they will be doing in the near future by getting under our homes siding and popping it out. Seems they like to bunch together, and when the mound gets big enough, the siding will bulge out! Seems like every nice day I find more inside the house. Thanks for the advice... I will be shopping for guineas in the near future! Do you sell any?


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

To make sure they learn to eat them, put some in the brooder with them so they learn the bugs are food.


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

This needs bumping, since we're back in "stinkbugs invade the house" season. Anyone figured out how to diaper or paper-train a guinea yet?


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## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

Are these those giant stinkbugs that won't stay off of my curtains?


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## DYngbld (Jun 16, 2009)

I'll have to watch the guineas. They are bug eating machines, I might toss some in the guinea pen and see what they do with it.


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## Steve in PA (Nov 25, 2011)

I'm not much into chemicals, but the Ortho Home Defense stuff worked really good for me. I used it the year before last and had much less. Used it last year and I bet I had less than 10 in the house that I counted.

Now is when to spray it because they go in when it's cold and out when it's warm.


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

What do you mean "new"? They've been here for years. 
They tend to pick one house/barn/ section in an area to invade every year. Other than sealing up your house, 1cm by 1cm, you're screwed. Keep all windows tightly closed as soon as you see the first coming to a window or in the house. 
I can't kill them in any way other than using a cup of soapy water. The smell is horrid and I'm the only person I know who can smell them. 

I haven't seen any of my birds; ducks, chickens, guineas, eating stink bugs. They may try one if they don't know what they are, but as soon as the bug farts or gets smooshed, the bird goes "yuk!!" and they avoid them.


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## ODINSWORN (Jun 8, 2010)

In the vein of perversely pleasurable disposal methods for bugs, I am reminded of something that was fun from my childhood. On occasions that we were home alone, my brother and I used to collect whichever insect pests were in abundance in an empty plastic container, an old lemonade powder jug is what I remember the most vividly. Anyway, when we had a good number of bugs, we would light a single fire cracker from those black cat style strings of fire crackers, drop it in the jar and give it a single twist. We had the good sense to drop it and run away, but it never did more than pop the top, but the carnage inside was quite satisfying to us. Much flashier than soapy water or a wood stove. :happy2: Much less efficient granted, but I think sometimes the therapy of a method of vermin disposal has value of its own. My favorite method of disposing of the flies that try to winter in the house is to hunt them with a rubber band gun.

Are you talking about the asian lady bird beetles? Those things stink something awful.


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## AtomicFarmer (Sep 16, 2012)

We just got our first guinneas this summer, and that's a big reason we got them. We've been told that they eat ticks and stinkbugs well enough that they really control their populations. The jury is still out on how effective they are, but we have come to love the guinneas. They're our barnyard comic relief.


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

secuono said:


> What do you mean "new"? They've been here for years.
> They tend to pick one house/barn/ section in an area to invade every year. Other than sealing up your house, 1cm by 1cm, you're screwed. Keep all windows tightly closed as soon as you see the first coming to a window or in the house.
> I can't kill them in any way other than using a cup of soapy water. The smell is horrid and I'm the only person I know who can smell them.
> 
> I haven't seen any of my birds; ducks, chickens, guineas, eating stink bugs. They may try one if they don't know what they are, but as soon as the bug farts or gets smooshed, the bird goes "yuk!!" and they avoid them.


Ooooh, you're in my area, so you know what the problem is like. My mother's just over Culpeper-Madison border on the Madison side, and her stinkbugs are AWFUL this year. We had them horribly badly last year at the cabin we were renting in Madison . . . you had to shake out clothes that had been on hangers before wearing them, or you risked having a stinkbug crawl out during church. This year, we're on our new place in Orange, and miraculously, I think the only stinkbugs we have are the few that came over in our moving boxes . . . horrid little things, though . . . I absolutely hate them, and am INCREDIBLY happy not to have to deal with so many now. I'm not trusting that they won't get down here, though, so if something can be found that eats them, it would be wonderful . . .


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Now, are we talking asian beetles (pseudo-lady-bugs) or actual stinkbugs (shield-shaped bugs with sharp edges)?


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## AtomicFarmer (Sep 16, 2012)

Brown marmorated stink bugs are what I was talking about. They've taken SW PA by storm for the past couple years.


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

Yeah, it's the shieldbug stinkbugs (these things: Pentatomidae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). They don't actually _do_ anything in the house other than crawl all over and into everything and occasionally buzz into your head, but who wants to have to deal with that? They can also be rather nasty on crops, if I remember correctly. We didn't have a garden last year, so we weren't worried about that. We were just annoyed having them EVERYWHERE. They were worse than the camelback crickets. At least chickens will eat those stupid crickets.


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## CaliannG (Apr 29, 2005)

Huh, that's what those things are! I have seen the hatched eggs and groups of young, on cactus, milkweed, and vetch out here. Didn't know what they were. Figured they were just one of the many pasture bugs. (Have only seen them very, very rarely in the house)

I've seen the geckos eat them. I have a pretty high population of large, healthy, "well-conditioned" geckos out here that have their little territories set up. 

Hmmm, so guineas eat them? Might be a good reason to get started on re-doing the barn coop (to keep guineas inside for the 6 weeks to let them know where "home" is), and relieving a friend of mine of her severe excess of guineas. (She had an amazing hatch rate this season and is over run)


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