Breaking the stink bug cycle

StinkBug_outdoors So you had a stink bug invasion inside your house this past fall, winter and spring. Now that it's nearly summer, you're not seeing them anymore. Has the problem gone away? 

Hardly. If any adult stink bugs were inside your house this spring, they have: 1) died inside the house; and/or 2) found their way back outside to mate and lay eggs.

It's the second possibility you need to be concerned about. The population of stink bugs outside your home could multiply exponentially this summer. An adult female stink bug can lay 20-30 eggs in a mass and as many as 400 eggs in a season. Usually, there are two generations that survive in a season. So from that single stink bug, you could potentially have hundreds more later on.

So, even though stink bugs may be out of sight to you this summer where your house interior is concerned, don't let them be out of mind. By using the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap outdoors in July, August and September, you can break their breeding cycle and put a dent in the problem. Any number of stink bugs you can catch is significant.

Where can you purchase them? A complete list is coming soon on our web site... stay tuned!

June 16, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

RESCUE! offers both outdoor and indoor solution for stink bugs

SBTR-L For all of you who are seeing stink bugs on your toothbrush, or discovering dozens a day inside your home, help is on the way!

In addition to our forthcoming outdoor Stink Bug Trap, RESCUE!® unveiled an indoor solution for stink bugs last week at the 2011 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas.

Available in July 2011, the RESCUE!® Stink Bug Trap works outdoors to intercept adult stink bugs before they enter homes, as well as the younger generations that damage gardens and fruit trees. The trap lures multiple species of pest stink bugs with pheromone attractants that are odor-free to humans.

The reusable trap comes with a 2-week attractant supply and has a suggested retail price of $19.99. A 7-week attractant refill will be sold separately for around $9.99 retail.

When stink bugs venture inside homes to overwinter as summer turns to fall, RESCUE!® has a trap for that as well. With a light accessory that retails around $17.99, the same RESCUE!® Stink Bug Trap can be used indoors. The blue LED light attachment plugs into a wall outlet and illuminates the trap to draw stink bugs when they are active inside the home.

Once stink bugs are trapped either outdoors or indoors, they dehydrate inside the trap chamber for easy, odor-free disposal and reuse. 

The stink bug has been called a “terrorist bug”; its spread deemed a “national crisis”. It has received major media attention since September 2010 when its populations exploded in the U.S.. RESCUE!® is the first established lawn & garden product manufacturer to offer an answer to the growing problem.

Stink Bugs damage fruit, vegetables and farm crops – but when they invade the indoors in colder weather, they really raise a stink. With no effective natural enemies, stink bugs have been discovered in 33 states to this point – most recently in Michigan and Iowa.

Outdoor testing of the RESCUE!® Stink Bug Trap was conducted at the USDA’s 800-acre facility in Beltsville, MD. RESCUE!® designed both the trap and the controlled-release technology for the pheromones, enabling the attractants to last over a number of weeks and lure stink bugs from a 30-foot radius.

RESCUE!® became aware of this pest in 2002, as a result of working with university and federal researchers who saw a stink bug infestation as having potential to be a significant problem in the U.S.. When the stink bug population exploded in late summer/fall 2010, the R&D Department took its knowledge gained from these years of research to come up with a retail product to trap these pests.

Established in 1982, parent company Sterling International, Inc. sells its RESCUE!® traps and attractants for wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, flies, Japanese beetles and Oriental beetles through home improvement centers, hardware stores and lawn & garden retailers throughout the U.S. and beyond. The traps are manufactured in the USA at Sterling’s headquarters in Spokane, Washington.

 

 

May 17, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Where the stink bugs are...

Curious about which states have the worst stink bug problem?

This graphic maps out the states where stink bugs have been detected, the states where stink bugs are a nuisance, and the "red zone" states where stink bugs are at crazy, tear-your-hair-out, burn-down-the-house and hunt-down-the-person-who-brought-them-here levels.

Which level of infestation are you experiencing?

StinkBugChart
 

April 20, 2011 in New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

No fooling... RESCUE! expands product line to include a spray!

WHYS_WHY-Spray_300res Sterling International, long known for its RESCUE!® traps and attractants which mitigate insect pests, is branching out with a spray: W·H·Y® Spray for Wasp, Hornet & Yellowjacket Nests.

W·H·Y® Spray is a concentrated blast of natural plant oils that instantly confuses the insects and kills them within seconds. The spray coats, penetrates and destroys the nest. Once sprayed, the treated nest repels insects that try to return to their colony. While being tough on insects, W·H·Y® Spray is safe to use around people and pets. The product will be available in July of this year.

Why a spray, when RESCUE!® has built its reputation on insect traps?

“We were asked to create a wasp/hornet/yellowjacket spray by some of our major retail customers, since they saw RESCUE!® as the authority on these stinging insects,” said Jim Oxley, vice president of sales for Sterling International. “Since there is an abundance of wasp & hornet sprays on the market, it was important for us to innovate this category, make it more ‘green’, and not simply slap our brand name on a ‘me-too’ product.”

The natural plant oil formula was created by Sterling’s Research & Development Department and tested effectively on not only exposed paper wasp, bald-faced hornet and aerial yellowjacket nests, but also underground yellowjacket nests. Underground nests are especially dangerous because their size is not visible.

Established in 1982, Sterling International, Inc. sells its RESCUE!® products for wasps, hornets, yellowjackets, flies, Japanese beetles and Oriental beetles through home improvement centers, hardware stores and lawn & garden retailers throughout the U.S. and beyond.

 

 

 

April 1, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Serving our community

Thanks to this problem and this forthcoming solution, thousands of new readers have found our blog in the past few weeks. So, what many of you know of Sterling International/RESCUE! is that we are innovators in the insect trap category.

But there's another side to our business which is just as important: caring for others and serving our community. Since 2002, we have sent a group every month to serve lunch at Spokane's Union Gospel Mission.

Although we have many times -- for instance, right now -- when we're firing on all cylinders at the office and working hard to meet demand for our products, we've always taken the time to honor this commitment to the Mission.

Today was no different. We knew that with temperatures in the single digits, the lunch crowd would be numerous. So Marc in Engineering, Paul in Operations, Stephanie (me!) in Marketing, our President Rod, and Diedra in Accounting/Customer Service headed downtown to serve fajitas and other fare to the lunch crowd.

P1020217 

 

February 25, 2011 in Life at Sterling | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

A "Stink Bug-pocalypse?"

USDA StinkBugphoto All signs and news stories like this one are pointing to a stink bug plague of "biblical proportions" this year. Is this overly dramatic? Perhaps. But when your home -- your sanctuary -- is threatened by these smelly pests, it doesn't take that many to make you pull your hair out.

Some readers have said they are killing 40-50 a day in their homes. This gentleman claims to have killed over 12,000 of them in his Maryland farmhouse.  

What about you? We want to hear more about your stink bug situation where you live. Please share with us below... or better yet, on our Facebook page, where we occasionally post contests and give away prizes!

February 22, 2011 in Bugs in the news, Entomology, New RESCUE! Products, Stink Bugs | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

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