Stink bugs are primarily outside plant pests that feed on various crops and trees. But when the weather cools in the fall, stink bugs leave their food plants and start looking for a sheltered place, like your home, to spend the winter. One in particular, the brown marmorated stink bug, has become a major pest in the Northeast. This bug is shield-shaped, about 1/2-inch long, and a marbled brownish-gray in color with black and white banded legs and antennae. Stink bugs enter a house through tiny openings around the foundation, around windows, doors, utility lines, openings near the roofline, or any other opening they can find. Once inside, they will hide in cracks and crevices in places such as around window and door trim, behind baseboards, in wall or ceiling voids, and around ceiling lights. They can become active again on warm winter days. In the spring, there will be an emergence of the bugs inside trying to get back outside. Stink bugs don’t bite or sting, or reproduce indoors but they can give off an odor if irritated or squashed. The odor is one factor that may limit the use of vacuuming as a control method. Pest-proofing or sealing openings that they use to get inside is a good way to keep them out, but if they get in, call Colonial Pest for efficient stink bug removal.