The Stowaways

Starting when we were at Dreher Island State Park in South Carolina, and then again in Florida, we noticed we were having a problem with some uninvited house guests. Whenever the outside temperature cooled off and we would run the heat pump or furnace, we would find Stinkbugs inside the Dolphin - crawling on the ceiling and buzzing around lights.

Piecing things together (and doing a little Google research on Stinkbug behavior), we realized we must have picked up these "guests" in Tennessee, probably at Cove Lake State Park. When we were at that campground and the outside temperature dropped, these little buggers "checked in" to a warmer place - our motor home.

So here we are, just outside Big Bend National Park in Texas, and we're still finding these Tennessee natives in the Dolphin. Our method for dealing with them has been "catch and release", since killing a Stinkbug by physical means is... well, they're called Stinkbugs for a reason. Fortunately they are slow-moving, so it's easy enough to grab them by hand, open the door, and toss them into the great outdoors.

Consuelo and I have giggled that Naturalists and Biologists would be horrified that we are responsible for the spread of Stinkbugs from Tennessee to Florida to Texas... a probably beyond, as we keep finding at least one every day.