This photo–which appears to show just a jumble of plants–actually shows an invasive brown marmorated stink bug on the orchid spike in the photo. Since the new year, I have been having a mini invasion of sorts. They have never been a problem before for me, either in the house or the garden.
I know enough not to kill them. If they are somewhere where I can catch them and toss them outside, that’s what I do. Otherwise, they seem to die rather quickly on their own. Problem solved.
On the same day that I took this photo, I heard the unmistakable calls of grackles. Sure enough, the next morning, I saw one strutting around on my neighbor’s lawn.
That may not seem strange where you live, but they’re a full 3 weeks earlier than usual here. Is spring really on its way?
Gardendaze 
Ew! Not inside!
Tony,
Seriously?
We are over-run by these invasive critters here. At any given time I have Asian ladybird beetles, Western conifer seed bugs, and now these. And of course, that doesn’t even begin to count the house spiders, harvestmen, and all the house plant insects (or, as I occasionally refer to them, 60,000 of my little friends).
But you are not alone. Every time I lecture on house plants I am asked about bringing insects indoors–more specifically, how to avoid it. Frankly, I just don’t worry about it. I have accidentally brought in a bird. That concerns me. Everything else–not so much.
Apparently I am fairly laid back about this. I didn’t realize that the rest of the world was not.
Karla
Oh, no! I have heard about these stiny horrors but (knock wood 10 times) have not encountered one yet. They started appearing in our area about 2 or 3 years ago. The local agricultural service warns that if bugs found indoors are not removed, they will bring “friends” in and begin to multiply. Adult females lay 20-30 eggs, so a problem can get out of hand. Normally they come indoors in winter here to escape the cold.
Sorry, type: “stinky”, not “stiny”, lol
Now that DOES sound like a horror show: breeding stink bugs inside the house.
I am harboring a suspicious idea that mine may have come in with my live Christmas tree. I have never seen them before I had the tree and they are mostly in and around places where the tree was.
So since the tree is gone, I am hopeful that the problem is too. We’ll see.
Karla