The Two-Ingredient Repellent TikTok Swears By To Keep Stink Bugs Out Of The House

You might find a few stink bugs in your home throughout the year, but when the temperatures begin to drop outside, these hard-shelled insects start looking for warm spaces to spend the winter. Once they are in the house they can be hard to control, and even worse, you may find them in large numbers. You certainly cannot step on stink bugs – they have this name for a reason! Unfortunately, most pest control products strong enough to kill stink bugs are probably not safe to use around children or pets. Before you are faced with a hoard of these stinky creatures, one TikToker suggests using Pine-Sol diluted with water to keep them from crossing your threshold.

Before you start fighting a battle against stink bugs, you should be sure you can identify your enemy. Stink bugs are triangle-shaped, with the broad side near the head tapering down to a point at the back. These pests vary in size depending on species, but some are up to three-fourths of an inch long. Their brownish shell makes them resemble a metal shield. Now that we know what we are fighting against, let's discuss a way to keep them out of your house.

TikToker @mistyharston recommends keeping stink bugs out of the house using different concentrations of Original Pine-Sol. First, it's important to note that you cannot skimp on the ingredients. The chemical that repels stink bugs is pine oil, the active ingredient in Pine-Sol. While there are cheaper pine-smelling ingredients in the cleaning aisle, this TikToker states only products that contain real pine oil are effective.

Because Pine-Sol has such a strong smell, she dilutes the products in two ways — one to use inside and a stronger scent for outside. The measurements are not exact in this process, but for the indoor solution, she appears to mix about a pint of tap water with about 3 tablespoons of Pine-Sol. For the stronger scented outdoor spray, she mixes between 50% and 80% Pine-Sol with water in another spray bottle. Both solutions are sprayed around the interior and exterior of windows and doors, offering the benefit of cleaning and disinfecting while trying to keep stink bugs out.