Stink Bug Control in Illinois

What's Driving Stink Bug Control Demand in Illinois

Brown marmorated stink bug has been established in Illinois considerably longer than in a lot of Midwest and Western states, having spread into the region in the years following its initial East Coast detection and now overwintering inside homes across northern Illinois in the same large fall gatherings that first made the species notorious further east. That longer establishment period means Illinois homeowners, especially in the Chicago area and northern Illinois generally, deal with a more mature, larger stink bug population than states where the species only arrived within the last several years, gathering on sun warmed exterior walls each fall before pushing into wall voids and attics to overwinter, similar in pattern to the boxelder bugs and Asian lady beetles that do the same thing across Illinois every autumn. That overlap of three separate fall invading species all following the same sunny wall, overwinter indoors pattern is part of why fall pest calls in Illinois often involve sorting out which of several similar looking invaders a homeowner is actually dealing with.

Licensing in Illinois: Illinois is unusual in that structural pest control is regulated by the Illinois Department of Public Health rather than an agriculture department, covering general pest work, termite and wood destroying organism treatment, and fumigation. A business must employ at least one Certified Technician to hold a license, and companies working only with general use pesticides need at least one employee who has passed the department's General Standards Examination, while more specialized categories such as termite work require additional category specific certification. Business licenses require a 250 dollar fee plus proof of insurance and expire every December 31. Individual technician certificates last three years and require a minimum of nine classroom hours of department approved training within that period. Nuisance wildlife removal is licensed separately from structural pest control: trapping and relocating animals such as raccoons or squirrels falls under the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which issues Nuisance Wildlife Control Permits, including a commercial Class A permit for operators who charge a fee for the work.