Bug Size Inspiration

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May 9, 2011 by Angela Shupe | 1 Comment

No one has anything nice to say about stink bugs, unless you are Andy Strube. Sure they are still pests, but they are pests that inspired him to invent and start a business.

According to The Daily Journal, lost his job and was faced with the need to sell his home. He began renting a home and was faced with a serious problem: stink bugs. The house was completely infested, and he couldn’t seem to get rid of them. He started tinkering with a few ideas, and after a few tries he discovered something interesting.

He hung a coffee can covered in glue next to a lamp and that’s when he realized they were drawn to light.

He began to refine the idea and, using skills from his former job in aircraft maintenance, he designed and built different traps. Each version caught more bugs.

Strube continued to study the insects, keeping a colony in an aquarium and researching things that attracted them. He discovered they couldn’t resist a cocktail he created of peppers and squash and put the mixture in an interchangeable cartridge inside the trap. When the fluorescent light heats up the cartridge, it releases the odor that humans can barely smell, but the bugs long for.

Friends who visited the house saw the traps and asked for one. As they reported back their successes, a business was born.

The Strube Stink Bug Trap is $50; a replacement cartridge is $20.

Each cartridge will last about a month and is meant to catch hundreds of stinkbugs. The traps are being sold at hardware stores near his home and can be found online.