Before You Squish That Stink Bug, Try This Simple Two-Ingredient Mix Instead
Stink bugs can appear around windows, blinds, vents, and other openings as they search for protected places inside a house. Once one gets indoors, reaching for insecticide may seem like the obvious response, but a spray bottle filled with water and dish soap offers another way to deal with the bug already crawling across the room.
In a demonstration shared on YouTube, Doc keeps a bottle containing water and Dawn dish soap inside his house for this purpose. He uses two or three tablespoons of detergent rather than a small amount, then sprays the mixture straight onto each stink bug until its body is coated.
That last part matters. Spraying the mixture across a windowsill and waiting for stink bugs to cross it does not produce the same result.
The dish soap has to hit the stink bug
Dish soap and water work as a contact treatment in the demonstration, rather than a barrier applied around the house. The homeowner explains that he sprays the insect itself, coating its body with the mixture. He reports finding the bug dead within several minutes.
Later in the video, he finds a stink bug outside and demonstrates the method again. He sprays it with the Dawn mixture and watches its movement change before noting that the solution contains no insecticide.
That distinction may explain why homeowners report different results from similar homemade mixtures. One Reddit user dealing with stink bugs around windows had tried vinegar, dishwashing liquid, and water but said the insects did not seem bothered by it. The bugs also returned each day after being vacuumed from the windows.
Using dish soap as a perimeter spray is not what the YouTube demonstration proposes. The mixture has to contact the insect.
Reddit users are using similar mixtures
Dish soap also appears in homeowner discussions about stink bug infestations. In one Reddit thread, a commenter recommended keeping a spray bottle containing water, dish soap, and peppermint oil for bugs already inside the house. The same commenter suggested treating windows and doors with peppermint oil and sealing holes that could provide entry points.
Another homeowner described a simple light trap: a light-colored bowl filled with water placed beneath a desk lamp. According to the commenter, the trap collected 30 to 50 stink bugs during some nights. That user still pointed to sealing cracks as the longer-term answer.
The Reddit reports are homeowner experiences rather than controlled tests, and not every remedy gets the same results. One commenter recommends peppermint oil, another cinnamon oil and water, while others rely on vacuums or traps.
Killing one stink bug does not stop the next one
A bottle of dish soap and water addresses stink bugs that have made it indoors, but it does not create a lasting treatment around a window or door. The video makes that limitation clear: once the mixture dries on a surface, it does not act as a residual treatment against another stink bug that crosses the same spot.
Entry points remain the other half of the problem. One Reddit homeowner discovered gaps around old window casings and filled them with low-expansion foam intended for windows. The change cut the number of stink bugs, ladybugs, and wasps entering the house. Another traced the problem to a gap beside a sliding-door screen and saw the issue change after replacement windows and a screen with bristled trim closed that opening.
So the dish soap trick has a narrow job: keep it for the stink bug you can see. For bugs that keep appearing day after day, windows, screens, vents, siding gaps, and other openings may deserve more attention than another bottle of spray.