RESCUE! Stink Bug Attractant is new, improved and now, patented!

Heavens to murgantiol -- a more powerful weapon against stink bugs is patented and on the market!

Sterling International, manufacturer of the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap, has received a U.S. patent (8,663,620 B2) for murgantiol as a stink bug attractant.

In testing, murgantiol was proven to have a synergistic effect on the original attractant used in the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap. By adding murgantiol, a proven attractant on its own, to the original RESCUE! attractant, their combined effectiveness is multiplied -- meaning, the product traps even more stink bugs!

RESCUE! Stink Bug Traps and Attractant refills with this new & improved formulation are already on store shelves, having been part of product shipments in 2013. 

Permit us to geek out on chemistry and entomology for a moment: Our investigative path focused on murgantiol as a known aggregation pheromone for the Harlequin bug. Sterling synthesized and tested the molecule on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) and found a strong "cross-attractancy". Methyl 2E,4E,6Z-decatrienoate, an aggregation pheromone for the brown-winged stink bug, was reported and further proven as a strong cross-attractant for both the BMSB and the green stink bug, Chinavia hilaris. We then tested the two molecules together and found a surprisingly strong synergistic effect for attracting Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs.

Unlike the original RESCUE! attractant which worked best during the late summer and fall, the new synergistic effect with murgantiol means a better-than-ever means of killing stink bugs in early spring, right after their emergence from overwintering sites. It continues to be extremely effective throughout the summer and fall seasons.

"Our new attractant is more powerful, but still within the active range of 30 feet," said Rod Schneidmiller, president and founder of Sterling International. "We develop our products to lure only the insects that are already in the consumer's yard."

Sterling's Director of Research, Dr. Qing-He Zhang, adds that a key window of time to use the RESCUE! Stink Bug Trap and Attractant outdoors is coming up in just a few weeks. "Once stink bugs start waking up from hibernation and heading outdoors in spring, it will be crucial to trap them starting April 1, before they start mating and multiplying," he says.