The Pitfalls of Painting

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Two years ago we spent a lot of the money we didn’t have and painted the house. Our “new” old house was built about 1880 and, in addition to the main body of the house, has porches galore, all wooden. Once in New Orleans, I saw a splendid wooden house that didn’t have a bit of paint left on it, it was truly romantic. But St. Matthews doesn’t have the same love of antiquities, and I felt like I owed it to the neighbors to keep up my end of the deal. Apparently, the light cream-colored paint we picked was a bad choice, as we now have annual invasions of brown marmorated stink bugs. When I got my corduroy jeans out for winter, they all had these unwanted pests inside the folded up pants.