Needless to say, they never really went away.
They merely went outside to do what stink bugs do.
Mostly, make more stink bugs.
Turns out the summer-in-a-terrarium weather may yield a bumper crop of little stinkers.
And now, after months of fun in the sun, mom, dad and the kids are coming home.
To our homes.
The pests started returning indoors to hibernate on September 10, according to "entomologists at Penn State" cited in a press release from a PR firm called gardenmediagroup.com.
I'm startled that anyone -- particularly, any stink bug -- could calculate such a date.
But the account in the same release about a woman who "had to call for help" when "thousands of stink bugs" attempted to invade her home was even more shocking.
There is some good news: Stink bugs don't bite people.
They're too busy chewing up our crops.