CLOSED: Shield shaped bug - friend or foe?

This bug is about the size of an adult male fingernail, it can fly, and it can crawl under rather small opening between screens and sash.

The markings are tan.

Another image. Sorry for the low-qual.

Looks like a squash bug to me. FOE! Stings squash, mellons, pumpkins, tomatoes etc. They suck the life out of the plant.

Squash bugs are longer and skinnier - this is a stinkbug of some kind, but it's hard to see. Maybe you can get a better picture?

You know I futzed and futzed, but my camera is neither new nor of a quality that I can get a decent image of it.

Probably more likely my skill level!

If it is a stink bug, wouldn't it . . . stink? Are stink bugs pests, or are they helpful in the garden?

Some are predators, some eat plants. Most don't stink unless you mess with them, i.e. pick them up or smush them. There is at least a dozen families of similar bugs, too.

There's a foreign species that is common in windows and attics around here - just for laughs, I looked it up and apparently they've been recorded out west now, too. It's a long shot, but take a look at this site. You can click around, maybe you'll find your bug there:

http://bugguide.net/node/view/9806

I think that your pictures are PERFECT! I have searched in vain for this b%#$@^&@! and you have him! He is all over my upstairs windows. I have found maybe 20 (so I exaggerate about the "all over" part) he walks on the curtains. I found two today and googled the bug and the first thing that I saw was your picture.
claypa lives in Pennsylvania (I do too) and the "attic and window" part is right on the money. so he's a stinkbug. What's he doing inside? Keeping warm?
PS I killed two today and I noticed no discernible odor,although I must admit,the last thing I would do would be to put him near my nose.

Looks like a "stinkbug" to me and they really "DO STINK.".! .Yuck! Just don't touch the little critters These Bugs will let you know why they are called stink.bugs.......or touch one and see if I am right!
Beejay
Central Mississippi

I have found over 15 in my computer room in between papers and in dusty areas. We have large potted plants in our living room, but I have only saw a few in the living room where the plants are but not near the plants more over by the couches closest to the window. Tho our whole front of our living room is a wall of windows. I was wonder what I can use to kill them n get rid of them!

A vacuum i.s as good as anything