Can you use hedge apples as a insect repellent?

Last Friday, I bought some HedgeApples aka spider balls. So far, they have been sitting on my kitchen table. Most of my stink bugs stay in the kitchen as that is where my front door opens into. Before this, I had about 4 or 5 stinkbugs in the kitchen. Except for one on the ceiling I have not seen another stinkbug. So I am thinking that the hedgeApples did have something to do with repelling them. I live in PA.