Posted on 05/22/2011 3:10:09 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
An insect with a voracious appetite, no domestic natural predators and a taste for everything from apples to lima beans has caused millions of dollars in crop damage and may just be getting started.
The brown marmorated stink bug, a three-quarter-inch invader native to Asia, is believed to have been brought first to the Allentown, Pa., area in 1998. The bug began appearing in mid-Atlantic orchards in 2003-04 and exploded in number last year.
This spring, stink bugs have been seen in 33 states, including every one east of the Mississippi River and as far west as California, Oregon and Washington.
"All that we do know for certain is that a tremendously large population went into overwintering in fall 2010. So, if they survived, there could be a very large population emerging in the spring," said Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist at the U.S. Agriculture Department's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville W.Va.
Growers in the mid-Atlantic region have reported the worst problems, and the apple industry appears hit hardest, with $37 million in damage to growers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, according to the U.S. Apple Association. That's about 18 percent of the Mid-Atlantic crop.
Mark Seetin, the association's director of regulatory and industry affairs, called it the worst threat to farmers he's see in his 40 years in agriculture.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
No natural predators.
Only Monitor 4 spray, delivered in copious amounts by land, sea, and air, will effect them.
It is a neurotoxin.
It kills EVERYTHING in it’s path.
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
The key for gardeners is to recognize the infants and juveniles of the stink bug, which will cluster together for some time before they mature. They can be black & white or grey, or other colors, and they look nothing like the adults. They are easier to kill when very young.
Gardeners should look them up and recognize all stages, in order to protect the bounty.
IMO, they look like panel van next to a Volkswagen alongside the Japanese beetle. Their main talent in a residential as opposed to an agricultural setting is utter lack of evasive skill, they sit there quite docile waiting to be crushed.
They’re everywhere. arrrggggggggggghhhhhhh
I, for one, welcome our new stink bug masters. And if you need to know the names of those trying to exterminate you I can probably help with that. just saying....
Yep The ones around here are mostly green but have seen the grayish to browns around also.
We have HUNDREDS of these guys in our house. I counted more than 70 around the kitchen window one day. That’s 70 at a single counting. What’s up with Japan? Kudzu, Snakehead fish, Chestnut blight, Japanese beetles, and now this?
I have a garden in the south and this is the first I’ve heard of them. I live in Georgia.
Thanks, long but good video - I wondered why he did not tape the light to the outside bottom but it seems to work well the way he did it.
They have been around the south for many years. You are very lucky not to have them.
They must taste bad too because the chickens and ducks won’t even eat them.
Why? What could possibly go wrong? </s>
But sounds like they're working their way west, just like the jap beetle has.
The traps attract more to your garden. The only way I've seen them effective is where you can encircle your garden area by placing them several yards outside of it. They are yucky to clean, change, and keep up with.
I remember the green stink bug since I was a kid but not this one. Anything that would work in the midwest to eradicate both of these pests would be a good thing. In the east they have introduced a parasitic fly that feeds on the female but not before she's laid some eggs.
The U of MI has been working on a virus that will spread from adult to adult, but that was a few years back, and I haven't heard of anything since.
The only pesticide that really works are those in the neocontinoid class which have residual action, even after a rain, but it kills bees and wasps. I sprayed with Sevin, and it washed right off the next rain, used the max recommended by gardeners, and didn't seem to phase the pests.
Milky spore doesn't work well in the midwest.
One thing my neighbor used that might work on the stink bugs, too, is food grade diatomaceous earth, wet down the plants and sprinkle. It's gritty, and they don't like it. Don't know if it would be cost effective for a large growing operation or not.
I understand that the Democrats are going to offer the stink bug amnesty and instate college tuition.
Besides losing our massive edge in production and manufacturing this is but another stab in the back from China and the free traders and the USA second or third or fourthers that have influence in our government.
These critters represent a plague on us that those who like the Commies more than the USA have foisted upon us. My GOP Congressman that I once supported heavily has never opposed a free trade pact. Should that bother me? But it does.
These bugs are the devil. They get into everything.
I usually don’t see them in numbers until Sept. or so, then they arrive and do damage to my tomatoes on the vine. Nasty holes in the fruit that at first I thought were caused by birds.
we had stink bugs prior to 1998.
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