Keeping stink bugs outside
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Rather than responding to a single question, this week's column addresses stink bugs. Our office has been getting a lot of calls about them, and they have even made the evening news. I have also been seeing a lot of stink bugs as I scout for woody ornamental insect and disease problems on a weekly basis.
First, not all stink bugs are "bad." Many of the stink bugs I've been seeing are spined soldier bugs. These are good bugs that are important predators of caterpillars, sawfly larvae and beetle larvae. Unfortunately, they look very much like the brown marmorated stink bugs that invade our homes in late summer, looking for a cozy place to spend the winter.
Both have the "shield shape" characteristic of true bugs in the order Hemiptera. Both are various shades of brown, with light and dark bands alternating on their antennae. Both have alternating light and dark bands along the edges of their wings at the rear of their bodies. But spined soldier bugs also have alternating bands of light and dark on their legs and prominent spines on their "shoulders" (pronotum). They are slightly smaller than stink bugs.
The brown marmorated stink bug was accidentally introduced into eastern Pennsylvania in the late 1990s and has been reported in 37 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties to date, including Allegheny County. It is likely that they can be found in all of Pennsylvania. Stink bugs are native to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, where they are considered important pests of fruits, vegetables and soybeans.
Like Asian multicolored lady beetles and boxelder bugs, brown marmorated stink bugs like to hibernate in our houses for the winter. They do not eat fabric or furniture and are not known to bite people or pets. They do cause concern when large numbers of them congregate on the sunny sides of houses in the fall, looking for a way in. They repeat this behavior in reverse in the spring (or even a warm, sunny day in winter), congregating on interior walls, looking for a way out. They emit an unpleasant odor when crushed or disturbed (hence the name "stink bug"). Researchers believe there is one generation of brown marmorated stink bugs a year in Pennsylvania's climate.
First Published September 18, 2010 12:00 am
