Posted on 10/09/2018 1:15:07 PM PDT by ETL
Normally, when the weather begins to cool, stink bugs look for shelter. But in this case, the shorter days have likely promoted the critters to seek shelter in advance of cooler temperatures.
“This is the time of year when these bugs start to look forward to shelter and move into people’s homes,” Benson said, adding the brown marmorated stink bugs — which were first reported in the United States in the 1990s and in South Carolina roughly six or seven years ago — “aggregate in large numbers in sheltered locations.”
While it’s not an issue when these insects aggregate in a “tree hole,” Benson said, "in your house ... that’s another thing.”
Benson explained these creatures sneak into homes through gaps and other open spaces — such as tears in window screens or through an open door. He encouraged residents to make sure their homes are properly sealed with caulking, as stink bugs “attract one another.”
“The quicker you can kill them or sweep them [away] the better off you’ll be. Once they get into your house they are harder to control,” he warned.
While stink bugs aren’t typically harmful to pets or humans, they have been known to produce an allergic reaction in those “who are sensitive to the bugs’ odor,” according to Pennsylvania State University. These bugs also feed on fruits — specifically apples, figs, and peaches, among others.
To get rid of stink bugs, Benson warned not to crush the creatures, as this method will release the bugs’ odor which can stink up a room or home. Rather, Benson suggested removing the bugs manually, by capturing them and placing them outside. A pesticide can also kill off the pests if the population persists.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Get out the vacuum cleaner and suck them up every time you see them.
I’ve never seen them this heavy before.
Asylum seeking immigrant bugs, they need your support, your money, and your home!
” ...the brown marmorated stink bugs — which were first reported in the United States in the 1990s and in South Carolina roughly six or seven years ago....”
Looks like a job for diatomaceous earth.
We never had these pesky insects when I was growing up. Japanese bettles yes, but those weren’t annoying and they didn’t use supernatural powers to squeeze through holes and cracks 87298374982734987234 times smaller than their body
The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is considered an invasive species, or a pest of foreign origin, as it was introduced to the United States from Eastern Asia in the mid-1990s. It is also referred to as the yellow-brown or East Asian stink bug. The bug was first collected in the United States in Allentown, PA in the fall of 1996, but apparently not recognized or identified until September 2001. It quickly spread east to New Jersey, then Virginia by 2004, and now southward to the North Carolina border. Today, brown marmorated stink bugs are most prevalent in the mid-Atlanta region, but they have been identified in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The bug’s native range includes China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
The stink bug earned its name from its tendency to release an odor when disturbed or when crushed. Many other insects have these same characteristics, including some species of ants, beetles and other bugs. Read on to learn about how to get rid of stink bugs and stink bug
Stink bugs are described in several different ways. They are characterized as both “large, oval-shaped insects” and “shield-shaped insects.” Adult stink bugs can reach almost 2 cm in length. They are nearly as wide as they are long. Their legs extend from the sides, so this makes the adult bugs appear even larger. The brown marmorated stink bug is a brownish stink bug. It has lighter bands on the antennae and darker bands on the wings.
Adult stink bugs are good fliers and fold their wings on top of their body when they land. Nymphs do not have fully developed wings. The wings appear when the nymph becomes an adult. Fully developed wings are a way to identify adult stink bugs.
Immature stink bugs, called nymphs, are very tiny when they hatch from their eggs. Nymphs of the brown marmorated stink bug are yellow and red. As they grow, the yellow fades to white. They have bright red eyes during the nymph stage of their life cycle. The nymphs molt or shed their skin five times. Each time a stink bug nymph molts, it becomes larger. By the last molt, the nymphs are almost as large as adult stink bugs.
Homeowners often first detect stink bugs by their mass invasions in the fall. Finding large numbers of live or dead stink bugs is a telltale sign of an infestation. Stink bugs will turn up on sunny sides of homes where they warm themselves. Growers often detect an infestation by the damage they cause to their crops.
If an infestation has developed inside the home or building, contact a licensed stink bug control professional to evaluate and assess the severity problem and help to identify the access points for this invasive species.
To prevent stink bugs from entering homes and buildings, seal cracks around windows, doors, siding, utility pipes, behind chimneys, and underneath the wood fascia and other openings. Typical entry points include around door and window frames, electrical outlets, light switches, ceiling fans, skylights and ceiling light fixtures. Use a good quality silicone or silicone-latex caulk. Damaged screens on doors and windows should be repaired or replaced. Stink bugs are attracted to light, so change exterior lighting to less-attractive yellow bulbs or sodium vapor lights.
If you need to know how to get rid of stink bugs that have already entered a home or building, a vacuum cleaner can aid in the removal of live or dead stink bugs. The bag must be discarded to prevent odor from permeating the area. After stink bugs have entered the structure, it is best to isolate the affected room or rooms by sealing the bugs out. If an infestation has developed inside the home or building, a licensed pest control professional should be called to evaluate and assess the problem. A professional can also pre-treat for stink bugs in the late summer or fall just prior to bug congregation.
https://www.pestworld.org/pest-guide/occasional-invaders/stink-bugs/
Totally disgusting.
At this time of year, we have a lot of flies. They know what’s coming.
Chinese Stink Bugs Are Taking Over America
https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/4f71f5ca69beddd80c00000a-640-671.jpg
They’re just the stupidest, weirdest things. They plod along like some ancient dinosaur insect, don’t really care if you see them or shoo them, daring you to swat them. They’ve gotten a little cocky about that protective stink in my opinion. They’re a nightmare to get rid of once they’re burrowed in, inside a house. Under the baseboards, gaps in tongue and groove wall paneling, you name it, they get in the walls. I don’t have them in my house thank goodness, not yet at least, but my mom does. She vacuums every day, keeps a jar filled with vinegar and plops every one she finds in there. Still coming, cooler weather brings them in, and cooler weather brings the ones already in, out of the crevices in walls. They don’t stink unless you crush them, so don’t crush them. You’re regret it, such a memorable stench.
They're apparently threatening to invade North Carolina as well!
I’ve never known them to get inside of homes, but always saw them out in the yard. Disgusting insects. They’re rattley flight sound was enough to have me running.
It was accidentally introduced into the United States, with the first specimen being collected in September 1998.[3]
The brown marmorated stink bug is an agricultural pest[4] and by 2010–11 had become a season-long pest in U.S. orchards.[5]
It is now established in many parts of North America and has recently established itself in Europe and South America.[6]
Description
The adults are approximately 1.7 cm (0.67 in) long and about as wide, forming the shield shape characteristic of other stink bugs.
They are various shades of brown on both the top and undersides, with gray, off-white, black, copper, and bluish markings.
The term “marmorated” means variegated or veined like marble.[7]
Markings unique to this species include alternating light bands on the antennae and alternating dark bands on the thin outer edge of the abdomen.
The legs are brown with faint white mottling or banding.
The stink glands are located on the underside of the thorax, between the first and second pair of legs, and on the dorsal surface of the abdomen.[8]
Behavior
The brown marmorated stink bug is a sucking insect (like all Hemiptera or “true bugs”) that uses its proboscis to pierce the host plant to feed. This feeding results, in part, in the formation of dimpled or necrotic areas on the outer surface of fruits, leaf stippling, seed loss, and possible transmission of plant pathogens. It is an agricultural pest that can cause widespread damage to fruit and vegetable crops.
In Japan, it is a pest to soybean and fruit crops. In the U.S., the brown marmorated stink bug feeds, beginning in late May or early June, on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and other host plants including peaches, apples, green beans, soybeans, cherries, raspberries, and pears.
The brown marmorated stink bug is more likely to invade homes in the fall than others in the family.[9] The bug survives the winter as an adult by entering houses and structures when autumn evenings become colder, often in the thousands.
In one home, more than 26,000 stinkbugs were found overwintering.[10] Adults can live from several months to a year.[11][12] They enter under siding, into soffits, around window and door frames, chimneys, or any space which has openings big enough to fit through. Once inside the house, they go into a state of hibernation. They wait for winter to pass, but often the warmth inside the house causes them to become active, and they may fly clumsily around light fixtures. Two important vectors of this pest are the landscape ornamentals tree of heaven and princess tree.[13]
The odor from the stink bug is due to trans-2-decenal and trans-2-octenal.[14] The smell has been characterized as a “pungent odor that smells like coriander.”[5] The stink bug’s ability to emit an odor through holes in its abdomen is a defense mechanism meant to prevent it from being eaten by birds and lizards. However, simply handling the bug, injuring it, or attempting to move it can trigger it to release the odor.
During courtship, the male emits pheromones and vibrational signals to communicate with a female, which replies with her own vibrational signals, as in all stink bugs. The insects use the signals to recognize and locate each other. Vibrational signals of this species are noted for their low frequency, and one male signal type is much longer than any other previously described signals in stink bugs, although the significance of this is not yet clear.[15]
In North America
The brown marmorated stink bug was accidentally introduced into the United States from China or Japan. It is believed to have hitched a ride as a stowaway in packing crates or on various types of machinery. The first documented specimen was collected in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September, 1998.[4][16] Several Muhlenberg College students were reported to have seen these bugs as early as August of that same year.[9][17]
Between 2001 and 2010, 54 sightings were reported of these bugs at shipping ports in the United States.[18] However, stink bugs are not listed as reportable, meaning that they do not need to be reported and no action is required to remove the insect. This allowed the insect to enter the United States relatively easily, as they are able to survive long periods of time in hot or cold conditions.
Other reports have the brown marmorated stink bug documented as early as 2000 in New Jersey from a black light trap run by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Vegetable Integrated Pest Management program in Milford, New Jersey. [19]
In 2002, in New Jersey, it was found on plant material in Stewartsville, and was collected from black light traps in Phillipsburg and Little York. It was quickly documented and established in many counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, and New York on the eastern coast of the United States.
By 2009, this agricultural pest had reached Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, and Oregon.[20] In 2010 this pest was found in additional states including Indiana,[21] Michigan,[22] Minnesota,[23] and other states.[24]
As of November 2011, it had spread to 34 U.S. states[5] and by 2012 to 40, and showed an increase of 60% in total numbers over 2011.[25]
Their populations have also spread to southern Ontario and Quebec, Canada.[26][27]
Population increase
As of 2010, 17 states had been categorized as having established populations, and several other states along the eastern half of the United States were reported as having more than normal numbers of stink bugs.[28][29] Stink bug populations rise because the climate in the United States is ideal for their reproduction. In optimal conditions, an adult stink bug can develop within 35 to 45 days after hatching.[18]
Female stink bugs are capable of laying four hundred eggs in their lifetime.[30] The bug is also capable of producing at least one successful generation per year in all areas of the United States, no matter the climate. In warmer climates, multiple generations can occur annually, which can range from two generations in states such as Virginia to six generations in states such as California, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas.[18][31][32]
The addition of two more generations allowed the population to explode, leading to the establishment of several other populations in neighboring states. Currently, no environmental limiting factors are apparently slowing their distribution across North America.
They also are extremely mobile insects, capable of moving from host to host without causing disruption in their reproductive processes. Currently, populations are estimated to continue to grow and spread to other states and provinces, especially during unusual periods of warm weather.[citation needed]
Agricultural effects
The brown marmorated stink bug is a serious agricultural pest that has been readily causing damage to crops across the Eastern United States. They feed on a wide array of plants including apples, apricots, Asian pears, cherries, corn, grapes, lima beans, peaches, peppers, tomatoes, and soybeans.[33] This makes them extremely versatile, as they do not require a specific plant on which to feed.
To obtain their food, stink bugs use their stylets to pierce the plant tissue to extract the plant fluids.[34] In doing so, the plant loses necessary fluids, which can lead to deformation of seeds, destruction of seeds, destruction of fruiting structures, delayed plant maturation, and increased vulnerability to harmful pathogens.[34] While harvesting the plant’s juices, the stink bug injects saliva into the plant, creating a dimpling of the fruit’s surface and rotting of the material underneath.
The most common signs of stink bug damage are pitting and scarring of the fruit, leaf destruction, and a mealy texture to the harvested fruits and vegetables. In most case, the signs of stink bug damage makes the plant unsuitable for sale in the market, as the insides are usually rotten. In field crops such as corn and soybeans, the damage may not be as evident as the damage seen in fruit plants.
When stink bugs feed on corn, they go through the husk before eating the kernels, hiding the damage until the husks are removed during harvesting. The same damage is seen in soybeans, as the stink bug goes through the seed pods to acquire the juices of the seeds.
One visual cue of stink-bug damage to soybean crops is the “stay green” effect, where damaged soybean plants stay green late into season, while other plants in the field die off normally. One can usually tell that a field of crops is infected because stink bugs are known for the “edge effect”, in which they tend to infest crops 30-40 ft from the edge of the field. Farmers who suspect having stink bugs in their crops should contact their respective departments of agriculture for information on how to manage the infestation and possible ways to prevent future incidences.
Control
Control of stink bugs is a priority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has developed an artificial pheromone which can be used to bait traps.[citation needed] Because the bugs insert their probosces below the surface of fruit and then feed, some insecticides are ineffective; in addition, the bugs are mobile, and a new population may fly in after the resident population has been killed, making permanent removal nearly impossible. In the case of soybean infestations, spraying only the perimeter of a field may be the most effective method of preventing stinkbugs from damaging the crops.
However, even this method is limited, as new populations move back into the area, or the existing population simply moves to unaffected areas. Evidence also shows that stink bugs are developing a resistance to pyrethroid insecticides, a common chemical used to combat infestations.[18] Other insecticides currently in field trials that are showing promising results are oxamyl (96% mortality rate) and moribund (67% mortality rate).[18]
Many other commonly used insecticides are merely used to keep the insects out of fields, rather than actually killing them. The most successful method of protecting apples found thus far is the use of kaolin clay.[18] As of 2012, native predators such as wasps and birds were showing increased signs of feeding on the bugs as they adapt to the new food source.[25] Managing this pest species is challenging because few effective pesticides are labeled for use against them.
Similarity in appearance to native species
Easily confused with Brochymena and Euschistus, the best identification for adults is the white band on the antennae.
It is similar in appearance to other native species of shield bug, including Acrosternum, Euschistus, and Podisus, except that several of the abdominal segments protrude from beneath the wings and are alternatively banded with black and white (visible along the edge of the bug even when wings are folded) and a white stripe or band on the next to last (fourth) antennal segment.[35]
The adult rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax) is distinguishable from the brown marmorated stink bug by noting the straw color, the smaller size, and the elongated shape of the rice stink bug.[36]
Predators
In China, Trissolcus japonicus,[37] a parasitoid wasp species in the family Scelionidae, is a primary predator.[38] This species is not currently present in the U.S., but is undergoing study for possible introduction.[5]
The major problem with this idea is the possibility that japonicus will also become an invasive species with no native predators. Before introducing the Chinese wasp, scientists are trying to find natural predators of the stink bug already present in the United States.
To do so they have studied other species of parasitoid wasps native to the United States. They found that several other species of the parasitoid wasps attacked stink bug eggs in Virginia soybean fields.[39] Researchers have also experimented with different spider species as well as the Wheel bug.
Several spider species attacked both the eggs and adult stink bugs. Pill bugs eat stinkbug eggs.[40] The wheel bug, however, was the most voracious predator and attacked the eggs and adults more consistently.[41]
We’ve been seeing them here in CNY as well.
We have central vacuuming and to me the best advantage to that is the ability to suck up bugs of ANY kind from a safe distance.
They’ve been annoying us here in Pennsylvania for about a decade now.
A nuisance but they don’t really harm anything.
CNY = Central New York?
Yup.
Build the wall!
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