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Stink Bugs
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Our office has been getting a lot of calls about stink bugs 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, so this column addresses stink bugs.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 brown
marmorated stink bugs.
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. MORE |
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