Asian Stink Bugs – The Real Immigration Problem In America

Stink Bug Facts

If you thought that illegal immigrants crossing the border into the United States from Mexico was a real threat to this country, then you haven’t spent too much time in the company of the Asian stink bug, have you?

The Asian stink bug, also known as the brown marmorated stink bug, or just “stink bug” for short, is a relatively new species here in the United States. I say “new”, not because it is new in terms of having evolved from another species recently, but “new” in the sense that that these unwelcome visitors to our country have not only freeloaded their way into this country but have overstayed their welcome by a long shot – at this point, at least a decade or two.

The Asian stink bug, as the name implies, is an indigenous insect species that is native to the Asian subcontinent. For thousands of years, they have been confined to the the southeast Asian countries of Japan, the Koreas, and China. That means that for millions of years, up until barely a couple of decades ago, the western hemisphere was completely free and devoid of this species of bug.

But a funny thing happened to change all of that. Nobody knows exactly when or how stink bugs came to the United States. But what we do know is that the very first ever officially documented sighting of a member of this species was in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in September of 1998. How these little buggers got here remains a mystery to this day, although various theories abound.

The most popular and the most widely accepted theories are that either a handful of stink bugs must have accidentally gotten into somebody’s luggage that was brought overseas on an airplane from Asia, or a handful of stink bugs must have accidentally been packaged into a crate of commercial products being imported into the United States from one of these Asian countries on a freight ship.

In either case, these stowaways have now been introduced into an alien habitat (alien to them). Funny thing is, you might expect that these bugs ought to have perished, as they are not in their indigenous habitat. The climate is different here in the west. The type of food available to them might be different. Their predators and prey may be different as well. You would think that the stink bugs would have a hard time adjusting to life here in the west (don’t all people who immigrate to the United States require a period of adjustment during which life is a little bit awkward until they get acclimated to life here)?

But such was not the case. Nobody knows exactly how many stink bugs were brought over here during that one fateful flight or boat ride from overseas. But one thing we do know is that if you fast forward 15 years or so until the present day, you will find that there are now millions of stink bugs living in the United States, and their population has multiplied and spread out at an alarming rate. At least 38 states in the North American continent have documented the presence of stink bugs within their territorial borders.

Are stink bugs harmful to humans?

The question arises as to whether or not stink bugs pose any type of threat to human beings, to indigenous animals, or to the environment, now that they are here in the west. And the answer to that is not exactly.

By not exactly, I mean to say that stink bugs aren’t harmful to humans or to animals. They don’t bite. They don’t want to suck your blood. They don’t even sting. In fact, if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. They have no beef to pick with animals or humans. They aren’t exactly bitter about their immigrant status here. They seem to be getting along just fine.

The stink bug problem, at least as far as the average American household is concerned, is really more of a nuisance than anything. If you are scared of bugs, if they gross you out, or annoy you, then of course stink bugs are not exactly the most pleasant species of bugs to look at. They look like reptile-insect hybrids rather than plain old bugs. Plus, if you have ever tried to squash or shoo away a stink bug before, then you no doubt already know that these critters have a unique self-defense mechanism: They unleash a foul odor whenever they are frightened, not unlike how skunks do.

Threat To Agriculture

As is the case with the immigration problem in America, the federal government is, believe it or not, also monitoring the stink bug situation very careful. In fact, the federal government has made it their business to deal with the stink bug crisis in the United States.

Why?

Because there is one area of grave concern insofar as these bugs are concerned: They have found to be a threat to the agricultural industry. You see, stink bugs are herbivores. They feed on fruits and vegetables. So if you are a farmer growing crops of most any type of produce, then you are faced with the threat of a potential stink bug infestation. If left unchecked and undeterred, your crops will succumb to these bugs, as they swarm in and feed on it.

They will pierce the skin of a fruit or a vegetable and inject it with their saliva, and suck up the juice from within, and then fly away once they are satiated. There is nothing worse than having to eat a piece of fruit that has been consumed by a stink bug! They have already cost an untold amount of monetary damage to agricultural crops in the United States.

Therefore, the US Food And Drug Administration (USFDA) has already made it their business to combat this threat. How is that for putting your hard earned tax dollars to work? The agency has sent out people into the field to study these bugs, to understand what makes them tick, to find out how their natural predators are, what are their vulnerabilities, and more.

Should I kill them with pesticides?

Using pesticides to combat them is always a last resort, due to the harm they can cause to plants, animals, and even to humans. (There is no such thing as a 100% safe pesticide. There is always a trade off.) There are many other ways to deal with the problem. For example, the government is looking for ways to stunt their population growth by introducing a species of wasp into the habitats where stink bugs dwell. These wasps are known to eat unborn stink bug eggs (but won’t attack an already born stink bug). The more they can eat, the fewer stink bugs will be born.

Should I squash them?

As for just plain old killing them, you could of course do that. The only problem is that the nefarious odor that they emanate can get on your skin, get in your clothes, in your carpeting, in your walls, and in your furniture. And I’m sure you don’t want that.

Even though they say that their odor smells like the same odor as fresh cilantro (hmm… yummy cilantro), I’m sure the association between stink bugs and cilantro is not one that you would care to leave an indelible imprint of in your mind.

Fortunately, there are many other ways how to kill stink bugs, how to prevent them from invading your home, and how to deter them from destroying your crops (or your own garden, for that matter).

Stink bugs are here to stay and will likely be with us for the foreseeable future. So if the Asian stink bug immigration problem has truly become the crisis that it appears to be, then perhaps we should ask our elected officials to make this into a campaign issue!

Where Do Stink Bugs Come From?

Stink Bug Facts

If you have wondered where do stink bugs come from, you are not alone.  Even though much research has been to learn about this particular species of insect over the past decade or so, there is still much more that remains to be explored. If you are reading this article from a computer in North America, then in case you are wondering, stink bugs are not native to the western hemisphere at all. To make a long story short, stink bugs are natives of southeastern Asia. For the millions of years that this species of insect has been roaming the earth, it has always been confined to that particular geographic region of the world.

In fact, most people living in the west may not even realize this, but stink bugs have only been present in North America for about a decade or so! Indeed, after millions of years of natural evolution taking its course, stink bugs, which were once indigenous to a far away, remote part of the planet, now have been introduced into a foreign environment, throwing a monkey wrench into the ecosystem. And now we in the west are having to contend with a stink bug population that has experienced explosive growth. Their numbers have been growing at an alarmingly exponential rate each and every single year over the past decade through reproduction.

So now that we know where stink bugs come from, the question arises as to how exactly they got here in the first place? If they isolated to the Asian subcontinent since the beginning of time, how did they suddenly appear here in the western world, thousands of miles away? Surely they did not fly here! Surely they did not migrate here like some animals do, in search of food. What event transpired that brought them here seemingly overnight?

While nobody knows for sure exactly how and when the first stink bug arrived here in the western hemisphere, what is known is that the first officially reported and documented sighting of a species of stink bug was in Allentown, Pennsylvania in the year 1998. There are various theories abound as to how the first stink bugs might have come here. One theory is that a number of them may have been brought here inadvertently as stowaways aboard a cargo ship, having been brought aboard unnoticed. It is also possible that they were somehow brought into the United States by having been concealed inside an oblivious passenger’s luggage aboard an international flight from China, Japan, Taiwan, or the Koreas.

Whatever the case may be, scientists, and the United States Department of Agriculture have a vested interest in learning as much as they can about the stink bug epidemic in the United States. In just the span of a mere decade and a half, the stink bug population has spread to well over 38 states.

While stink bugs are typically not deemed to be harmful to humans or to any other forms of life for that matter, there is one major problem that they pose: They are a race of herbivores. Therefore, they feed on fruits and vegetation found in the wild. In the United States, stink bugs have accounted for a substantial loss of revenue to the agricultural industry due to the fact that stink bugs will feed on crops in the wild. Therefore, the government is actively looking for a solution to the stink bug problem.

How have these critters managed to survive in a non-native environment? The answer is simply that stink bugs have no known predators in the food chain. There are no other animals or insects that feed on living stink bugs…. The only exception to this is that there are certain species of wasps that are known to feed on the unhatched eggs of stink bugs.

And as far as adaptation to the climate is concerned, stink bugs are notorious for seeking shelter in warm indoor spaces during the autumn and winter months. Those that are not able to seek shelter will enter a state of hibernation to get them through the cold winters.

While they do not reproduce indoors, they are capable of reproducing at an alarming rate. The average female stink bug is known to produce as many as 400 fertilized eggs during its lifetime, that lifetime typically not exceeding a year at most.

The average lifespan of stink bugs varies from a few days, weeks, to even several months, depending on how well they are able to adapt to the climate and environmental factors.

So it is no longer a question of where do stink bugs come from, but how can we deal with them now that they are here?

Do Stink Bugs Bite?

Stink Bug Facts

Do stink bugs bite? The way these critters look, one could easily imagine that they do. They look like miniature reptiles due the “shield-like” appearance of their upper body that appears to have the same texture as that of a reptile. They possess two large antennae and long legs, and if you have ever seen the underbelly of one of these creatures, it might just creep out anyone who possesses even a mild case of entomophobia (the fear of insects). If you were to see one of these bugs, you might not hold it past them that they are capable of biting people or animals.

But the fact of the matter is that stink bugs do not make it a point to bite humans or animals. They are not such that they are wont to suck the blood of any particular person or animal. They are not even carnivorous. (Stink bugs are actually vegetarians. They feed primarily off of fruits and vegetables.)

Stink bugs do possess a proboscis (a needle-like appendage that protrudes from the front of an insect) that serves as their mouths. The proboscis is used for piercing the skin of their food, be it an apple, a pear, a grape, or any other type of fruit for example, and then sucking the juice out of the fruit in order to consume it.

But that is all that the proboscis is used for. It is used for piercing food in order to consume it. It is not used in order to bite human beings or animals. There is a however a great deal of conflicting information on the the Internet as to whether or not stink bugs do actually bite or not.

On one hand, you will find that there are many people posting in the discussion forums online that they swear by the fact that stink bugs can and do bite, because they supposedly have actually been bitten by one (or at least by what they thought was a stink bug).

On the other hand, research generally indicates that stink bugs do not, simply because they do not possess the physical capability to do so. This assertion is also supported by the fact in nature, we observe that stink bugs rely on the emanation of a repulsive stench as their self-defense mechanism against predators. There has been no evidence to indicate that stink bugs bite their predators in self-defense or that they bite any other would-be prey (they have none, since they are herbivorous creatures). Instead, they rely solely on this stench in order to drive away potential threats. (Hence, the name “stink” bug.)

Of course, if you you do manage to come into close contact with a stink bug and trap it in a corner where it is unable to flee and fly away, and you were to harass it to the point where even after releasing its trademark odor, you stand your ground firm and continue to threaten it, it may very well reflexively react and seek to bite you as a last resort in order to attempt to drive you away.

If you do suspect that you have been bitten by a stink bug, you should seek to treat it right away. You will know that you have been bitten by a stink bug if you start to feel irritation on the part of the skin where the stink bug had come in contact with you and the area starts to swell. While a stink bug bite may not be life threatening, it is something that requires prompt attention, as any other insect bite would.

Do stink bugs bite? Not unless their foul odor is not driving away their perceived threat and they are being physically threatened. There are many easy ways to thwart the threat of stink bugs and kill them without ever feeling that you were under any threat of being bit. You can use a vacuum to suck them up, you can set up stink bug traps, and you can safeguard your home against the invasion of stink bugs from the outside. Learn some tips on stink bug control.

Are Stink Bugs Poisonous?

Stink Bug Facts

Among the numerous fears that entomophobics (people who have a fear of insects) harbor toward insects is that they might bite, and that if they bite, their bite might in fact be poisonous to some degree, whether it results in a minor irritation, or worse it might be debilitating, or in the worst case it may inevitably prove to be fatal. Unfortunately, stink bugs are also lumped together into the category of such frighteningly creepy insects that are believed to bite humans and that they might be poisonous.

The good news is that stink bugs are not poisonous at all. In fact, stink bugs are not even known to bite human beings, not even when they feel threatened. What stink bugs do actually do, however, when they are attacked or when they feel threatened, is release a pungent odor which is noxious enough to drive away and repel most any predator.

So could it be said that this odor that stink bugs release might be poisonous? The good news is that it is not the case. The foul stench that stink bugs release isn’t such that exposure to it might irritate your respiratory system or poison you if inhaled. At worst, it is merely an annoying odor that is strong enough to cause you to step away from the bug and react with repulsion, this giving the stink bug enough time to get away.

In fact, generally speaking, stink bugs are not harmful to human beings in any way… at least not physically to humans. (They cause harm to humans in other ways indirectly…financially for example. For example, they can wreak financial havoc on a farmer’s crop production when it is infested by a swarm of stink bugs that have to come to feed off of the fruits the farmer is growing.) Otherwise, stink bugs don’t pose any sort of direct physical threat to human beings themselves. They sure may not exactly be the most attractive insects that anyone has ever laid eyes on (but then again, is there any?), given their reptilian visage. And without a doubt nobody actually likes having them around. And there are many people feel downright threatened and intimidated by their mere presence in a room.

But the fact of the matter is that they are in fact benign and harmless. If you see one crawling on the wall somewhere in your house, you need not worry. They are not going to bother you. They are not wont to crawl on people. They are not likely to go fly buzzing around your head aimlessly (although they do make a buzzing sound when they fly). They aren’t out to sting you or suck your blood like some other insects do. In fact, stink bugs are actually herbivorous. They thrive exclusively on fruits and vegetables, which is what makes them such a threat to the crops that farmers grow. (Now if you are an etomophobic person, they may extremely frightening to you. But you can rest assured that this particular species of insect is harmless and is should not be a cause of fear in your mind.)

And the bottom line is that stink bugs are not poisonous at all.

Easy Stink Bug Control Tip: Inspect Your Shopping Bags And Clothes Before Coming Inside

Protecting Your Home

No matter how well you think you are protecting your home against a stink bug infestation, you may wondering how on earth these bugs are still managing to get inside.

Even if you have sealed off all possible entry ways into your home using caulk or duct tape, and you still find that you are having difficulty with stink bug control in your home, then you will need to think outside of the box and consider other means through which they may be getting inside:

You could very well be bringing stink bugs into your home from outside without even realizing it.

If you live in an area that has an exceptionally high population of stink bugs, then it goes without saying that you need to be extremely vigilant. Stink bugs could literally emerge from anywhere at any time. They are not only in our homes. But it is also not uncommon to encounter them in public places as well. You could find them in the least likely of places, such as grocery stores or restaurants. You could even find them in retail shops such as bookstores, automotive repair shops, or shopping malls. And then of course you can even encounter them out in open places such as playgrounds or sports stadiums as well.

If you live in a part of the country that has seen a drastic increase in the occurrence of stink bugs, then you are going to need to be extremely vigilant pretty much any time that you leave your house to go anywhere, whether you go to work or school, whether you are going shopping, or you are going outside to engage in an outdoor recreational activity. Even if you do not visibly see any stink bugs when you go out, you need to be mindful of the fact that there is a very real possibility that you might accidentally bring them home with you when you return back home. How?

Inspect Your Bags Before Bringing Them Inside

For one thing, you need to be careful when you handle any bags, purses, or any other tangible objects outside. If you leave your items unattended, whether out in the open, or in a public place, a stink bug that happens to be flying around or crawling around nearby could be attracted by a scent emanating from among your possessions. Before you know it, they could easily get into your bags, or could even simply just perch themselves onto you bag. And so when you return back home, without you even realizing it, you will have inadvertently brought a stink bug home.

Now, the last thing you want is to open up your grocery bags, only to find a frightened stink bug fly out (and spray a whiff of its pungent odor into the air in the process) and seek refuge somewhere in the confines of your house.

Therefore, it is extremely important that you take a moment to inspect your bags before you place them in the trunk of your car, or before you pick them and carry them with you. And it is important that you make sure that if you have any open bags, that you keep them closed, zipped up, or sealed off in such a way so as not to allow stink bugs to potentially get inside.

Inspect Your Clothing Before Coming Inside

Furthermore, if you end up spending a great deal of time outdoors, whether you are gardening, you are playing sports, going for a walk or a jog outside, you need to be vigilant of the fact that a stink bug could land on your clothing, completely unbeknownst to you.

The common sense thing to do, before you get into your car or before you come into your house, is to inspect your clothing. Run your hands along the front and back of your shirt and pants, and through your hair, to make sure that aren’t any stink bugs on your person.

All it takes is one stink bug piggy backing on your clothes or in your bags, getting into your home, to potentially attract more stink bugs into your home. Stink bugs emanate what’s called an aggregation hormone which tips off other stink bugs to their location. When other stink bugs happen upon this scent, they will immediately be drawn toward it. And the next thing you know, your stink bug problems will multiply.

So always be mindful to ensure that you aren’t inadvertently bringing stink bugs home, by brushing off your clothing or by inspecting your bags before you bring them inside. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Doing so will go a long way in keeping your home safe from a fresh infestation of stink bugs.

Getting Rid Of Stink Bugs – Why You Should NEVER Use Pesticides

Extermination Methods, Gardening, How To Kill Stink Bugs, Protecting Your Home, Sprays and Traps

To use pesticides, or not to use pesticides… That is the question. While there are numerous studies that claim that pesticides, used properly under the right conditions, to kill stink bugs can be met with a high degree of success, an equal number of other studies exist that claim that pesticides in reality do more harm than good. Using pesticides as a means of how to exterminate stink bugs can yield unintended consequences, and so it is imperative that you be aware of these before you make the decision to resort to this route to deal with your stink bug problem.

The fact of the matter is that there are numerous ways how to kill stink bugs without having to resort to this extreme. Pesticides should only be used as a last resort, when all other methods have been tried, exhausted, and failed. In fact, when you use pesticides, there is no 100% guarantee of success. That applies to any insect, not just stink bugs.

Pesticides contain harmful toxins that are lethal to insects. But the extent to which its harmful effects can reach do not necessarily stop at insects. Animals and young children can succumb to the fumes, if exposed to them as well. This applies to both indoor as well as outdoor use of these chemicals.
Since most pesticides are administered into the environment in the form of a spray, a certain percentage of the chemicals released into the air will never reach their intended target, and will end up floating in the air, contaminating other surfaces of your home, or other plants in your garden. While you may believe the toxins to dissipate, the fact is that they can be recirculated through your home by being sucked into your air ducts and redistributed through your central air system. Worse, they can get into your food and water. Even small trace amounts of it can get onto your clothes and your skin, and you can end up with some mild skin irritation, and you might then even inadvertently transfer it to another person or another object when you come in contact with them.

There are many ways how to kill stink bugs without using pesticides. It should only be used as a last resort, under the most dire and extreme of circumstances, when all other methods have failed. But even if your house or your garden is overrun by a horde of these insects, there are natural ways to kill them, such as by setting up stink bug traps.

Many farmers in the United States have been hit hard by the stink bug epidemic, it being the case that these bugs feed on fruits and are destroying entire crops, resulting in millions of dollars worth of agricultural loss and damage each and every year. As a consequence, there have been efforts to lobby the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ease restrictions against the use of certain pesticides that have been banned and prohibited, due to their harmful side effects.

Opponents of the use of pesticides liken their use to that of the so-called “scorched-earth policy”. In other words, the only way to destroy stink bugs is to destroy the earth along with it, which ends up actually being a lose-lose proposition for all parties involved, insect and human. In other words, the use of pesticides bears with it an implicit acceptance of the “collateral damage” that may result in terms of harm that may come to other than the intended target.

Before you consider introducing potentially harmful pesticides into the environment as a means to combat your stink bug problem, consider taking other measures to capture and kill them, to repel them and drive them away, and to keep their population from multiplying. Such measures might include a combination of solutions that involve setting up baited stink bug traps for them, or a means of siccing predators on them, or in the case of sealing your home properly using either duct tape or caulk to prevent them from entering into indoor spaces. If you have tried all other solutions in earnest, but the problem is seemingly out of control, then you may want to consider resorting to the use of pesticides in an extremely limited scope and capacity.

How NOT TO Kill Stink Bugs – 4 Strategies To Avoid

How To Kill Stink Bugs

Unless you are an avid entomologist (someone who studies insects for a living), you probably harbor nothing but disdain for stink bugs. While this particular species of insect may not be harmful to humans (they do not bite, they do not sting, and they do not suck people’s blood), they are an annoying nuisance at best, and a threat to the agricultural industry at worst. For those who suffer from entomophobia (fear of insects), they bear a striking resemblance to reptilian animals. And if you have ever tried to squash a stink bug then you most probably have regretted the experience, because:

a) they release a terribly pungent odor as a self defense mechanism to repel predators and drive them away;

b) they leave disgusting marks that are hard to clean up and remove when you squash them.

So needless to say, there are right ways to kill stink bugs, and there are also wrong ways to kill stink bugs. In my previous article, I proposed various tips on how to kill stink bugs in your garden properly without squashing them. If you also happen to be suffering from an invasion of stink bugs into your house, you may want to consider these steps for how to keep your home safe from a stink bug invasion.

Here are some tips on how NOT to kill stink bugs:

Tip #1: NEVER, EVER squash a stink bug. That is perhaps the WORST thing you can do. You might relish the initial satisfaction of knowing that in the war between man versus insect, you may have won the first round. But by squashing a stink bug, you will have inadvertently exacerbated the problem, inviting further trouble. You see, the problem is that when stink bugs give off that pungent odor of theirs, not only do other insects and animals smell it, but so do other stink bugs! So if any other stink bugs happen to be flying by and they detect the stink bug odor, that is an open invitation for other bugs of the same species to come on over. This is because stink bugs figure that if another stink bug is nearby, that means there must be food and shelter there. So quite naturally, other stink bugs will flock to wherever they detect the odor from the other bugs. So what is the moral of the story? If you squash one stink bug, you could end up with more stink bugs taking its place. So the right way how to kill stink bugs should involve some other means of trapping and dispose of them that doesn’t trigger this reaction.

Tip #2: Do not nudge them or frighten them, as this can trigger the release of that foul stench as well. While obviously any attempt to come near them or entrap them can prompt them to release that odor, it is best to use methods of stealth, such as a trap to trick them into getting them stuck on or in something that you can then easily use to dispose of them later. A good example would be a hand-held vacuum. Chances are that you can sneak up on a stink bug and suck it up, before it releases the odor, and when and if it does, the odor will be confined to the area inside the vacuum.

Tip #3: Do not leave their deceased remains lying around. Aside from the fact that it is just plain disgusting to leave dead stink bug corpses lying around without cleaning them up, doing so is tantamount to extending an open invitation to other stink bugs to come and invade that same territory where the dead stink bug happens to be. It is inevitable that other stink bugs will follow the trail of the stink bug scent and will come to occupy the same place where its predecessors once were.

Tip #4: Do not bother with using harmful insecticides to try to kill stink bugs. While they may work, they really should only be used as a last resort, under the most extreme of circumstances. Insecticides are harmful and toxic to plant life as well as to other animals and even to humans. You might be able to get rid of your stink bug problem, but you are inevitably trading in one problem for another, when you use insecticides to deal with the stink bug problem. No matter how much a pesticide manufacturer or an extermination company claims that their products are safe, that is never 100% true. Why do you think they always warn you to keep children and pets away from insecticide treated areas for some time after they are applied? There are plenty of ways how to kill stink bugs without having to resort to this extreme. Read about how using insecticides to stop stink bugs is a form of the “scorched earth policy”. You can get some tips on how to get rid of stink bugs here.

When it comes to killing stink bugs, it is important to realize that there is a right way and there is indeed a wrong way how to deal with them.

How To Get Rid Of Stink Bugs – 10 Simple Ways To Protect Your Garden

Gardening

Protecting your garden against uninvited guests can be a challenge. Stink bugs are no doubt unwelcome visitors in anyone’s garden. They subsist on fruit and foliage, both of which you no doubt are most likely harvesting in your garden. Ever since these critters first made landfall on US soil, having been brought over here as stowaways from southeast Asia aboard a cargo vessel sometime in the late 1990s, they have proven to be a nuisance for American households and have proven to be a huge economic threat to American farmers, whose crops are increasingly coming under attack from these bugs.

Stink bugs are harmless to humans but are wreaking havoc on the American agricultural industry. So if you are growing a garden in your backyard, it would be wise for you to acknowledge that the threat to any fruits that you grow is very real. Stink bugs will flock to wherever they can find fruit. They will pierce the skin of the fruit and start sucking the juice out of it from the inside, thus destroying it, rendering it inedible by humans. You can tell if a stink bug has partaken of a particular piece of fruit by examining the surface of the skin for any piercings and any discoloration around those piercings.

So what can you do to protect your garden against an infestation of stink bugs (or to get rid of stink bugs who have already managed to invade your garden)?

Here are 10 tips:

Tip #1. Use row covers to protect your fruit-bearing plants. They are essentially a type of blanket or net that you encase your plants in. These nets are impermeable to stink bugs yet still allow rain and sunlight to get through. They also offer benefits to your plants, in that they help to trap heat, similar to the manner in which a typical greenhouse might. This is a relatively inexpensive and is no doubt the least toxic form of pest control. You can always pull the row covers back as needed, when you need to get to your plants, whether to harvest their fruits, to extricate them, or to plant new ones in the same area.

Tip #2: Identify, locate, and kill any stink bug eggs that you can find in your garden. Stink bugs lay their eggs and attach them to the underside of plant or tree leaves, where they are considered to be safe and camouflaged from view. If you have seen one too many stink bugs in the vicinity of your garden, you may want to do a thorough inspection of your planets to ensure that there aren’t any stink bug eggs there, waiting to hatch. Now, turning leaves upside down, one by one, in order to find their eggs can be extremely tedious, time consuming, and impractical, as would be getting down on the ground and trying to look up at the leaves. What you can do, however, is attach a large mirror to the end of a broom stick and hold it underneath the leaves, and look at the mirror to see if you can find any of their eggs anywhere. They are usually in clusters of about 20 green or white eggs. If you do find them, then you can proceed to dispose of them, by carefully discarding the leaves on which they were found.

Tip #3: Prevent weeds from growing in your garden. It has been observed that stink bugs will oftentimes use weeds and other forms of wild foliage as a means of cover when they wish to remain hidden. So it is important, not only for the aesthetics of your garden and for the health of your other plants, but it is also an easy way to “smoke them out” of their hiding places. Buy removing weeds from your lawn, they will have fewer places to hide, and will be more likely to move on to another yard in search of shelter or cover. Be sure to mow weeds with a lawn mower or pull them out by hand on a regular basis. Don’t wait until the weeds get too big before you do so, as stink bugs could very well take advantage of even smaller, less mature weeds.

Tip #4: Lay a trap for stink bugs by growing flowering herbs in your garden. Herbs such as dill and fennel generally tend to attract assassin bugs, big-eyed bugs, damsel bugs, and tachnid flies, each of which are known to prey upon stink bug larvae. So if there are stink bugs in your garden that are laying eggs, you can sic these predator bugs on them by luring them into your garden with the presence of flowering herbs. (Of course, this then begs the question as to whether you are merely trading in one problem for another: you get rid of stink bugs in your garden but now you are stuck with other types of bugs. But the reality is that these other bugs are harmless to your garden. They are a “lesser evil”, if you will.)

Tip #5: You can purchase (or attract) parasitic wasps into your garden to achieve the same purpose as tip #4 above. Wasps are known to feed on stink bug eggs. Again, the same caveat exists, with respect to the speculative “lesser evil” outcome that might ensue. You want to release these bugs in a controlled fashion, so you minimize their spread.

Tip #6: If you encounter any stink bugs perched on any plants in your garden, you can spray them with various non-toxic soaps and cooking oils. (Canola oil works quite efficiently.) It has been observed that something as seemingly innocuous as dish soap can be extremely lethal to stink bugs. Therefore light usage of these soaps by spraying them directly at the bellies of these bugs can be an extremely effective way how to kill stink bugs. The good thing about this method is that you are using completely non-toxic, harmless liquids, as opposed to potentially harmful pesticides. You need only give your plants and fruits a good rinse with the garden hose to wash off any soap or oil that they may have come in contact. One important tip: When spraying the stink bugs, be sure to aim for their bellies. This will literally cause the bugs to fall off the leaves onto the ground and become paralyzed within seconds. Spraying them on the exoskeleton on the upper side of their body seems to have no effect and is impervious to these chemicals.

Tip #7: Light traps are a tried and tested, and extremely reliable means of how to kill stink bugs. Like most bugs, stink bugs are attracted to bright sources of light. Once they make contact with the light trap, they will get zapped and will die instantly on contact. Place one or more of these at various locations within your garden, depending on the size of the area, and you should be able to draw most stink bugs out of their hiding places and kill them. Plus, it can be used as a trap to ensnare any new stink bugs that happen to be flying in the vicinity of your garden. This is a clean way to kill stink bugs. No squashing. No coming into contact with the foul stench that they emit.

Tip #8: Pheromone traps also work very well with stink bugs. You can buy a special type of candle that releases stink bug pheromones into the air. This candle sits inside a box with an open lid. When stink bugs detect the pheromones, they will attempt to hone in on the source where it is coming from. When they approach and enter the box, you simply close the lid. This trap can also be covered wall-to-wall with fly paper that will immobilize the stink bug on contact.

Tip #9: Another variation of stink bug traps is to lure them into the trap using fruits as bait. The objective is to divert stink bugs away from your flowers, plants, and fruits and into a trap that can either kill them on contact or simply entrap them so that you can dispose of them into an appropriate trash receptacle from whence they cannot escape.

Tip #10: Keep your portable hand vacuum charged and ready. If you see any stink bugs that you think you can easily manage to reach, you can always vacuum them up. That is the simplest way to trap them and avoid having them release that foul stench into the air. You can then either choose to let it die of starvation / dehydration in the vacuum over the next several days or you can empty out the vacuum into an appropriate trash bag at a later time.

Keeping your garden safe from stink bug infestations should be a priority, especially if you are living in a part of the United States where there is a higher concentration of stink bugs, particularly in the northeast.

Now that you know a few tips on how to get rid of stink bugs and prevent them from wreaking havoc on your garden, it also pays to understand that there is a right way and there is also a wrong way how to kill stink bugs.

How To Get Rid Of Stink Bugs – Keeping Your Garden Safe

Gardening

Tending to a garden is a lot like caring for a baby. You not only need to nurture it, but you also need to protect it. With plenty of sunshine, water, healthy soil, and tender loving care, you can grow an exquisitely fertile garden lush with fresh fruits and vegetables. But caring for your garden involves a great deal more than just simply nurturing it. You need to take the necessary precautions and put into the place the necessary safeguards to protect your garden from succumbing to various forms of external threats, most notably in the form of pests. If you live in the northeastern United States, chances are you have come into contact with a peculiar insect species known as the stink bug.

Pest control has always been an issue for gardeners since time immemorial. But the threat of stink bugs, and the havoc that they can wreak on your garden, are relatively new, at least in North America. Stink bugs are not indigenous to the western hemisphere. Rather, they are native to southeast Asia, and can predominantly be found in countries like Japan, the Koreas, and China. It is believed that sometime in the past couple of decades, this species of insect accidentally became trapped within a cargo ship enroute to the shores of the United States, and once they were released into the environment here, they began to multiply rapidly. Having first been discovered in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1998, there have now been confirmed sightings in over 30 states in the continental US.

Stink bugs pose a major problem for gardens because this particular species of insect thrives on fruits. It is not uncommon in some places to see entire colonies of stink bugs congregating en masse in a field of agricultural fruit crops or even in a garden where you are growing fruits. If you happen to spot maybe one or two stink bugs, you might not think anything of it. But if you aren’t vigilant and you fail to take the necessary preventative measures, you could unknowingly end up with a huge swath of a stink bug infestation and a bunch of destroyed fruits in your garden. Indeed, if you see one stink bug, trust me, you do not want to get complacent. If the situation is left unchecked, you could end up with an infestation problem that is bigger than you are capable of handling on your own.

Stink bugs do not typically live in isolation. They emit what is known as an aggregation pheromone that is used to attract other stink bug, sending them a signal to let them know that another stink bug is here and has found a place with food and shelter. So if you see stink bugs, it would be wise for you to act quickly and do whatever it takes to protect your garden.

Now, you might think that all you have to do, in order to put an end to your stink bug problems is to squash the one or two bugs that you find in your garden, and be done with them. On the contrary, squashing stink bugs can actually do more harm than good. It could very well be the worst thing that you could do, and it could inadvertently serve to further exacerbate the problem rather than quell it. If you have ever squashed a stink bug before, then you might already know, from first hand experience, why this particular species of bugs is so aptly named. They emit a putrid stench whenever they are frightened. This is the natural self-defense mechanism that they have been endowed with by Mother Nature. And in most cases, it is sufficient to repel most any predator.

While there is some debate over this matter, it is believed that when you squash a stink bug, then other stink bugs will be attracted to the stench emitted by them just before their demise. Research into this matter has proven to be inconclusive, on the basis that the aggregation pheromone that they emit is different and distinct from the self-defense odor which they emit. However, an untold number of farmers and residents, particularly of areas where there is a highly concentrated stink bug population, will swear by the theory that squashing stink bugs only invites more stink bugs to take their place.

Here are some tips on how to get rid of stink bugs and protect your garden.