2011 Stinkbug Invasion: Forecast is Biblical

KNOXVILLE, MD. — As the weather warms, scientists warn that billions of stink bugs -- far worse than last year -- will be awakening and reproducing by the end of the month

Many of us in the mid-atlantic region of the US have been battling stinkbugs since the end of summer last year. I still flush about 10 a day. Many have less, or more.

You can't squish them, raid doesn't work. They smell to high heaven (like rotting grass) and you can either vacuum them, or flush them.

So imagine my horror when it came out on the news that they will now swarm worse then ever..

This is on top of what is already living in the house. I can't move a stack of papers without finding them. They sit on my coffee maker and crawl across the tv screen. From a distance, they look like cute cockroaches.

As the temperatures rise, the stink bugs crawl toward the nearby farm fields and orchards to devour millions, maybe billions of dollars in fruit and vegetables. They lay their eggs on the foliage of fruit trees and other crops.

I have already heard the local agriculturists concerns on effects on the local crops, and the damage they can do.

courierpost

LANSING — The name of the new invader is enough to make people laugh, but its potential peril is serious enough to make fruit growers weep.

In 2010, growers in Pennsylvania lost an estimated 40 to 50 percent of their peach crop to the stink bug, according to Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. While damaged fruits sold for processing may sell for $7 to $10 a bushel, undamaged ones could garner up to $20 to $60 on the fresh fruit market.

capitalnews

I hate those things.. I don't get them often in my home but in the summer I will find about one a week, who knows how many more are out of sight. Good thing they love light, so when it is dark outside I turn one lamp on, they swarm, and the massacre begins.

Spring seems to have come here in Kentucky a little early too.
Noticed alot of wasps around here when it should be still cold and grey here.
Now we have to worry about stink bugs.
Great!

I don't see many around here...great now that I said this, I am going to get bombarded.

aw man this is bad news!!! our house was covered with them last year at the end of summer... and we just found a bunch of them today with this warm weather..

Ughh

what are you calling "stink bugs"? are they the black beetles that raise their butts to spray or is this a diff. bug? i cant imagine my house covered with what i call stink bugs!!!!!

Geez....

Southern Va. here. We have been over run for months. The last 2 days the weather has been warmer, and they have started multiplying. I have flushed atleast 50 in the last 2 days. I am going to saran wrap my house....

I was wondering what is a "stink bug" as well...sounds pretty nasty

who does the forecast for the years crop of bugs? I am guessing dept of ag?

could someone post a pic of what you folks are calling a stinkink bug!
ty very much..want to see if its the same thing we call stink bugs over here in washington

reply to post by okiecowboy





heres what the nasty buggers look like. They really smell like musty old clothes or something... it is really strong

This is what we have here...

pubs.ext.vt.edu...

It may be what everyone else has too.

reply to post by morder1


kinda looks like what we call "box elder bugs" and BOY do they swarm!!!!
they are all over the place here!!!!

reply to post by morder1

Thank you!
They are nasty looking critters..glad ya'll have em and I don't :-)

I thought it was just me!

I usually leave my bedroom window open when I sleep, and in the last few months there have been tons of these damn things invading my house. I'm on the west coast, too, so it seems these buggers have spread all over the us if they started out in PA

It's very odd too, I swear these little buggers use the buddy system or something, because every single time I've seen them, without fail, there is always two of them.

I tried crushing one with a pop can, thought it was dead and threw it in an empty plastic bag sitting on the table. A few minutes later the thing starts crawling out of the bag.

I hate this things! Although I would much rather deal with them than bees or roaches.

Thegenerally warmer winters we have been experiencing, will increase the bug populations of countless other far more annoying insects.
Here in British Columbia, we have had a fight with forest killing pests for decades.
The japanese bark beetle is by far the worst insect predator, but it has cousins which attacke other species and have similar cycles as well.
Simple root rot is taking down vast swaths of our best douglas fir too.
Its my way of thinking that unless we go backwards a step, to smaller and closer tended farming operations, as well as focus our attentions solelry on logging the salvage of endangered and pest ridden trees,before another clear cut is even outlined.We will keep loosing more than we are growing every year from now till we get typical much colder winters.
Indeed we may be headed for such a cooling period in earths weather soon.
It may be mother natures way of getting the CO2 down to normal.As well as killing off a whole mess of different pests even the two legged kind......

reply to post by James1982


They are like dinosaurs.

I balled a live one up in a tissue and went to flush it. It sank tk the bottom of the commode hanging on to the tissue. He didn't struggle to get to the top, so I thought hmmmmm...how long can he stay underwater and live. 25 minutes later I checked and he was still alive. They are hard to kill!

We've had a few warm days in a row here and sure enough I've already seen a handful in my house just over the last day or so. It's only February and we're already seeing them so yes I believe it when they it'll be bad this year. They were so bad here last summer I'm pretty sure they drove away this group of three bats that were living in my attics vent. That's sucks cause I really like those bats so I hope it's just a coincidence but they were gone long before it got cold so I don't know. Other than that they don't really bother me I though it was pretty interesting watching what looked like thousands of them piled up on the back of my house.

The forcast is Biblical? Man do you work for a newspaper where they make a thing look bigger by chosen words? It's like a quake that 'rattles' a city and nothing even falls of the shelves

'Biblical proportions' is they would be crawling over everyhting, everywhere. You found how mnay in your house?. 10? I have more flies than that right now.>

reply to post by daggyz


1st....it is "forecast".
2nd..the OP is not a man.
3rd..this is a very informative topic, as well as issue, which the OP has brought to our attention. If you do not like the title, simply do not read the thread. Now please go crawl back in your hole.

I'll trade you stink bugs for mosquitos

I live in Florida and I don't think I have ever seen those before. I do know the mosquitos are horrible here in the summer and then the love bugs later on in the year are even worse! I did find it weird that they were spraying last night in the neighborhood for mosquitos and it's not even the season for them right now. Usually they take their time when it comes to spraying and you have to call and complain now they are a couple months early. Maybe it will prevent the eggs from hatching. Mosquitos are a pain!