This Stinks

[4season]

We have bagrada bugs, they are an imported pest. When they showed up 3 or 4 years ago they were real bad but something must be controlling them the last couple of years. They look like a smaller version of harlequin bugs. The extension people say I can look forward to the brown marmorated stink bug soon.

[AlittleSalt]

I looked up the Bagrada bugs http://ipm.ucanr.edu/pestalert/pabagradabug.html

They are a lot like Harlequin bugs http://extension.umd.edu/growit/insects/harlequin-bug

Both like to eat the same things and do the same type damage.

Harlequin bugs are why we chose not to plant spinach and radishes earlier this year. The smell those bugs let out makes you want to burn the crop on the spot. It's not a smell you get used to or go nose-blind to as the TV commercial says.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by PhilaGardener

They were terrible here in PA a few years ago, particularly when the invaded the house by the hundreds. Numbers have subsided a lot but I guess they are here to stay.

I think you're right. They're here to stay, but it's likely they'll come into some more acceptable level of balance with the ecosystems here.

Native Predators May Be Having a Larger Impact than Expected on Invasive Stink Bug

The BMSB's biggest parasitoid wasp predator in Asia has been found spontaneously in quite a few states at this point, too:

It was quite a surprise when in 2014, a survey of resident egg parasitoids of the BMSB by Don Weber, (ARS-Beltsville Area Research Center), using sentinel brown marmoraed stink bug egg masses, revealed that T. japonicus was present in the wild at one of his study sites in Beltsville, MD. Since then, several T. japonicus wasp clusters have been found in Maryland and Virginia over the past two years. More recently, it appears that T. japonicus was also found in Vancouver, Washington.

To add to these finds, we have also captured T. japonicus in the Hudson Valley of New York over the past 2 weeks, using sentinel brown marmoraed stink bug egg masses. This work was fully supported by program funds directly from the NY State apple growers.

https://blogs.cornell.edu/jentsch/20...new-york-state

If T. japonicus is in MD, VA, and NY, they're probably here in PA, too. Penn State may just not have gotten around to looking for them.

[AlittleSalt]

PA is one of the worst areas hit by the marmorated stink bugs in the US. I remember reading about it a month or so ago. Here's the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_...ll05062013.png

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

PA is one of the worst areas hit by the marmorated stink bugs in the US. I remember reading about it a month or so ago. Here's the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_...ll05062013.png

Yeah, PA is ground zero--where the BMSB was first discovered in the US. My parents had some big problems with them in NJ about 4 or 5 years ago. I haven't had any serious problems with them in the garden at all. I see them occasionally here, but not in large numbers, and I don't see a lot of stinkbug damage on plants. Maybe my garden isn't so attractive to them, or maybe there are lots of things here that eat them or their eggs.