Everything I have read agrees with what you said. I have a friend who operates a vineyard who just attended a seminar in which the Marmorated Stink Bug was discussed. It has not arrived here in Illinois yet but is expected to reach here in about 2 yrs Unless some sort of control is found, fruit production as we know it will be a thing of the past, not to mention havng to put up with the stinking little buggers in the house every winter. Maybe they will eat the lady bugs which vacation in my home from Nofvember to April.

I thought I had them, but it turns out the ones I was smashing at every opportunity was the native brown stinkbug, like this one I found on the side of my house.

Crossing my fingers that it stays this way.
So what happens when the Marmorated Stink Bug and the Spotted Winged Drosophila get here? Grow asparagus?

Hate to tell you this, but the marmorated stinker and the spotted wing drosophila are both here.

And too bad you're crushing those native stink bugs. They're predators.

Hman,

There hasn't been an official discovery of BMSB yet here in KS, but it's made it's way to MO and IL.

Rutgers had a lot to say about it in it's newsletters last year. They gave updates throughout the season. They claim Danitol and Baythroid work well.

However, it could be your three spray program won't be enough for this pest, at least until things balance out like they apparently have with Japanese beetles.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aug 24, 2010 Rutgers Plant and Pest advisory

I guess where it comes from there is some little wasp that keeps it in check. I have no idea, but might want to think about bringing in a few billion.

I haven't noticed it here and I really pay attention to the pests on my plants, considering i use very little spray.

olpea, thank you. Rutgers gives me some hope. An article in this months Goodfruit painted a very bleak picture.

I had them last year. They particularly liked my ripening peaches. However they didn't seem to do a lot of observable damage, not sure why. The predatory wasp is now in quarantine in Delaware while it is studied to make sure it will not do anything bad when released. I heard two years it will be out, so those of you without the bug so far may be OK. The rest of us will be suffering.

If they do show up, there is something that works well on them: Surround. I think that is what kept my early peach damage minimal. Many of the interior fruits were completely deformed; I believe that is because I did not get Surround on them. As an added bonus if you are coving with Surround you can skip the poisons you are laying down for the PC. For ripening peaches Surround is probably not going to work, its too hard to get off the fruits. But the early spray should reduce the numbers in the later generation.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: BMSB wasp news article

PS here is a good article on how various sprays work on the bugs - its a USDA study from a couple months ago.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA study

Scott, have you seen any research on the efficacy of Surround on stink bugs? Your observations are useful but I'd feel more secure with some research validation.

I had stink bugs last summer on nectarines. Not sure what kind. Most of the deformed fruit were on the interior too. However, I did not use surround. I did use some triazicide once and done. But, it did not have much effect on the bugs. I think it was later in the season though.

It is generally agreed that Surround has an impact on stink bugs. See for example table 8 in the study below. Surround is not a complete control for anything, but with that caveat it does pretty well. Its not far from Imidan in the study below.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: study

Thanks Scott. I'm thinking I'll be using Surround if the stinkers show up here this year- I'm talking about the green ones that screwed me last year. First I'm going to go after all the host broadleaf plants with a wacker in the early spring and try to prevent them from establishing so heavily.

At least my current stink bug issues have some hope of environmental control. BMS multiply in plants I can't eliminate.

"It is comforting to see the robins staking out territory already. I think they really help."

Robins may be pleasurable to watch, but I've not seen any appreciable decline in any pest due to Robin predation. In fact, I've never seen a Robin eat anything but fruits, seeds, and earthworms. Here, they eat the earthworms until fruit gets ripe, then go after the fruit.

MSU claims BMSB is highly attracted to black lights. I wonder if a bug zapper with a black light would effectively reduce populations for a small scale operation.

Here is a link that might be useful: MSU Cat Alert

Scott, I just had a chance to look at the USDA study you linked. Thanks for posting, very thorough.

The long season for these pests and the prospect of needing to spray insecticides or kaolin so many times especially for late ripening apple varieties make bagging seem more advantageous than ever. These critters do specialize in getting into confined spaces, so the bags will need to be placed with unusual diligence, hugging the stems tightly and fashioned with very small drainage holes. I have not noticed any get into my bags, but I have seen catfacing which increased in frequency the later the apples were bagged in the Spring. My plan for this year is to use Surround as a bridge until the apples are ready to be bagged with the first application of clay prebloom.

Here in Northern VA, the stink bugs have come out earlier than last year. I think last summer was the hardest we have been hit and the summer before that, there were very few stink bugs. I'm realizing that with there early arrival, we won't have a good crop of tomatoes unless I start attacking them early. What is a good pesticide to use. I have some Pyola (pyrithrin and canola oil mixture) on hand. Will I have to resort to using something like Sevin? Last year, I tested with DE by capturing some adult stink bugs and covering them with DE and it had no effect.

Imred,
Sorry to inform you that the BMSB has been found in Berrien county michigan as of 2010. Plan on seeing it this year, as we're on high alert here in sw Michigan.
Noogy

They have monitoring stations all around Wisconsin on the lookout for this pest.

How do they deal with this bug in its native habitat?

There are native parasitoids and they are trying to import some of them right now. One is a small parasitic wasp.

I am seeing quite a few of the small guys now (probably second or third instar nymphs); they are the second generation from an egg hatch a few weeks ago. I will probably need to be getting out the Surround, they will be big guys just as my peaches and tomatoes are ripening.

Scott

BMS's were a terrible problem for me last year in Howard County, MD. My property is a stone's throw from a huge tract of woods, which is probably part of why I had it worse than others. The worst part was that BMS's laugh at bagged fruit. They just penetrated my apples right through the (plastic) bags, leaving the apple covered with dozens of brown pock marks that penetrated 1/3" into each fruit. Most of my apples ended up in the compost pile.

I have some pictures of tomatoes with 10 stink bugs on one fruit. Towards the end of the season I just pulled all my tomatoes because every single one was destroyed before it even got to the point where I could pick it at first blush and let it ripen inside.

This year I focused on root vegetables and early season stuff, as the BMS's were far worse at the end of the summer than at the beginning.

The scariest part is they are warning that it will be worse this year than it was last year. I can't imagine.

I'm new to this forum. Can anyone tell me how to dilute Kaolin clay to spray on my tomatoes to prevent stink bug damage? I purchased a small amount and want to know how to use it, or should I just sprinkle the powder on? Thanks.

Add 2-3 cups of powder to each gallon of water, mix, and spray. You need a pump sprayer if you don't have one already.

Scott

I've seen other stinky bugs, they aren't the brown ones though, They are small, green and have black dots on their back. And, they seem to like to eat beans and any pea type plants that you have. There are small ones too that taste terrible, I ate one when I was picking raspberries. It was very small and tasted like it smells, terrible! Too bad chickens won't eat them, but then they don't like the tent caterpillars either.

They were really bad in my garden this year; all but destroyed my bell peppers and green beans, my cucumbers didn't stand a chance, they seem to like peas too. The only thing they don't seem too interested in is tomatoes. The watermelons survived despite some activity by them. I have an Asian pear and European pear... they won't touch the European one, but the Asian pears are completely ruined if I don't tie a cloth pouch/sack around each one - where ever they pierce/bite the fruit, it develops a very hard corky knot and the fruit is severely disformed.