Stink bugs

[Frank]

If you are not familiar with them yet, they're coming your way. Ruined my peppers last year.

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[Jim Elbrecht]

That article says what I've heard elsewhere "Though the bugs don't bite or cause damage. . " But then, a couple pages later it says ; "Some growers in the mid-Atlantic reported losing up to 90 percent of apple harvests last year, said George Hamilton, pest-management expert and professor of entomology at Rutgers University. That equated to a $37 million crop loss."

and "Garden greens and hot peppers seem to be off the bugs' menu, Hamilton says, but they do dine on bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, lima beans, sweet corn, squash and grapes. Not to mention figs, mulberries, citrus fruits, persimmons, blackberry, sweet corn, field corn and soybeans."

First I've heard of them damaging crops.

I've got a couple pineapple-smelling stink bugs that pop up in the summer-- but no hoards of these buggers yet. [near Schenectady, NY]

Jim

[Frank]

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Last year, my peppers were mottled and small. I saw the nymphs and sprayed some vegetable bug spray but it did not bother them. Did not realize that they were such an ag pest. There was talk of importing a small wasp that preys on them. They got their initial foothold in PA and are spreading from there. Don't think they have any temperature limits.

To the home owner, they are more of a nuisance pest trying to get in the house in the fall to hibernate and in the spring trying to get out. Worst encounters I've had were a few crawling under my collar when I was in the woods and one I accidentally popped in my mouth thinking a small piece of meat had fallen off my plate. Fortunately the stink doesn't last too long.