Stink Bug Spread Worries Growers Across Nation

[Purveyor]

(05-20) 04:51 PDT Emmitsburg, Md. (AP) --

An insect with a voracious appetite, no domestic natural predators and a taste for everything from apples to lima beans has caused millions of dollars in crop damage and may just be getting started.

The brown marmorated stink bug, a three-quarter-inch invader native to Asia, is believed to have been brought first to the Allentown, Pa., area in 1998. The bug began appearing in mid-Atlantic orchards in 2003-04 and exploded in number last year.

This spring, stink bugs have been seen in 33 states, including every one east of the Mississippi River and as far west as California, Oregon and Washington.

"All that we do know for certain is that a tremendously large population went into overwintering in fall 2010. So, if they survived, there could be a very large population emerging in the spring," said Tracy Leskey, a research entomologist at the U.S. Agriculture Department's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville W.Va.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/20/national/a001751D19.DTL

[Taverner]

1. Alright - who let Rush out of his cage?

[tridim]

2. Or, who forgot to put "Bugman" Delay IN his cage.

[TwilightGardener]

3. I stopped growing tomatoes because of the stink bugs. I am going to try

again this year, but will try to rig up some mesh/netting. I hate using Sevin Dust.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

4. i've got them

they are awful. i had to use a vacuum cleaner to get them off the curtains. they seem to appear out of no where, i've killed hundreds of them. and they don't call them stink bugs for nothing.

[CanonRay]

5. I've seen them here in Colorado

I'm pretty sure it's the same bug I used to see in Illinois.

[TorchTheWitch]

7. It looks like a tiny little armored tank

Almost like something man-made. Freaky looking bugs.

[Courtesy Flush]

6. We've had green stink bugs much longer than that.

And they'll destroy your tomatoes in a hurry. I never see the green ones eat foliage, but they suck the juice from tomatoes, and ruin them.

[MattBaggins]

8. "Some also are researching the importation of the stink bug's main Asian predator..."

Every time some idiot suggests this shit, they should be smacked in the back of the head and forced to sing the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly.