Stink bugs: Recent pest to infest homes

AMHERST, Mass. (Mass Appeal) - Bed bugs were the talk of the town this summer. But the weather is cooling, and the new bug in the news, is the brown marmorated stink bug. To tell us about the bug, and whether or not it's something you should be worried about is Bob Childs, entomologist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Brown marmorated stink bugs are not native to North America. They are native to Asia. Insects in general are stowaways and hitchhikers. They get in the cargo ships and are accidentally moved here and find a new home. They have no natural predators and we never know what a new insect is going to do here. This one is starting to become problematic.

They feed on plants. They are finding in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and our places in the mid-Atlantic states that they feed on apples, the fruit itself, peaches, corn, eggplant. A pretty wide host range and it destroys the fruit or vegetable.

This bug has been on the radar for entomologists for half a dozen years or more here in the northeast. It popped up once in Massachusetts, officially in the Worcester area. It's probably here, but just not in large enough numbers yet. I suspect we'll see it soon. If it does become well established, we will have to worry about it. But if it does show up, it becomes a house invader in the fall.

We have the common green stinkbug and brown stinkbug. Some of them feed on plants. Some are predators. Most of them just go unnoticed. There really aren't any here that we consider to be problematic.

We are apt to see this throughout the growing season. If you handle it, it does exude a foul odor. The marmorrated stink bug is known for that.

The western conifer seed bug is native to the western United States. It moved east about 20 years ago. We're not sure if it hitchhiked across country on trains, trucks and cars, or if it just moved naturally from tree to tree and got across country. This is also a home invader in the fall. Technically, it's not a stink bug. This one is a little larger and more elongated. If handled, it does exude a mild odor that is somewhat offensive.

It's best not to pick them up. Although with western conifer stink bugs, I often do. I'll pick them up and throw them outside. With the brown marmorrated stink bug, when you have a lot of them and they smell worse, they recommend that you vacuum clean them up. If you brush them or sweep them, they exude the odor and it can accumulate in the house.

It's recommended the bag be taken out of the vacuum cleaner. They may crawl out but the smell may accumulate in the vacuum cleaner and stay there. One of the recommendations I read online recently, if you have a shop vac, you can put soapy water in there and vacuum clean them and they will drown in the soapy water and then you discard that.

They seek shelter in the fall like ladybugs will and the western conifer seed bug. They do not bite, but they do not stink. They don't breed inside and they don't create any harm to the house. They are strictly a nuisance.

For more information on these “stinky” bugs, visit UMassGreenInfo.org .