Amy in the Garden

I’m looking for some advice on how to defeat stink bugs. Anyone got a natural predator handy?

I noticed them in my garden earlier this season, all on the tomato plants. I first saw them when I picked a colander’s-worth of cherry tomatoes, and then noticed the tomatoes were moving…..actually, they were swarming with the nymphs of these out-of-control bugs. They looked like this:

Leaf-footed bug nymphs. They swarm, they damage, and they stink.

Not many things in the animal world scare me. Snakes? I removed a 5-foot long black racer snake (OK, Husband helped) from our basement, I regularly catch and remove mice, spiders and bees from the house, but things that swarm give me the willies. I am not a fan of ants, for example.

I looked up these bugs on Google Images when I first found them, learned what they are, and learned that they hang out in untidy, unweeded patches. So now I experience guilt as well as the willies.

There is a lengthy article today in the first section of the New York Times (page A15) about the stink bug population explosion, with the depressing news that, so far, entomologists are stumped as to how to get rid of these pests. They damage crops by creating hard, cork-like masses in the fruit — which you can cut out, but it’s unsightly, and makes it more difficult for the farmer to sell her harvest. The article quoted several folks from Burkittsville, MD, site of an impressively large outbreak, and all I could think of was “The Blair Witch Project” and wondered if these critters were to become my personal nightmare. Will I find little stick figures of damaged tomatoes hanging from my trellises? Will I hear (little tiny) clicks out in the woods at night?

I’m hoping the scientists find a wasp or other natural predator for the stink bug quickly, before I disappear, leaving only a video camera behind in my blighted garden….

WORDS FROM OTHERS

DIET
Stink bugs eat leaves, flowers, fruit and crops like soybeans. They also eat other pests, such as caterpillars.

HABITAT
Stink bugs live in orchards, gardens and farms.

IMPACT
Stink bugs do not hurt humans, but they can cause a lot of damage to crops and plants.

PREVENTION
• Seal cracks around your house.
• Replace damaged screen on doors and windows.
• If you see a stink bug indoors vacuum them up and throw away the bag immediately.
• If you see a stink bug in your garden, lightly spray the area with approved insecticides. Keep weeds around the garden in control and clean up the garden at the end of the growing season.
• Hand pick stink bugs in early morning when they are slow moving.

— Pest World for Kids