Stink bugs pose threat that could devastate crops

September 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

HARRISBURG

Last year, brown marmorated stink bugs were a nuisance. This year, they are a serious threat to fruit orchards, and experts are not sure how destructive they might become.

The ubiquitous brown bugs with a citrusy or piney scent are making their way into midstate homes, previewing the hordes likely to appear in late September and October as the weather cools.

Bloggers share ideas about getting rid of them: Flush them down the toilet, vacuum them up, drop them in a bucket of soapy water, squash them, stick them to duct tape.

They are annoying in homes but don’t do much damage. They don’t bite or destroy wood.

To farmers, they have become a destructive pest.

Greg Krawczyk, an entomologist with the Penn State University Fruit Research Center in Biglerville, said some fruit orchards have lost 40 percent of their crops to the bugs. The hardest hit are in Adams County, northern Maryland and West Virginia.

Stink bugs can eat almost anything, and so far have no natural predators in the U.S. No one knows if their damage is going to spread to other crops.

“We have a huge list of questions and a very, very short list of answers,” Krawczyk said.

The bugs, originally from Asia, appeared in this country about a decade ago and have spread rapidly.

In the midstate, exterminators are just starting to get calls from homeowners and are expecting an onslaught as the bugs seek shelter for the winter.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Heather Meccia, office manager for H.T. Treadway Pest Control, based in York County.

Susan Roselle of Swatara Township has hired Treadway to rid her of the bugs that cover her windows as they try to make their way inside.

“I’ve seen them for the past five years, but this year they are really, really bad,” she said. “If I open the window, they just drop in. Everywhere I turn, there are tons of them.”

“Their numbers are amazingly huge,” Krawczyk said.

Penn State entomologist Steve Jacobs said the list of fruits and vegetables they dine on includes “almost anything — sweet corn, lima beans, peaches, apples, soybeans.”

Many orchards have used integrated pest-control management systems to avoid harsh pesticides that kill the good bugs as well as the bad, Jacobs said. But there’s not much that will kill the stink bugs outside the broad spectrum pesticides.