Marmorated stinkbug invading US

They’re not a health hazard, but they sure stink.

Described as compact, quiet, non-biting, armored and looking quite prehistoric, Halyomorpha halys -- the brown marmorated stinkbug -- has invaded the United States.

At this moment they’re probably hibernating in the warm comfort of homes all over the country, but come spring when they awaken, they will make their odorous presence quickly known…especially if the wrong method of killing them is applied. More about that later.

The stink bugs are great little hitchhikers and not too shabby at flying either, said George Hamilton, an entomologist with the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers University.

"They're interesting," said Hamilton in an interview with Philly.com columnist Kevin Riordan. But, Hamilton added, "They really do stink."

Their distinctive odor is nature’s way of repelling predators and works well on humans, too, who find their odious odor quite obnoxious. But don’t even think about smashing or squishing them; it only makes matters worse.

Hard to kill, scientists are working on ways to come up with effective pesticides. Until that time, sealing one’s home to keep them out or spreading a powdery substance called “diatomaceous earth” around doors and windows seem to work pretty well.

If all else fails, the standard and reliable remedy of grabbing with toilet paper and flushing is a good way to make them go away, albeit one at a time.

With a propensity for cuddling up in packing materials, the smelly, quarter-inch little devils decorated with what looks like a shield on their backs, hitchhiked their way to the United States in cargo holds of vessels in the mid-1990s.

Arriving from Asia, they made their premiere appearance in Allentown, Penn., in 1996. They debuted in Hunterdon County, NJ, in 1999, and took five years to migrate to South Jersey, and now can be found from coast to coast.

Although harmless to people and their possessions, "They're hard to control, and they're getting worse and worse." said Joseph Pignatelli of Modern Exterminating Co. in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Not having lost its wanderlust, the brown marmorated continues to commute in the same way it got here from Asia in the first place, hitching rides in freight shipments.

Having no natural predators or risks of succumbing to diseases like its relatives, the stinkbugs that are native to the United States, “They have a chance to spread,” said
entomologist Richard Cooper, the technical director of Cooper Pest Solutions in Lawrenceville, NJ

Hamilton and Cooper are engaged in collaborative studies on how to best get rid of the pests, because the biggest fear of scientists is the damage they can do to fruit and berry crops, their favorite foods.

The bug is known as an agricultural pest in its home range of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, according to Penn State College of Agricultural Services. The extension service  says it doesn’t know if the bug will become an agricultural pest in Pennsylvania, but in its native range in Asia it feeds on a wide variety of host plants including apples, peaches, figs, mul­berries, citrus fruits and persimmons.

Damage to tree crops caused by the stinky little critters have already been reported in Warren County, NJ, as well as West Virginia and Maryland.

Two stinkbug research projects are currently being funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including one at its Beneficial Insects Introduction Research Unit in Newark, Del.

"We consider it a high priority," said Kevin Hackett, head of the USDA's program on invasive crop pests, in Beltsville, Md.