Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Brown Marmorated Stinkbug?

My little buggers.

Halyomorpha halys. That is the link that Teri left in the comments of the previous post.

Image from invasive.org

Well, nevermind ominous music. Cue the bleeding Funeral March.

It eats FIGS!

I'm going out onto the terrace tomorrow with a blowtorch and a shotgun.

The ID process has been very interesting. Because everyone's opinion seems accurate at first glance.

Frank's comment reminded me about Bug Guide, to which I'd forgotten I belong (eep). So I posted the pictures and one person there voted for these Brown Marmorate Stinkbugs, and another, with an MS in entomology, said no nymph this young (referring to the creature walking up the stick in the previous post) could be ID'd without "rearing". I asked him to clarify, but he may sense ignorance and dilettantism and depart in an academic huff.

From Invasive. org:

"The bug is indigenous to Asia and is considered an agricultural pest in Japan. The insects have been found in trees and in houses, where they produce a pungent, malodorous chemical. The insect can be an agricultural pest, threatening apples, pears, peaches, figs, mulberries, citrus, persimmon and soybeans. It was found in Allentown, PA in October, 2001."

From New York Times, 9/27/10: Marmorated stinkbugs

?????

8 comments:

  1. Oh NO!!! Ahhhhh! Oh Marie, I'm so worried for your beautiful fig tree! I do hope you find all these buggers and squish the heck out of them. Yuk!

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  2. Best of luck in your extermination endeavour, those figs are too yummy to be served as those little buggers' meal.

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  3. Bad luck Marie! You SHOULD have squished them, but then again they MAY have been friendly insects which would have been a shame!

    Extreme vigilance is now called for to catch the little buggers that will undoubtedly stick around and feed off your fig tree.
    Good luck!

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  4. Eeek. They did not appeal to me from the first picture you posted. Good luck with the search and destroy.

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  5. I think the fact that you found them on your fig is mighty suspect. Do them in! Good luck finding them. Is there something you can spray on the fig leaves that isn't going to poison you?

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  6. To war.

    No spraying - I don't spray - all I can do is squish if found. The ridiculous thing is I remember seeing the parent, a while ago.

    To think I was worried about the iddy biddy ladybug babies.

    Nymphs. Sorry. Must use correct nomenclature. Nymphs.

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  7. Oh, those little stinkers. Down here in rural Virginia, they are reaching Biblical plague proportions. I'm talking millions of 'em. One word of caution: when you squish these little horrors, the smell they release serves as a beacon to all the other stink bugs to come and feast on your figs. I moved my tomatoes to pots on the deck this year to escape the ravenous deer, but the stinkers devoured them all. Good luck. By the way, they are all looking for a nice cozy place to spend the winter. They don't need to eat or drink all winter, just wait for warm weather to go back outside and start eating/breeding/swarming again.

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