By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hold your nose – the stink bugs are coming. Brown marmorated stink bugs have hit Eastern states hard, said Daniel Kenny, agricultural inspection administrator for the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA).

“We have a native stink bug in Ohio,” Kenny said. “The one that has been making the news is called the brown marmorated stink bug, and it is not native. It’s been a serious problem this season in the Eastern states. Maryland and Pennsylvania – that’s where it first popped up. It is native to Asia like a lot of these (invasive species) and it’s got a really wide host range.”

The insects affect fruit and vegetable production, and even soybeans and corn to a certain extent, Kenny said. The kicker is that they act a lot like the Asiatic lady beetle in that the adults swarm together and look for structures in which to overwinter.
Unlike the lady beetles, when they are disturbed the stink bug’s scent glands emit an unpleasant, malodorous chemical. “They eat a lot of different crops: fruit vegetables, they’ve been shown to feed on ornamentals and eventually damage them, but the main damage they cause is on fruit,” Kenny said. “They insert their mouthpiece and make the fruit unmarketable.”

The first Ohio sighting was in 2007, Kenny said, so officials are just beginning to become familiar with the insect. “They have not been reported as a major problem in production (in Ohio), but there have been reports of them swarming,” he said. “From what I’ve read, you sweep them up the same way you would an Asiatic lady beetle. If you’re using a shop vacuum you may want to put something that smells good in the bag.”

While the native stink bugs could cause problems in crops, they have natural predators which keep them in control, Kenny said. The native bugs are plain brown in color while the marmorated have a speckled look on the shield.

The marmorated stink bug does not seem to have any predators – a common theme with invasive insects.

The stinky critters overwinter as adults. In early fall they begin to enter houses and other structures. They typically migrate and lay their eggs on the underside of leaves in the early summer. They hatch out into the nymph stage and have five instars.

“They have the ability to emit this malodorous chemical or substance,” Kenny said. “They do that as a defense mechanism when they feel threatened or if you crush them. “They’re fairly new to us in Ohio and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about it in the future. They’re not considered harmful, but there is an anecdotal report of someone getting rash from smashing one on themselves.”

This variety of stink bug was first found in the United States in 1998, said Steven Jacobs, extension entomologist in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. But this year the pest caused a greater stir.

The warm spring and early summer of 2010 allowed the stink bug to reproduce at a faster pace, Jacobs said. Typically there would be one generation of the pest in a season, but this year there were three generations, leading to higher and faster-spreading populations.