Stink Bugs On The Rise In Homes In Washington State

A recent upsurge of brown marmorated stink bugs in the Pacific Northwest has researchers scrambling to keep the insect’s numbers from exploding.

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Since September, the agricultural pest has turned up in significantly larger numbers in traps and inside people’s homes in Washington state. The bug has been detected in Lewis and Skagit counties, bringing the documented number of inhabited counties from 17 to 19.

“It’s obvious that the brown marmorated stink bug is building its population and expanding its range,” said Washington State University (WSU) entomologist Elizabeth Beers, a member of a national scientist SWAT team that’s working to track and control it. “It’s our hope that this doesn’t mark a turning point where the insect will start causing crop damage after it emerges in spring.”

The shield-shaped bug from Asia gorges on everything from apples and lima beans to flowering dogwoods. After its discovery in Pennsylvania almost two decades ago, it has moved westward and was detected in Portland, OR, in 2006 and in Washington several years later.

 

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Quite A Jump
In recent weeks, researchers in Washington have captured hundreds of the bugs in traps, mostly in Yakima and Walla Walla. In a pheromone-baited trap placed outside a Yakima resident’s home, researchers recovered nearly 200 stink bugs during a five-day period, said entomologist Michael Bush of WSU’s Yakima County Extension.

“That compares to the 36 we captured in the entire year of 2015 throughout all of Yakima County. We’re talking about quite a jump,” he said.

WSU Extension agents and master gardeners are fielding an increase in calls from people asking about uninvited, six-legged guests found in their homes and office buildings. Escaping the chill of fall, the bugs are settling into sheltered places to spend the winter, Bush explained.

“In less than two days, I heard from 27 people. To say we’ve been swamped would be an understatement,” he said.

With a notable uptick in brown marmorated stink bugs in Washington, no crop damage has been reported. Why not?

“In the Mid-Atlantic states, homeowners noticed the stink bug species for about a decade before we saw significant damage to crops,” said USDA entomologist Tracy Leskey, director of the Stop the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug SWAT team. The insect’s populations built up until they advanced into the region’s orchards, gardens, and vegetable crops, causing millions of dollars in damage, she explained from her lab in West Virginia.

“It’s a scenario none of us wants to see repeated,” she said.

 

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Avatar for Pete Schloeffer Pete Schloeffer says:

It is unlikely that the stink bug causes no damage. Here in Minnesota they make themselves known by sucking the juice out of raspberries which eventually fall off.

Avatar for Norman Hanford Norman Hanford says:

i live in northern Indiana. in late summer stink bugs, (by the thousands) ate the roots from my zucchini and
butternut squash plants. I did not realize the problem until it was too late.

Avatar for Chris Robb Chris Robb says:

In Hawaii we have two beneficials that keep Southern Green stink bug in check, Trissolcus basalis and Trichopida spp. One an egg parasite and the other and adult predator. We reared T basalis when i was employed at Mac Farms of Hawaii. I believe T japonica has been found in the States, do mass rearing of these and release them before it gets out of hand, we saw 10 to 20 % damage from SGSB on macadamia, but ants were also found to be great predators of the egg rafts.

Avatar for Anna Anna says:

Just found one in my house today. I live in Indiana. Odd.

Avatar for Naomi Murphy Naomi Murphy says:

I live in Ferndale, Washington, and I found this stink bug in my laundry room.

Avatar for CINDY H CINDY H says:

I LIVE IN SPANAWAY, WA AREA. I HAVE FOUND SEVERAL IN MY HOME… CINDY

Avatar for David David says:

I have caught three of these in my bedroom on the second floor in my home in the last 2 days. They wake me or alert me with their wing noises. Even my small dog finds them and watches them climb the walls. I find them all over outside. Especially lots of them in Entiat Washington. Went camping up there and they were all over my truck inside the canopy and outside.

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