Home » Plants & Animals » Garden Pests » Stink Bugs

Stink Bugs

© Carla Goodloe

Stink bugs range throughout North America, especially in the South and California. In my opinion and experience, they are more prominent in the south and I don't see many here in Fresno.

Adult stink bugs are shield-shapes with triangles on their backs. They are usually a half inch long and quite wide. Most are brown or dull green, but harlequin types are red and black. There are 3 that will damage crops-brown, green, and harlequin; and 2 that are beneficial insects-spotted stink bug (black with a red bar across the shoulders only) and spined soldier bug (brown).

Symptoms include light-colored hard spots on tomatoes, sunken and seedless bean pods or peppers, hawkbilled sweet corn ears with rotten or hard kernels, gummy and catfaced peaches, deep depressions on pears, white or yellow blotches on leaves of cabbage family plants.

In cold weather areas, they overwinter under debris and wood. In spring, they emerge to lay eggs in groups on plant leaves. Eggs are barrel-shaped. Adults migrate north in summer due to the extreme heat in the south. There are three or more generations per year in areas with mild winters.

Natural predators include parasitic wasps, tachinid flies, big-eyed bugs, assassin bugs, and damsel bugs. Attract them by allowing plants like dill and fennel to flower. These predators feed on eggs and larvae. Other controls include handpicking adults and destroying egg masses. If large numbers of sting bugs attack a small area, cover the plants with a sheet, jostle the plants to trap the bugs, then take off the cover and stomp on it.

Try not to squish them with your bare hands because not only does it stink up your hand, but the juices can cause rashes in some people. Once smashed though, the stinch of the bug can get pretty rancid.

The copyright of the article Stink Bugs in Garden Pests is owned by . Permission to republish Stink Bugs in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.