Brown marmorated stink bug

Brown marmorated stink bug
Adult
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hemiptera
Family:	Pentatomidae
Genus:	Halyomorpha
Species:	H. halys
Binomial name
Halyomorpha halys Stål

Halyomorpha halys, the brown marmorated stink bug, is believed to have "hitched a ride" as a stowaway in packing crates from Asia; it was accidentally introduced into the United States from China or Japan. The first documented specimen was collected in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in October 2001.

Other reports have the brown marmorated stink bug recovered as early as 2000 in New Jersey from a black light trap run by the Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) Vegetable Integrated Pest Management program in Milford, New Jersey.  In 2002, it was again collected in New Jersey from black light traps located in Phillipsburg and Little York and was found on plant material in Stewartsville. It is now documented and established in many counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut and New York on the eastern coast of the United States. This agricultural pest has already reached Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, and studies continue to establish just how extensive the infestation may be. Easily confused with Brochymena and Euschistus, the best identification for adults is the white band on the antennae. The brown marmorated stink bug is more likely to invade homes in the fall than others in the family.

It is similar in appearance to other native species of shield bug including Acrosternum, Euschistus, and Podisus, except that several of the abdominal segments protrude from beneath the wings and are alternatively banded with black and white (visible along the edge of the bug even when wings are folded) and a white stripe or band on the next to last (4th) antennal segment. The adults are approximately ⅝ inch long and the underside is white or pale tan, sometimes with grey or black markings. The legs are brown with faint white banding. The stink glands are located on the underside of the thorax, between the first and second pair of legs.

It is an agricultural pest that can cause widespread damage to fruit and vegetable crops. In Japan it is a pest to soybean and fruit crops. In the US, the brown marmorated stink bug feeds, beginning in late May or early June, on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and other host plants including peaches, apples, green beans, soybeans, cherry, raspberries, and pears. It is a sucking insect, a "true bug", that uses its proboscis to pierce the host plant in order to feed. This feeding results, in part, in the formation of small, necrotic areas on the outer surface of fruits but ranges from leaf stippling, cat-facing on tree fruits, seed loss, and transmission of plant pathogens.

The brown marmorated stink bug survives the winter as an adult by entering houses and structures when fall evenings start to turn cold. Adults can live for several years and look for buildings to overwinter in that shield them from the elements. They will work their way under siding, into soffits, around window and door frames, under roof shingles and into any crawl space or attic vent which has openings big enough to fit through. Once inside the house they will go into a state of hibernation where they wait for winter to pass, but often the warmth inside the house causes them to become active, especially in winter months, and they will fly clumsily around light fixtures. They leave a powerful scent behind on everything they land on, including the buildings where they hibernate, and this odor is one of the reasons they will return year after year; it is a beacon to other stinkbugs that this location is a good hibernation nest.

The stinkbug's ability to emit a vile odor through holes in its abdomen is a defense mechanism meant to prevent it from being eaten by birds and lizards. However, simply jostling the bug, cornering it, scaring or injuring it, or attempting to remove it from one's house can "set it off," and the odor is extremely powerful, unpleasant, and long-lasting. It can make a whole room uninhabitable until aired out, and some people are even allergic to the smell. Squashing it is a surefire way of expelling its noxious odor, and most times the best way of extracting one from the inside of a house is to allow it to walk onto something like a newspaper and then simply take it outside. Another option is to gently collect it using a piece of tissue and flush it. One other method of disposal is killing it with an electric flyswatter. This kills them almost instantly without squashing them.

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External links

• brown marmorated stink bug on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site
• brown marmorated stink bug at Invasive.org a joint project of The Bugwood Network, USDA Forest Service and USDA APHIS PPQ
• stopstinkbugs.com A stink bug information-sharing community, featuring articles and forums about controlling the brown marmorated stink bug