Brown Marmorated Stink Bug - Guest post from Anne Nielsen

Anne Nielsen presents on BMSB as part of the Entomology Department seminar series at University of California, Davis. Photo: UCD

Anne Nielsen was among the first entomologists to study the brown marmorated stink bug after its introduction to North America.  I contacted her last week to get her insights on the pest potential of BMSB in North Carolina.  Dr. Nielsen is currently a post doctoral researcher at Michigan State University.  Below are her comments.

BMSB is predicted to have at least 2 generations per year in your region.  Given what populations have done in the Mid-Atlantic, it is highly likely that BMSB will become a pest in North Carolina as well.  In other states, significant feeding damage has occurred in pome or stone fruit. It will readily feed on vegetables (soybean, tomatoes, peppers and corn) and small fruit, although damage reports haven't been as severe in these crops to date.  I would expect it to feed on cotton, as other pentatomids do, but we don't have any data to confirm that yet.  Populations will be highest in late summer/early fall as the final adult generation prepares for diapause.  This adult generation is also highly attracted to blacklight traps, which are a very good way of identifying populations at low densities in the

farmscape.  Within two years of detection on farms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, BMSB has negatively impacted the exant pentatomid community in terms of species richness and species evenness.  This is not surprising given the low rates of egg parasitism we have seen.  BMSB appears to be highly aggregated in the crops where it is present, although distributions can be patchy.

We noticed that new locations were usually first identified as a result of their overwintering behavior. George Hamilton and I set-up a website (which he still manages) that allows homeowners to learn about BMSB as well as report sightings.  We were able to learn of numerous new state records in this way and feel free to pass along the web site to your county offices and end-users.  I think it is important to have a centralized database for this type of information.

In other areas, there was a 3-5 year lag between the time of detection in a state and high numbers in agricultural crops.  However, I would not be surprised in BMSB has been in North Carolina for a few years already.

More information

Report a BMSB sighting - Rutgers University

A fall visitor: Brown marmorated stink bug

Stink bug adult on the hood of my car. Photo: HJB

After running errands Saturday morning, I noticed the insect above on the hood of my car. My apologies for the poor photo quality, but it was the best I could manage on the fly with my cell phone camera. This morning, another greeted me inside my living room window, leaving behind the trans-2-decenal and trans-2-octenal to prove it. From the glimpse I got, it appeared to be a brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB, Halyomorpha halys). This invasive insect has temporarily taken the place of bed bugs as the go to pest, garnering attention from the New York Times, Washington Post, and even NPR's Science Friday. A multi agency work group has been established to study BMSB biology, management, and regulation.


Why has BMSB generated so much interest this fall? For two main reasons:
1. Large populations have caused extensive damage in agricultural crops, and
2. They aggregate in structures in large numbers in the fall, becoming a nuisance pest.


First detected near Allentown, PA in 1998, BMSB has been present in the United States since then, but this summer their populations increased dramatically in the mid Atlantic. BMSB has been present in North Carolina since at least 2009, but has not reached the damaging levels observed in Maryland, north east Virginia, and Pennsylvania this year.

BMSB damage on an apple. The corky masses below the skin are distinctive of stink bug feeding. Photo: Penn State Extension

From mid summer through fall, BMSB has caused significant damage in the mid Atlantic to apples, peaches, caneberries, corn, and soybeans, to name a few of the crops it has been recorded from. Stink bugs, including our native species, the brown stink bug (Euschistus servus), green stink bug (Acrosternum hilare), and southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula), are difficult to manage with insecticides. Typically, broad spectrum materials, such as pyrethriods, carbamates, and organophosphates have been used to manage stink bugs, but may of these have the potential to create unintended consequences, like reducing natural enemies. Treatments for BMSB did not fit with carefully developed IPM programs for tree fruit in Maryland and Virginia, and resulted in greater pesticide use.


Stink bugs (native and non native) are emerging pests in many cropping systems due in part to their difficulty to control and in part to the increased number of insecticides (or other tools) that target a narrow range of organisms. For example, stink bugs are now a key pest of cotton due to the widespread adoption of Bt varieties that control caterpillars. Foliar applications of broad spectrum insecticides targeting caterpillars used to also control stink bugs but are no longer needed. The same scenario could apply to systems that have switched to other newer insecticides (i.e. Entrust, Delegate, Intrepid, Coragen, and many others) from broad spectrum materials.


The second reason BMSB has generated such wide attention is its tendency to aggregate in structures in the fall, much like the multicolored Asian lady beetle and another recently introduced bug, the "kudzu bug". All of these insects are native to roughly the same part of the world, China, Japan, and Korea, so it is possible that this fall aggregation behavior is associated with insects from these areas.


What should growers do if they suspect BMSB is present on their farm? Contact your cooperative extension agent to confirm identification and for management recomendations.


What should homeowners do if they suspect BMSB are present in their yards or homes? If BMSB are presents in your yard, there are few control measures that will be effective, and the most sustainable strategy is to tolerate injury to plants. If stink bugs are entering your home, seal entry points well (think of it as an entomological energy audit) and vacuum up the insects, disposing of your vacuum bag.

More information

Move over bed bugs; the stink bugs have landed - New York Times

Invasion of stink bug has homeowners, farmers seeking relief - Washington Post

Stink bug invasion - Science Friday

BMSB Monitoring - Rutgers University

BMSB Fact Sheet - Penn State University
Kudzu bug - IPM in the South