Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

The recent round of warmer temperatures is spurring this activity as the bugs move back *outdoors* particularly in the western parts of our state.  We saw similar activity last fall when the bugs were looking for places to pass the winter.
We're currently seeing the reverse trend - those that moved indoors last fall are now trying to head to the great outdoors but some only succeed in moving into the "great indoors" (meaning the occupied areas of your house). So,there isn't any way to spray effectively indoors because where you see them doesn't necessarily mean that's where they came from and spraying outdoors (such as on your house) might kill some aggregations or clusters of them on your house but in the bigger picture it has relatively little impact on stink bug populations.

I've been asked if the insects will be more or less of a problem this year.  That question is not as simple as it seems for many reasons but particularly because for residential settings, the bugs are "simply" a nuisance whereas to someone with an orchard or other host crop, the brown marmorated stink bugs can have a significant economic impact due to the damage they can cause.

If people find brown marmorated stink bugs n plants in their yards, they can certainly treat them but they stress the need to use products appropriately labeled for application to those plants so that they don't potentially damage the plants or in the case of plants such as edible plants (including fruit-bearing trees) - treat them with some insecticide that can render the fruit inedible).

There's more information about the dreaded bugs at:

http://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/brown-marmorated-stink-bug-in-north-carolina-3/

and

http://www.stopbmsb.org/

______________________________________________________
Michael Waldvogel, PhD
Extension Assoc. Professor & Specialist, Structural & Industrial Pests
North Carolina State University
Dept. of Entomology, Box 7613, 100 Derieux Place
Raleigh, NC USA 27695-7613
Ph: 919.515.8881    Fax: 919.515.7746     Cell: 919.780-8179
Email: mike_waldvogel@ncsu.edu
http://entomology.ncsu.edu/waldvogel