Brown marmorated stinkbugs

Just a timely reminder if you come across them, kill them! They are not native to europe and are doing damage. They can cause allergies if you touch a crushed one and skin rashes so given them a bash with something other than your hand. Currently we have a lot of them down here in the south, they get in your homes and hide behind blinds and curtains and are nasty things. Not small either.

Indeed - but do make sure you choose where you kill 'em - they DO stink… :rofl:

Ah! Not a recipe thread then?

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Bloq’Insects spray around door and window frames is working a treat for us at the moment with stink bug cemeteries forming outside.

Our neighbour put us on to it a couple of months ago.

For a quick, reduced stench clear up, I use a dustpan and brush alongside a small bucket full of soapy water. Flick bug into dustpan and then into bucket. Bugs drown and can’t squirt ammonia anymore.

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Do birds eat them by any chance? I have noticed a great deal of bird activity lately in the numbers descending on my land whereas weeks previously never saw hardly any.

stinkbug

just so we know what we’re talking about

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Can you tell me what damage they do, it is the first I have heard of it.
I kill nothing, and I mean nothing, that doesn’t directly harm me or mine or, provably, the environment.

That includes the so-called stink bugs (shield beetles) and the population must have got wise here over the last 30 odd years because they never stink when I remove them.

They are polyphagous and are a major pest of apple, pear, kiwi, peach, apricot, cherry, hazelnut, soya and corn crops.

What do they eat, the leaves, stems or the fruit itself?

I think everything and anything they can get their horrible little mouths into. I never minded the little green stinkbugs, they just did what they did but these are twice their size and horrible to look at with their antennas waving about and fat underbodies - total invaders.

It’s like marmite, of the nostrils.

I keep reading this thread title as ā€˜brown marinated stinkbugs’ and assuming it’s some kind of recipe…

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:rofl: :rofl: don’t get me started…

If we are talking about Leptoglossus occidentalis, they eat the sugars found in pine cones that are burgeoning on spruce and other conifers. They have a set of infrared sensors which allows them to detect the heat given off by pine cones in formation. They are harmless to humans, they don’t generally bite humans (one recorded case in Hungary, as far as I can tell, but of no gravity), but they do release aromatic pheromones when they feel threatened, and it is this cocktail which some people find offensive.

As to whether the release of these aromatic substances causes an allergic response in humans, the risk is similar to that of some household perfumed products containing the same or similar molecules. Yes, it is invasive, and yes, it has the potential to reduce seed production in conifer plantations that are being specifically grown to produce more conifers, e.g. for pine nut production, but other than that, not particularly of concern, unless you read the sensationalist gardening press in which all sorts of evil are attributed to them.

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Thank you very much, so I feel that I can continue to be nice to them and help them back outside to look for pine cones. :grinning:

As far as their aroma goes, if threatened by humans, I can only assume that they recognise me as a friend and don’t issue such defences. It is many years since I last detected it.

They think they are being kind, and I have tried to explain to them, without success, that said aroma smelled to me like almonds, and I quite like almonds so I rather miss it. :slightly_frowning_face:

I feel so redundant :joy: :joy:

Yes, spray around windows and entry points, don’t forget to wear full PPE, liquid insecticides dissolve lipids (fat) so you don’t want it getting into eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, or even absorbed into the skin. Insecticide sprays are not usually selective in what they kill.

Just bear in mind an insect ā€˜barrier/barriĆØre’ is still an insecticide. the ā€˜barrier’ is death! Some people don’t like to buy things that overtly kill, so the clever marketeers changed to word ~cide to barrier.

Read the ticket (composition) on the tin, it will usually be permĆØtrhine or cypermĆØthrine. Excellent ā€˜terminal barriers’ :crazy_face: Do not spray on house plants or pets. When in liquid state it can be harmful, but it’s ok when dry.

R-le-P (or is that R-I-P) :blush:

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We capture the horrid things and let them go, but would definitely kill them if we thought they would bite.
I’m bit sensitive to talk of bugs today, since I was bitten by a tic yesterday. A sharp prick on the scalp, while I was happily watching youtube, led me to touch the spot. Something black and shiny dropped onto the floor and set off crawling away. I had been clearing out the squirrel’s nut box under a large tree and I guess it dropped down from on high. We recognised it, squashed it, but then worried about the potential mouth parts, which we couldn’t find, so hoped all would be well. The pharmacist advised me to see a doctor, who I saw this morning and he prescribed 8 days of the antibiotic Doxycycline to be on the safe side. Phew !

No not the same.

Kill them because they are an invasive species from Japan and do extensive damage.

From Wiki:

The brown marmorated stink bug is a sucking insect (like all Hemiptera or ā€œtrue bugsā€) that uses its proboscis to pierce the host plant to feed. This feeding results, in part, in the formation of dimpled or necrotic areas on the outer surface of fruits, leaf stippling, seed loss, and possible transmission of plant pathogens. 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 U.S., 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, cherries, raspberries, and pears.[citation needed]

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that stinkbug is an absolute pest… and… (shock horror)… it doesn’t speak English :rofl: :rofl:
that really is the last straw… :wink: :wink:

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We were inundated with them before leaving to come back to the Uk , have never had problems with them before . Found 3 in the car when we arrived back !