Stink Bugs Likely To Have Company This Winter

The brown marmorated stink bug isn’t the only pest that will invade York County homes this fall and winter.

The boxelder bug — named after the boxelder maple tree on which it feeds — typically likes cold weather and will likely emerge later than the stink bug, said Dominion Pest Control owner Greg Pettis.

“They live on the seeds that we endearingly call ‘helicopters’ because of the way they twirl when falling from the tree,” Pettis said via Facebook message. “I have seen (boxelder bugs) live on silver maple tree seeds also.”

Boxelder bugs are true sunbathers, he said.

Read more: http://www.ydr.com/local/ci_24435781/make-room-boxelder-bug?source=most_viewed

Here’s what the Penn State Extension has to say about Boxelder bugs: 

http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/boxelder-bug

New Stink Bug On The Move Toward Pennsylvania

Map of Pennsylvania, showing major cities and roads (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

PITTSBURGH, PA – A new stink bug with attitude is heading toward Pennsylvania.

As if farmers and homeowners haven’t been bothered enough by the brown marmorated stink bug that landed in Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, a smaller but equally pesky bug is making its march toward the state’s border, experts say.

The Megacopta cribraria, known as the kudzu bug, has an armor-like shell and a beak for ripping into plants and feeding on legumes, particularly soybeans.

They can swarm but not feed on other plants such as grapes, wheat and corn, according to researchers at North Carolina State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Science.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=517334

Less Stink About Stink Bugs This Year

Andrew McElroy remembers getting calls from homeowners about stink bugs and then finding thousands of the tiny critters hiding under house siding or in various cracks or crevices.

“We’d move the siding, and you couldn’t see the brick underneath because it was covered in stink bugs,” he said.

But so far this fall, McElroy, owner of Best Pest Control of Reading, said the shield-shaped bugs with pointy antennae are leaving homeowners alone.

“I don’t think they’re as prevalent as they had been maybe two years ago,” McElroy said. “The jury’s still out. But I can’t recall a situation where I’m seeing a thousand stink bugs like I did a few years ago.”

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=415963