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

A Stink Bug Solution Coming From The United States Department Of Agriculture!

Image via Wikipedia

Finally, a stink bug solution!!!!  The USDA has come up with a way to get rid of 80 percent of the stink bug population plaguing 33 states (the Mid-Atlantic States are ground zero).  A tiny wasp from Asia will be used to wipe out most of the stink bug population.  The wasp lays eggs in the skink bug and the babies eat their way out (yuck) killing the stink bug.  I am sure PETA will freak out over it but I say hip-hip hurrah!  They hope to release the wasps in 2013.  If the stink bugs are left unchecked they will decimate our food supply.  They are already impacting it!

 Read the entire article from the Baltimore Sun:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bs-ae-stink-bug-defense-20110221,0,3958702,full.story