The annual march of the stink bugs in 41 states is underway and will hit hardest around Oct. 1, with houses painted brown and sealed in wood siding attracting the most pests during their four-week trip from woods and gardens to winter hideaways, according to a new federal report.
A first-of-its-kind analysis of detailed information supplied by businesses and homeowners inundated by the bugs last year shows the peak to be Oct. 1, but stretching from the middle of September to the middle of October.
“They’re coming, it’s starting,” said Tracy Leskey, one of the Agriculture Department’s top researchers into the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.
Last year — and repeated this year — she posted online a survey titled “The Great Stink Bug Count” for those with stink bug problems to fill out. Her goal is to draw up a map of where the bugs live and what types of buildings they like to overwinter in. This year’s survey is posted here.
One of those who filled the 2013 survey out, she told Secrets, counted 30,220 bugs.
According to her analysis of the information, the bugs, which came from China over a decade ago, are mostly a problem in woodsy and agricultural areas in rural and exurban America. Most of those who reported big problems live in agricultural areas surrounded by woods, such as Loudoun County, Va., and Howard County, Md. Urban settings were at the bottom of the list.
Buildings colored brown, gray and green attracted the most bugs, light colored homes the fewest.
Stink bugs also preferred buildings and homes made from wood, cement and stone. Those with aluminum siding didn’t have a big problem.
Meanwhile, after years of study, the Agriculture Department thinks it has an answer to killing the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. Leskey said a combination of native U.S. enemies and the Asian parasitic wasp, the stink bug’s foe back home in China, should do the trick.
The wasp is still being studied, though it could get the green light for release within a year.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
