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What ever happened to stink bugs? A few years ago they were overrunning everything. Now I hardly see them? Did animals adapt to eat them?

melling 8y ago
I see them all the time in New Jersey. They seem to be trying to get into the house before winter.
mikestew 8y ago
They moved to Seattle, apparently. Not as bad as elsewhere, but more than I’m used to. We had them in Indiana growing up, but they were something you’d see once in a while, not groups of them crawling up your screens.
stevehawk 8y ago
I'm in northern Indiana. They're constantly trying to get inside my house along with the Asian beetles (the Ladybug lookalike).
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
Definitely still around. I see them as they invade my house in winter and leave in spring.
heurist 8y ago
Most animals emerge and decline in cycles. One year rabbits are everywhere, next year foxes are everywhere, next year carrion, etc. Bugs/insects especially have odd cycles that are often not yet fully understood by humans. The danger is often with cycles that run out of control. In Michigan zebra mussels operate on a multi-year (7 year?) cycle. They'll reach a peak then decline. But each peak so far has been significantly larger than the previous one. They choke out all the mussels that are indigenous to the lakes in those peaks, then decline for a few years and throw entire ecosystems out of whack.
davio 8y ago
I never had a single stinkbug in the 13 years I lived in my previous home. I moved 10 miles north in the same city and the new house was full of them.
rjbwork 8y ago
Had one or two a week last winter in the house I rent in Atlanta. Nothing like some of the horror stories, but a nuisance nonetheless.
jackmoore 8y ago
I'm in central Florida and they ruined my pepper and tomato garden this year. Stinkbugs are on on every fruit.
tuxidomasx 8y ago
Southern Virginia here. Stinkbugs are EVERYWHERE right now (and have been for the past few years around the end of the summer and into fall). As I read the headline for this post I saw one slowly meandering up my wall. I also began to think about the possibility of this being done intentionally... You see, the brown marmorated stinkbugs we have are native to asia. They have no natural predators except for a tiny small wasp that parasticies their eggs (also native to asia). When I was researching them, I thought "What if China intentionally introduced them to the USA as some sort of ecological attack?" That would be some next-level warfare. Or just a really mean prank. And then this impending laternfly invasion re-piqued my interest in this theory. It turns out that a similar type of parasitic wasp is the natural predator for laternflys too... Could this really be a coincidence? Could it be a response to the new tariffs? What if they offer to sell us some bio-engineered wasps (a la Monsanto ) to help control our infestations? But the wasps die after a generation, so we have to constantly buy then... Of course it could still all be coincidence, but it's fun to think about.
- HillaryBriss 8y ago
  Not that I take it seriously, but, following the path of this wild speculation/paranoid thinking: what if the end goal is not to harm the US, but to give the US the problem in order to see what kinds of solutions (if any) US problem solvers invent?
- lodi 8y ago
  Sounds like we just need to import some Chinese wasps to eat all of the stinkbugs, then needlesnakes to eat the wasps, then needlesnake-eating gorillas of course... and in the winter the gorillas will simply freeze to death! Easy.
- wild_preference 8y ago
  Accidentally shipping species around is such an inevitable result of global trade that it doesn’t seem very useful to try to hang it on malice. Also, as the article points out, you can’t just import the pest’s predator because you may find out that predator much prefers your other species to the one you want to eradicate.

melling 8y ago

I see them all the time in New Jersey. They seem to be trying to get into the house before winter.

mikestew 8y ago

They moved to Seattle, apparently. Not as bad as elsewhere, but more than I’m used to. We had them in Indiana growing up, but they were something you’d see once in a while, not groups of them crawling up your screens.

stevehawk 8y ago

I'm in northern Indiana. They're constantly trying to get inside my house along with the Asian beetles (the Ladybug lookalike).

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

Definitely still around. I see them as they invade my house in winter and leave in spring.

heurist 8y ago

Most animals emerge and decline in cycles. One year rabbits are everywhere, next year foxes are everywhere, next year carrion, etc. Bugs/insects especially have odd cycles that are often not yet fully understood by humans. The danger is often with cycles that run out of control. In Michigan zebra mussels operate on a multi-year (7 year?) cycle. They'll reach a peak then decline. But each peak so far has been significantly larger than the previous one. They choke out all the mussels that are indigenous to the lakes in those peaks, then decline for a few years and throw entire ecosystems out of whack.

davio 8y ago

I never had a single stinkbug in the 13 years I lived in my previous home. I moved 10 miles north in the same city and the new house was full of them.

rjbwork 8y ago

Had one or two a week last winter in the house I rent in Atlanta. Nothing like some of the horror stories, but a nuisance nonetheless.

jackmoore 8y ago

I'm in central Florida and they ruined my pepper and tomato garden this year. Stinkbugs are on on every fruit.

tuxidomasx 8y ago

Southern Virginia here. Stinkbugs are EVERYWHERE right now (and have been for the past few years around the end of the summer and into fall). As I read the headline for this post I saw one slowly meandering up my wall. I also began to think about the possibility of this being done intentionally... You see, the brown marmorated stinkbugs we have are native to asia. They have no natural predators except for a tiny small wasp that parasticies their eggs (also native to asia). When I was researching them, I thought "What if China intentionally introduced them to the USA as some sort of ecological attack?" That would be some next-level warfare. Or just a really mean prank. And then this impending laternfly invasion re-piqued my interest in this theory. It turns out that a similar type of parasitic wasp is the natural predator for laternflys too... Could this really be a coincidence? Could it be a response to the new tariffs? What if they offer to sell us some bio-engineered wasps (a la Monsanto ) to help control our infestations? But the wasps die after a generation, so we have to constantly buy then... Of course it could still all be coincidence, but it's fun to think about.

HillaryBriss 8y ago
Not that I take it seriously, but, following the path of this wild speculation/paranoid thinking: what if the end goal is not to harm the US, but to give the US the problem in order to see what kinds of solutions (if any) US problem solvers invent?
lodi 8y ago
Sounds like we just need to import some Chinese wasps to eat all of the stinkbugs, then needlesnakes to eat the wasps, then needlesnake-eating gorillas of course... and in the winter the gorillas will simply freeze to death! Easy.
wild_preference 8y ago
Accidentally shipping species around is such an inevitable result of global trade that it doesn’t seem very useful to try to hang it on malice. Also, as the article points out, you can’t just import the pest’s predator because you may find out that predator much prefers your other species to the one you want to eradicate.