Stink Bugs

[PA_Docent]

Orchards in PA only produced 50% of normal this year. Of that 50%, nearly all had stink bug damage. My observations/experience:

1. The harder the apple, the more resistant to stink bugs.
2. Sweeter apples seem to be favored by the stink bug; I have to throw out about 50% of my York Imperials that I bought. The York apples are soft and the damage traversed through the fruit and sometimes affected the core. Winter Banana and Pleasure were two sweet, but hard apples; only had to cut where the puncture was.
3. Tart were also affected but much less.

Next year should be when some of my apple trees start producing. Since I will only have a few apples, I plan on using a very, fine nylon pocket to cover each apple.

I am wondering if anyone has had partial/full success dealing with stink bugs?

Does anyone have any other ideas besides spraying pesticides? To be effective, pesticides have to be sprayed every four or five days.

I tried a one of those lure traps in my garden (stink bugs love tomatoes) but it did not catch one stink bug

I also squish them between my fingers or step on them but there are too many!

[PA_Docent]

I am especially happy to report that Stayman and Cox Orange Pippin were not affected that much by stink bugs. There were several places where the stink bugs infected, however the damage only was topical to half a centimeter into the flesh.

They are both tart and hard apples, so I guess the stink bugs prefer softer, sweeter fruit.

If anyone else has any observations, please post to this topic. I see the forum topic has been visited over 30 times, however no one has left a message or observation. There must be other people concerned with stink bug damage to apples, however I for one, believe in sharing information.

[advancedipm]

I hope you would have consulted with professionals near you if not then you must. Professionals do better know how to deal with such things. well till the time you consult to a professional here are some professional tips to get rid of stink bugs from your garden.

Step 1. Be familiar with the type of pest your are having.

Adult stink bugs considered to be near about 5/8" long, nearly around a human thumbnail size, these can be seen in typical brown or grey colour . Mostly they supposed to be found in warm weather.

Sort of plants stink bugs favor:-

Pears
Peaches
Bean plants
Okra
Raspberries Etc.

Step 2. Weed Your Garden

To get rid of one enemy you have to feed another enemy for a while. You heard diamond cuts diamond? Uproot your weeds. Well.. let me tell you just weeding your garden will not let you get rid of the stink bugs by itself. It can just provide a shelter for bugs to hide in, making the problem easier to manage.

Step 3. Use kaolinite

kaolinite will not harm your plants and it will make almost impossible for stink bugs to lay their eggs. It has a clay mineral that helps it in doing this. Kaolin is very much affordable and can be bought at most garden supply stores.

Step 4. Make a sticky coffee can trap

Make sure to coat you coffee can trap with some sticky stuffs. wear your gardening gloves and start your work. gather each bug from the leaves into the can and put it put the airtight lid on & put it in sun light.

you keep doing it for few days and we will get rid of these stink bugs!

I hope this helps.

[Skipley]

humm.
Yep, We're on a mission here to grow without spraying... and we don't for concern of unknown disruption.
Hear this. Has anyone ever increased the floral diversity for enough years and introduced the predators (or waited for their arrival) to take the numbers down on all of our common pests in the orchard??? We are doing this and observing. 25 years in one garden doing this and cheering the balance. We are slowly, with observation, finding the nectary plants that are the alternate food sources while a pest species may be building. Thousands to grow and experiment with... Particular "Weeds" most likely are inclusive species in this diversity that attract these welcome guests that will chow aerially, or otherwise, but reduction in numbers---balance---is the game plan.

[PA_Docent]

Are stink bugs territorial? Do they migrate during the year? I live in the country so if I remove stink bugs from my yard, it will only be a matter of time before I have more. I will try the sticky coffee pot method this year.
thanks - Mike

[jhatchett]

I have about 18 dwarf trees. I performed an experiment last summer to determine the best approach to insect damage. I used plastic sandwich bags for covering about 2/3 of my thinned apples when they were about 1/4 to 1/2 in. size, thinned to about 6in. apart. The other 1/3 I used nylon footies to cover. I mid August I sprayed all with Kaolin clay suspension mostly for sunburn protection. The sandwich bagged apples were essentially blemish free. The nylon footie apples were heavily damaged by stink bugs and other beetles with snouts which were able to penetrate the mesh to reach the fruits. The physical barrier of the sandwich bags was very effective. It was time consuming so number needed to treat will be an issue. I will now go exclusively with plastic sandwich bags.