If you’ve been out of your house at all in the past few weeks you’ve seen them. Brown marmorated stink bugs have begun taking over Northern California. In eight California counties, including Sacramento, these ugly brown stink bugs have experienced a recent population boom. While they’re certainly unpleasant to look at for most people, the pests are driving local gardeners crazy.
The brown marmorated stink bug is known not just for the horrible smell they emit when squished. More than anything, these bugs are wreaking havoc on local vegetable and fruit crops in gardens. “They pierce the fruit and they inject a little toxin type of enzyme in there and then they suck out the material in the fruit that they’re feeding on, leaving then dried out, hard, pithy pockmarks,” says Pam Bone, a UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener.
While the brown marmorated stink bug thankfully doesn’t bite or sting, its smell and garden-destroying habits make it a pest very few people want around, and that many people want to get rid of. Pam Bone cautions against the common reaction to crush them, as this will spread and release the noxious odor that stink bugs are so well known for. On plants that are likely to be harvested for food, don’t use non-foodsafe pesticides or chemical sprays. However, for everywhere else these bugs are being found, pest control in Sacramento can be a necessity to completely rid a yard or courtyard of them.