Any Day Now: Stink Bugs Set To Descend Upon Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — What's crafty, a voracious eater, appears like clockwork every fall, and typically overstays its welcome?

No, Bunky, not your in-laws. It's the brown marmorated stink bug, and the Connecticut state bug experts expect them to drop any day now.

The bugs are normally content to rough it outdoors in warmer months, but come October, BMSBs quietly slink indoors in search of more hospitable environs, like under your chair or in your closets.

When exactly will the 2022 edition of the stink bug swarm make its pesty presence felt in your home? Katherine Dugas, an entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, said she is still waiting for a sign.

"It was pretty dry this summer. Sometimes these guys are hard to predict," Dugas told Patch. "Usually the trigger is in about mid-October. We'll have really cold weather, and then really warm weather, like a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the 70s. And that tends to be what calls them out."

Of course, CAES scientists are less focused on the bugs that wheedle their way into your couch than into your crops. With few natural predators in the U.S. and an indiscriminate diet that includes many fruit and vegetable crops, the BMSB has become an agricultural pest of concern throughout the country.

When stink bugs feed on crops, damage can include everything from bruises and blemishes to aborted sweet corn kernels to a change in the sugar levels in some fruits. The insects pose such a threat that the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the Stop the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug strike force. It's a team of 50 scientists from 18 land-grant universities closely tracking the migration of the invasive, fast-moving pest.

Some of the hardest-hit states have introduced samurai wasps into their ecology. The wasps, about as big as sesame seeds, hail from the BMSB's old neighborhood in Asia, and enjoy chowing down on them as much as the stink bugs like Farmer Brown's crops.

The critters are originally from Asia, and were first detected stateside in Pennsylvania in 2001. Researchers believe they were introduced into the U.S. in the late 90s and just laid low for a few years. Since then, the stink bugs have spread across the country via hitchhiking on vehicles and through commerce. They were first found in Connecticut in 2008, and can now be found in all eight counties.

Fortunately, the level of agricultural damage caused by stink bugs in recent years in the Northeast has been minor, according to Dugas.

"It tends to be more in the Mid-Atlantic region, where they start to see a lot of pressure."

Dugas recommends Connecticut residents do a survey of their exit and entry points to keep the stinkbug pressure off their homes. Double check that windows are fitting snugly on their tracks, repair any holes in screens, and ensure that central air or heating ducts and vents are properly filtered.

"What's great is this works for insects, and this also works for heat," Dugas said. "Basically, the idea is you want to keep the outside, outside. And keep in mind, stink bugs are flat, so they're pretty good at wedging themselves into small crevices."

And whatever you do, avoid crushing them, or you'll find out the hard way how the stink bug got its name.