for the Gloucester County Nature Club
The stink bugs that moved into the nooks and crannies around houses last fall are now making their way inside, where it’s warm.
I can’t say that I blame them. If I could squeeze through a space that‘s the thickness of a nickel to get warm, I would do the same.
So what are these insects anyhow? Well, there are many kinds of stink bugs, but the one that is currently making a nuisance of itself is the brown marmorated stink bug.
It’s a native of eastern Asia that was accidentally introduced to the United States around 15 years ago. The first ones were found at Allentown, Pa., and it is thought that they came in as stowaways on merchandise or packing material.
As of 2011, they had spread to 34 states.
How did the insects spread so far, so fast? Well, they can fly. But, more likely, they were unwittingly transported by people. And recent warm winters have made it possible for them to produce extra generations of offspring.
Probably most readers of this column already know what this insect looks like, but for those who don’t, well, it’s about five-eighths of an inch long, and somewhat less wide. The term “shield bug” nicely describes their body shape — kind of squared off at the top (with the head projecting) and rounded at the bottom. They come in various shades of brown with gray, off-white, and black markings in a somewhat marbled (or marmorated) random pattern.
There are alternating light and dark markings on the thin outer edge of the abdomen.
These are true bugs — that is, they have sucking mouth parts, with a hollow beak that pierces their food source, injects saliva, and sucks up the sap or body fluids.
There are something like 40 species in this insect family in New Jersey. Most feed on the fruiting parts of plants. A few, however, feed on animal food — usually on other insects.
One characteristic that all stink bugs have in common is that the eggs hatch into very small miniatures of the adults. Baby stink bugs grow into adult stink bugs, molting their skin five times in the process, and taking about a month to mature. There’s no grub or caterpillar stage as there is in many insects.
The marmorated stink bug is an agricultural pest that damages fruit and vegetable crops. On fruits such as an apple, or on a leaf crop such as lettuce, the spots where it has fed become brown and dead, and the produce becomes unsellable. In the house, well, they are just a kind of nuisance. But if you handle one roughly, you’ll find that it exudes a foul-smelling oil from holes in its abdomen, to justify its name.
For information about the Gloucester County Nature Club, see gcnatureclub.org/.
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