Q. What is this bug?
Have hundreds or them in my yard. Are they harmful to my plants (vegetable and
flower). How do I get rid of them?
This bug is one of the stinkbugs. I was trying to figure out which one because
a few types of stinkbugs are predators (good guys) such as soldier bugs but
most are not. I think this is a bad guy.
Stinkbugs have mouth that is like a
hypodermic needle that lies flat against their stomach. They move the mouthpart
away from their body and can insert it into fruits, leaves, stems and other
soft plant tissue and withdraw plant juices.
The good guys insert their
hypodermic mouth into soft bodied insects and kill them by taking out their
body juices. When they feed on plant parts the plant part gets damaged. In the
case of fruits and nuts they can cause early fruit or nut drop. They can also
cause dimples to form in fruit like apples and pears.
So unless you have a
qualified entomologist like our state entomologist Jeff Knight in Carson City
to see for sure otherwise watch them and inspect your trees to see if they are
feeding there. You can get hold of Jeff Knight through the local Department of Agriculture office. In Las Vegas this office can be reached at 702-486-4690. Jeff will kill me but his email address is [email protected] I would send him some pictures. Real identification can take a very long time.
Soap sprays and oils like Neem directed at them will kill them
but will not leave much residue for future control. Otherwise you can use
pyrethrin sprays or other sprays labeled for fruits and vegetables. They can be
big pests if this is a bad one.