UGA Conducting a Stink Bug Survey

They are weird looking little creatures and Northeast Georgia is being invaded by them.

You may have wondered what that stinky, little brown square bug is that has suddenly turned up in your house.

Well it’s a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, and now the University of Georgia Extension Service wants to know how many there are in our area.

The Extension Service is doing a Stink Bug Survey and if you’ve been plagued by the little creatures, they want to know about it.

Franklin County Extension Service Agent Raymond Fitzpatrick said Stink Bugs are new to Georgia.

“The survey was designed by an entomology professor at the University of Georgia,” Fitpatrick said. “It’s designed just to give us a head count because right now we don’t have a really good treatment for them. They are still a relatively new species. They were discovered in Georgia in 2001 and we still haven’t found a good way to treat them.”

Stink bugs are not native to the U.S. and first showed up in Pennsylvania. Fitzpatrick believes they came in on food imported from Asia where they are common.   In the U.S., they have no natural enemies as they do in Asia and now they are spreading across the country. 

While Stink Bugs are not deadly, they are mainly a nuisance and if you squish them they emit a terrible odor. Stink bugs will hide out in attics and walls during the cold winter months and emerge with the warm weather.

Fitzpatrick said right now, there is no insecticide that will effectively eliminate them.

“Right now we dont’ have a good chemical that we can treat the Stink Bug,” he said. “We’re still trying to work on the mechanical exclusion to try and keep them out of the home rather worrying about how to treat them inside the home.”

Outside, Stink Bugs can get into your garden where they will eat your vegetables, but Fitzpatrick said they are easily maintained in the garden by just brushing them off the plants.  However, they have become a serious threat to crops, especially fruit crops in the Mid-Atlantic states, according to Penn State University’s Department of Entomology.

He said UGA is working with the Pennsylvania Extension Service to find a way to keep them from getting into your house.

If you would like to take part in the Stink Bug survey, you can contact Fitzpatrick at 706-384-2843 or your local extension agent and they will email you the survey.