Sounds like stinkbug damage. There is little you can do about them. They have basically destroyed all my tomatoes since the start of August both this year and last year, though there has been less damage to tree fruit this year than in previous years. They are very tough insects without natural predators. The pyrethroid bifenthrin will kill them -- it is present in some consumer insecticides; check the list of ingredients. But it must be sprayed on the stinkbugs, since it has a low residual effect on them. The only way to stop them available to an organic grower that I know of is to bag the fruit, which works ok on apples and pears, but is not going to work with figs.

I started using Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth for my fig trees and for my vegetables. Bugs and slugs were decimating the cantaloupes this year. A bit of Diatomaceous Earth in the right spots and all the bad things died.

Dosed lightly in early July, then again just last week. Great, all natural, safe white dust. Google it and read about this stuff. Safe for pets and kids, kills all hard-bodied bugs, slugs, snails, yet safe for earthworms. An almost perfect product. Use the food grade labeled DE only, and don't breathe the dust!

I am not seeing this here in Winchester, Va. My Chicago Hardy, LSU Purple and Brn. Turkey have been producing an average of 10-18 per day. The only white spots i see are white sap drips from pruning the tops. This aids in the growth and ripeining of the figs. I do not apply any pesticides. Rick

I have read that the brown marmorated stink bug goes after figs, and I have seen them feeding on cuttings indoors. Their numbers here this year have been down from the past year but they are again doing serious damage. There do have a few predators: praying mantis (also from Asia), spiders, I heard rumors that cicada killers also attack them, and other wasps do for sure. If you want to spray the sobs then do it when they begin massing together in the fall(careful with pesticides around your house), you can also vacuum them up with a shopvac. There might be an easy solution someday; right now they are working on traps, but don't know if they will help or just bring more SBs into the area. There are also a couple of biopesticide sprays that might work out and be registered.
For now it seems the safest way to protect fruit is with Surround clay, it becomes more effective when mixed with a pesticide but reduces damage significantly on its own. I don't know if it can be used on figs though.

Rick -
You're lucky you haven't seen them yet! I'm just down the road in Linden and in the last few weeks they've really been out in force. They love my corn for some reason. I didn't grow any corn last year and had tons of them in my tomatoes. This year, there are tons in the corn and only a few in the tomatoes.

Thanks for the DE tip, budbackeast. I'll try it next year.

Anyhow, here's a photo of one of my little figs with the damage that I've been seeing.

That does not look like stink bug damage to me. What ever did this damage is one that bores into the fruit, probably to lay eggs. It will feed on the fruit when they hatch. I would not wait to find out what this critter is. What your looking at is resin came out to seal the wholes. Maybe put a real fine screen or mesh around one of the figs, so when they hatch, you will have some trapped to identify.

luke

Hi Bart1

Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth kills all hard-bodied bugs, from bed bugs and fleas to roaches. It is awesome stuff. It is not a poison, but works by a physical action, scraping away the insect's protective wax coating, causing it to simply dehydrate. There is no possible immunity from such a thing for them. I put in a 9-tree fig orchard this year, and put cantaloupes under the trees. Bugs and slugs attacked and I put down one pound of DE, spread lightly. Everythig died, and I am up to my ears now in cantaloupes.

Food grade Diatomaceous Earth is edible, and has wonderful health benefits, and in my case, has removed all my aches and pains. I have (had) diabetic neuropathy in the feet, arthritis in my injured wrist and shoulder, and weak knees. Pain gone after one week's use (teaspoon per day only) in late June and has not returned. Kills bugs, kills pain. What's not to like?

I will provide a link if interested.

Hey Bud -
Please provide the link. I'm intersted!

Thanks!

A good place to start for understanding Diatomaceous Earth:
HOW DE WORKS

How DE works for humans (bunches of testimonials):
HUMAN USE

Hi Bart. Just as a heads up, Walmart sells stink bug traps in the garden center. I checked online, but couldn't find them on Walmart's website. However, I did find this interesting Youtube video. Whichever you use, DO NOT place the trap near the figs. The stinkbugs will stop by the figs on their way into the trap if you do. I would recommend placing it at least 30 feet away from anything you want to protect.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best Stink bug trap EVER

Ha! I did that very thing last year....hung the stinkbug traps near the fig trees and the damn bugs were ALL OVER the figs. To add insult to injury, I mixed a very strong solution of a couple different pesticides and blasted the trees. Within a week at least half the leaves fell off or had some sort of chemical burn on them! D'oh!

Bud - thanks for the link and the info on DE. Very interesting. I'm really interested in the pain killing properties.

Thanks again,
Bart

Thanks for the DE advice. I did it today. It's kind of fun throwing the DE on them. I feel like I'm throwing a pie at them. One of them didn't think it was funny and flew right at my nose. Fortunately, it bounced off and didn't bite me. Actually, I have something different than stink bugs but related. I have some leaf footed bugs on my pomegranates and I've been looking at something effective. Looks like the juveniles are gone but the mean adults are hanging around so I gave them another round of the DE. Looks like a war zone but sure was fun. Powder everywhere.

Hi Bart1 & toucan 9,

Since it is not a poison, it can take a few days to kill them all. Here in Florida, we have those giant palmetto bugs (2 inch long roaches) plus other bugs familiar to the tropics. First time I spread DE, the next day I saw nothing, but in three days, even the palmetto bugs were belly up. Not sure what was eating the cantaloupe leaves, but BAM!, not one more nibble after the DE. Once the summer rains are past, I will spread about 5 pounds around the perimeter of the house.

In past threads and on other forums, complaints about DE include that it kills 'helpful' insects. Hey, the helpful ones weren't doing much of a job, so, oh well. DE, killing off the food supply to helpful insects should discourage them from showing up, as they see that there is nothing for them to eat in my yard.

Please do not use it in flowerbeds on the actual flowers, as I encourage bees and butterflies here in the front yard.

Have read that it also conditions the soil and does not harm earthworms. Am experimenting with that too right now. I've mega-dosed the area around my citrus trees with DE. Will wait a week and dig down to see if there are still worms, and wait a month to see if the trees flourish or perish.

I also put some around inside the house two months ago, and the house is bug/spider/roach free. Hooray for DE!

Do you know if it's contraindicated for people with diverticulosis because it is granular?

Thanks,

noss

I have never seen it in granular form noss. It is the consistency of cake flour.

Hi Noss,

DE is a very fine powder.

I thought I'd posted a reply this morning, but do not see it here. DE is reported to recondition the digestive tract. I had problems in my 20's with diverticulitis/diverticulosis requiring surgical correction. DE has not in any way given my system cause for complaint. The particles are so very tiny that they do not irritate diverticulae, but supposedly clean them out and allow them to heal. I do not know this to be true, but a rounded spoon a day will surely prove itself in time - or it won't. Just go Google the stuff and enjoy the strangeness!

The earlier link is to the company which sells the purest grade DE. It's almost pure white. The stuff I use, I'd bought for killing bugs, and was cheaper and a lot grayer. But it still works, so I still use it for bugs and pain.

My poor diabetic feet used to hurt so much, but now are pain free and I feel warmth, indicating renewed circulation. I might just avoid the future amputation which plagues my family's diabetics. We'll see.

Here is a link that might be useful: DE - HOW IT WORKS

Well Bud,

I just had replied to your post, then went to the link before actually posting and when I came back, it was all gone. %#(&^))%_#@$!!!!!

I read some of the testaments and am very skeptical that it could do all those things, so now I have to try it, but the thought of taking as much of it as some people are saying they take does't seem too good to me.

What do you take it with?

They have to be full of calcium, being skeletons and more like food, so maybe the body can use it for overal health.

We'll see how it goes and thanks for mentioning the food grade/medicinal part of DE.

I hope DE will prove to keep you from having to have amputations and wish we'd known about it for Mike's dad who was a double-amputee from diabetes.

I bought some DE from Safer Brand co. It says it has silicon dioxide in it from DE, whatever that means. There was a nest of fire ants in the tomato plant container, so I dusted the pot with the DE, which stirred up the ants, which was a good thing. The next day, no more ants. I dug and prodded, but they were either dead, or gone.

noss

I got a huge bag of DE at the feed store. It was maybe 20 dollars for about a 25lb bag. ( approximately.. I don't remember exactly because I bought it months ago and forgot about it. Did a great job of getting earwigs and cockroaches out f house. I spread it around the perimeter of house and saw a lt less of them inside the house.

Feeling guilty for hijacking this thread.

Okay, the microscopic Diatom skeletons are almost pure Silicone dioxide. No calcium. But Silicone is a trace mineral which significantly strenthens bone, teeth, hair and nails (or so it is reported).

I used a rounded teaspoon a day stirred into: orange juice or yogurt or apple sauce. Apple sauce is my favorite way, but all are fine. Many of the testimonials are from people who take up to three spoons of the stuff a day. No thanks. I'm happy and quite impressed with my lower intake.

Consider that I am a pretty skeptical guy, so it was with trepidation that I took my first 'half-a-spoon' dose. No taste, no grit, no cramps. My mistake was that I took it after sunset, and I had trouble sleeping because the stuff does indeed give me more pep. I now take it only before noon. I nap a lot less now too.

My widow lady next door has been plagued with ants in her front walkway area forever. I tossed a few pinches of DE around the nests and in two days, the nexts collapsed flat. Ants don't even visit. That was in June. Today, with no follow up applications, she is ant free. We used poisons there for years to little effect. Now, they're just gone.

I own an appliance repair biz, and see 4-8 people a day, mostly seniors. Those with obvious pain issues are shown the website posted above, and handed a sandwich baggie of the stuff. I give it away for free. Even my 80 year old barber is now using it.

Reminder: Only get FOOD GRADE DE, as the other stuff is not good for you or your yard. And also, the whiter it is, the purer.

Hi Bart,

I must apologize if my interest helped to hijack your thread. I didn't mean to do that and I hope you will forgive me.

I do think it's an excellent example of something that can be used as a weapon on pests, but seems to have great health benefits for humans.

I didn't see a reason to use food grade DE on food plants, though. Is there a reason to do that? I wouldn't put it on figs, or any food that couldn't be washed off easily.

Thanks,

noss

Hi noss,

Farmers shovel this stuff into the tops of grain silos to kill bugs. They used to spray grains with poisons, which we used to ingest.

To toss it into grain silos, they had to first get FDA approval, and they did. That's why it's called Food Grade. You've been eating a wee bit of it in every grain product (bread, etc) you've eaten for a couple decades.

I dusted my cantaloupe plants with it, and also dust the mulch around the fig trees, but not on the fruit, even though it is safe to do so.

Bart's stinkbug woes will certainly be better if he dusts the plants, but for those uncertain about DE, I'd suggest covering the fruits themselves with, um, I dunno, maybe kid's socks? Cellophane wrapping?

I dusted my peppers and my tomatoes and my eggplants and squash plants willy nilly, confident in the harmlessness of DE. I figure that, if I am to be spooning this stuff down my gullet, a wee bit on a fig sure cannot harm me.

It will definitely be food grad DE for food plants then and I'll use what I got for around the house.

Thanks,

noss

Spying The pyrethroid bifenthrin on stink bug will kill them easy��

So far, I've put DE on a couple of fire ant mounds and they've disappeared. I don't know if they're alive and moved, or dead in the ground.

Is the pyrethroid a synthetic pyrethrin? Is it stable to UV rays, because regular pyrethrins are not stable.

Thanks,

noss

I use DE on my cabbage for loopers, and to minimize flea beatles. It works great. I use a spreader called the dustin mizer, it spreads the DE real fine w/o alot of waste(I liked it so much I bought one for my dad).
There is a fruit bag out there which is essentially a small panty hose; I bought a bag to try thwart bees and wasps from my nectarines but I didn't use them this year because there was just so many fruits on the tree.

All this info is great about DE, but has nothing to do about with whats boring into the fruit. Okay you have seen many stink bugs, but that is not stink bug damage. Until you find out what insect has done this, you will not be able to find a proper way to take care of this matter. Stink bugs lay eggs under the leaves, like many other bugs. These marks are from a bug that has laid its eggs inside the fruit to feed on once hatched. If not identified and addressed, could lead to major impact for you in the near future. One way of finding out is to put a fine type of screen around fruit, so when they come out you will have them trapped inside so you can identify. I not saying cover everyone that shows this, just one.

luke

Luke,

What makes you say it is not stinkbug damage? They do feed by piercing the fruit and the fig would then leak.... If it is egg laying why would there be so many individual wounds on the fruit?

Definitely I am going to buy and try DE for my trees and my vegetables. The only question I have is DE might work on insects but what about Fungi infection. The Fungi infection destroyed my fruits namely peach and apricot. I was saved this year by applying chemicals on weekly basis and after every rain. Fungus this year was very bad because of the heat 90 degrees for three consecutive months. I hope DE works for fungus too.

I put DE on another fire ant mound and found they just moved over a bit from where they were. I dusted the new mound with it.

I have what looks like black and orange tiny stink bugs. Are they really stink bugs? They are very slender rather than boxy. I redusted the tomato planst with the DE.

noss

I made some research on DE a lot of people recommend using a mask and gloves when you are dusting this material because inhaling it is very dangerous to the lungs. I wonder if you can spraying it after you add water to it my understanding is to add a lot of water and spray it very quickly because it is very absorbent. By the way Alfred Nobel used to manufacture Dynamite for war purposes. He felt very sorry for inventing the dynamite so he dedicated all his wealth for people who work for world peace. That is the Nobel peace prize. I think Henry Kissinger, former president carter won it also president Obama won it too. Aside from organic last year I was very successful against the insects and very pleased by using Spectracide spray. That chemical course of action is to destroy the insects nervous system and kill it it works wonder for the ants too and stinking pugs. When it comes to insects destroying my crops I am welling to go for the whole 10 yards.

The type of DE used in swimming pool filters is an inhalation hazard, but the food grade DE is not particularly dangerous. I've read that people who work for years mining it have no particular lung damage. Still, we should take reasonable precautions.

Yes, Nobel used DE in making dynamite, as it helps stabilize the otherwise volitile nitroglycerine.

All my life, I used to use chemical sprays on my gardens and on my fig trees, but this year, I decided to go organic, so I only use DE for bugs, compost tea for fertilizer, lots of mulch and a little less water. My garden and my fig trees did great.

Since the DE is not a poison, but kills bugs by physical action, the bugs can never ever build up an imunity to it. On the other hand, pesticides are poisons, and the ones that work best are the ones with the strongest poisons. That's not such a good thing really.

BTW: I've taken a teaspoon of DE for several weeks now, and not only is the pain gone, but I have wonderful circulation again in my poor diabetic feet, plus I have double the energy of former times. I don't even nap any more. And I'm giving it away in sandwich baggies to some older customers of my appliance business. They love it too.

Hey budbackeast,

Do you look over your shoulder before you hand someone a baggie of DE? HaHa. You might get cuffed and stuffed till the labs come through. Sorry, I thought that was funny.

It's really great that it has the health benefits taken orally and that you are sharing this with others. I have known that vets use it for gastro parasites. I work with human vascularity and I can't think of why it could improve circulation. It would be neat to observe millions of microscopic exoskeletons scouring plaque form the intimal walls, but I doubt it enters the blood stream. The best I can come up with is it assists the intestinal walls in exfoliating thus improving absorption of nutrients, easing bowel inflamation, and supporting beneficial flora(less crud for the toxic flora to live off of); which would be beneficial for the entire system. Anyway, this is off thread and has nothing to do with stinkbugs or mystic fig borers. I apologize.

Have you seen stink bug damage on other fruits or veggies? They will eat at the surface and enter slightly. May move to another spot and do the same thing. Have you ever heard the term, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Bugs are like that,its a survival method. These marks are from a bug laying eggs. Put a nylon stocking over the fig, useing something to keep space open for them to exit. maybe small water or soda bottle with parts removed, only use is to keep nylon away a bit. I have seen this before on peaches,so wonder if it could be same critter that will lay eggs in them. It will only take a few minutes to set this up, what would be the harm in it. If nothing comes out, you can say I'm full of crap. If something does appear, you identify and maybe prepare for future. Personally I hope for the first, that way no worries for all and just me foc.

Luke,

Stinkbugs have piercing mouthparts. They sit on the surface and pierce the fruit with a tube like straw.