stinkbugtrapper, mind telling us the nature of this research?

ronalawn82 - There are several motives for our research involving the (BMSB) and the Kudzu bug. Researchers from the big universities all received millions of dollars for stink bug research, but we are a small private company that has funded 100% of our research from our own pocket and by reaching out to people and asking lots of questions. In 2009 I lost a 10 year career repairing sophisticated airplanes and my family was displaced to a rental property that is still to this day infested with stink bugs. This infestation led me to invent the first stink bug light trap available to the public in late 2010 and with this I created the company Strube's Stink Bug Traps LLC. Shortly after this learned why our house was getting re-infested every year. The reason for is because our house is surrounded by Soybean & Corn fields which is a couple of the stink bugs favorite meals. Since we found this out we turned our attention to the agricultural problem that these bugs are causing around the country. Last summer 2011 we developed a light trapping system that we tested all summer in a Lancaster county peach orchard. In 2010 this orchard experienced significant crop losses exceeding 50% . Our company and trapping system was at this orchard all summer 2011 and despite some of the most powerfull pesticides being used we still caught several thousand stink bugs which is enough to cause severe crop damage. Our trap in an organic setting where pesticeds were not being used our commercial trap was catching stink bugs at a rate of 1500+ an hour. We recently have been reading news artices about stink bug populations being wiped out by flooding that happened in the northeast but from what I am hearing this is far from true. So I turn to forums like this to ask people about their problems, questions,etc we post our field notes on our company website for anyone to see. we will be adding a lot of new stuff in the coming weeks.. stinkbugtrapsonline.com

stinkbug, I'd advise you to observe the traffic in this and the Vegetable forum. It's a bit early for a great deal of activity, but I'm sure that critter issues are on the cusp of their usual population explosion. Might be a bit more active this year.

stinkbugtrapper 6, thanks.

Last year I saw a few BMSB's in our garden here in east central Kansas. I hand picked and killed all that I saw, taking advantage of their reflex to drop when disturbed. In many instances I could disturb them with one hand and catch them as they fell in the other hand. If I missed catching the bug I could usually find it on the ground and get it. I got stinky hands that way, but soap is cheap.

The farmers around us were growing soybeans last year and they plan on planting corn this year, so we are prime territory for a stink bug invasion. But so far, it hasn't happened. We had no indoor stink bugs last Fall and only token amounts in our garden. I'm sure that eventually they will become a problem here, but so far they are a minor annoyance, along with a few other species of stink bugs, like the green ones that seem to take a liking to my tomatoes. I hand picked a bunch of them, too, but you have to be more careful with them. They have a couple of sharp "thorns" on their thorax that can prick you if you aren't careful.

I would purchase and install an electronic bug zapper here to kill a lot of night flying moths and such, except that we have a lot of beneficial lacewing flies that would be wiped out if I did that.

I see a lot of the lacewing flies on our windows during their season, so they are strongly attracted to light (and unfortunately, mosquitoes aren't). Since your traps use light as the attractant, I probably wouldn't buy an outdoor version of it because of the tradeoff between lacewings and whatever is trapped.

With corn and soybeans being grown extensively in our rural area, I don't look forward to a population build-up of BMSB's here. When that happens, and it probably will, there will probably be tons of BMSB's withing flying distance of our garden. Hopefully the farmers' corn and soybeans will act as decoy crops. Although I will be attempting to grow some sweetcorn of my own.

ZM

Hi Stinkbugtrapper. No Stink Bugs here but I did have a Kudzu bug explosion here on the 12th or the 13th. I'm in Lancaster County really close to the Gold Mine. The little pests are all over my emerging Banana trees! They got to go!!

Lancaster Virginia? I did not know kudzu bugs were that far north, wow! Would you like to try a trap for review? I wont charge you anything to review it for us and take a couple snap shots when it is full of kudzu bugs. Our traps are catching kudzu bugs by the thousands in Georgia so, If you want a trap send your contact info to stinkbugtraps@aol.com or you can give me a call if you feel more comfortable talking to someone first 717-449-3015

No, I'm in Lancaster County SC. Yes, I'll try one of them out for you. I'll be in touch via email.

We have a significant population of BM stink bugs thriving on our land. We live in the Blue Ridge Mountains NE of Roanoke, VA.The number of BMSB varies house to house in our area and we happen to have the largest infestation of all our neighbors. We literally have thousands on our house and in our garage come early October. See the attached picture for an idea of what our house looks like in the fall. I had someone from VA Tech come out and he took away 2 five gallon containers that we filled about half full with BMSBs for research. The gentleman from VA Tech said that he thought it was our elevation (1500 ft above sea level)and the color of our house (green) that made it so attractive for the bugs. The stink bugs never really went away this winter. We had a jar with soapy water on the counter for stick bugs disposal on a daily basis.

The real problem is in our garden. We lost all of our squash & zucchini last year. The stink bugs were on everything but caused the most damage to our green beans, Crowder peas and tomatoes. I noticed that they stayed away from the mint and basal. I am desperate for an organic solution to eliminate the BMSB from our garden. We have too many to hand pick and kill although I pick and kill as many as possible. I am hoping that your products may be helpful and looking forward to learning more.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Wow! You sure have a problem on your hands. The good news is, this is the type of problem our traps were developed to control. Give me a call and I will send you a demo free of charge. All I ask is you share the results with this forum. Email me your address and I will send it out. stinkbugtraps@aol.com

I have finally found out what has been harrassing my wisteria vine for the last month. I live on a barrier island near Charleston and I have been spraying them off with the my hose, but you really have to hit them good and then within a few days they return. They have turned some of the leaves pale yellow..but my kudzu is doing just fine.

Benellenagh - Are they brown marmorated stink bugs or kudzu bugs? I heard from many people that kudzu bugs love wisteria.