The BMSB is definitely not my BFF

Everyone I know in Pittsburgh was up in arms this fall about the great stink bug invasion. I got plenty of chances to see it for myself when I was home for Thanksgiving. Every day I would find a new one or two or three somewhere, usually dead, which wasn't that bad, but then when the weather warmed up a bit there would be quite a few more crawling on the window screens or flying around. Sometimes going into a bedroom that hadn't been used for a while I would find an alarming number around a window. Conrad, our friendly exterminator, came out and we commiserated about it for awhile as he admitted that there was very little he and chemicals could do beyond what I was already doing. He explained how hard it is for people to accept the fact that the bugs cannot be eradicated by the force of money and chemicals alone. The key is finding the openings in the house where the bugs get in and closing them down, and, when such efforts fail, learning how to deal with them as a fact of life. Conrad knows that I understand such things coming from the land of the giant palmetto bug, also known as Savannah, Georgia.

Penn State's College of Agriculture Sciences has posted useful news and information about the stink bug on its Entomology webpage. Its full name is the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), which is not native to North America, but apparently was "accidentally introduced" into eastern Pennsylvania. First seen in Allentown in 1998, it has since been collected in 37 counties in Pennsylvania (although the site says it is probable that they are in all counties) and numerous other states. While it does not cause any known harm to humans, it is becoming a serious agricultural pest damaging fruit and other crops.

The Penn Staters explain that "BMSB becomes a nuisance pest both indoors and out when it is attracted to the outside of houses on warm fall days in search of protected, overwintering sites. BMSB occasionally reappears during warmer sunny periods throughout the winter, and again as it emerges in the spring." No mention of what they do over the summer--maybe that's when they get out and do their crop damage to fatten up for the winter hibernation. In terms of dealing with them, the site recommends "mechanical exclusion" to keep them out of the dwelling and vacuuming them up after they've gotten in. They apparently do stink if squashed or vacuumed up en masse, hence the name.

They are very slow and easy to pick up, so that part is easy unless you are squeamish about bugs. Even if you are as crazed as I am about the giant palmetto bugs in the south, you will be able to handle the BMSB, which is small, docile and almost attractive by comparison. Penn State's lead photo, shown above, is almost fetching. However, it is not easy to get one out of the microwave door, and how the heck did it get in there, anyway? I am careful not to squash them (gross!) and just throw them out the door or flush them down the toilet. I find no obvious mass entry points or any way possible to exclude them from the house, which basically is just a large wooden barn with cracks everywhere, hopefully not to become a BMSB's dream overwintering lodge. I have friends who seem to have it much worse than me so I'm trying to feel grateful for that while praying for a winter that is just bad enough to kill them off.

The scientists do not seem interested in speculating as to how this accidental introduction may have occurred. It isn't hard to figure out, though, as my recent experience will show. A few days after I got back to Dubai I noticed something on our window sill. Having never seen a bug in the apartment, I thought it might be a dustball or piece of paper. Boy, was I surprised when it turned out to be none other than a BMSB! I have no doubt that it stowed away in our luggage. How clever to seek out an overwintering spot in the desert. Thankfully the long journey or lack of food or absence of wall crevices in our Dubai concrete haven, who knows what, must have done the stinker in. I have yet to find any others, but will keep my eyes peeled.