Beware the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
- On January 11, 2012
- By Meleah
- In Bugs
- 0
Last weekend I saw my first brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys). It was dead and tacked down to a white cushion inside of a small glass and wood box, but it was real. And it was ugly.
The bug was part of a Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) display on invasive insects at DaVinci Fest, a science and art fair for 4th – 12th graders my husband, Mike, and I went to last weekend to promote my new gardening book. Ordinarily, we’d steer clear of kid-centric events, but our friend Paula invited us and with boxes of books taking up space in our basement, we figured we’d buck up and go.
“There will be lots of adults there who are interested in gardening,” Paula told us, sweetening the pot by saying she would set us up with a table next to an avid bee keeper. It’s always interesting to talk to people who keep bees and A.J. Moses of Oakdale, Minnesota, was no exception. Check out this recent interview with him in the OakdalePatch.
As it turned out, Mark, the nice MDA entomologist with the stink bug, was on our other side. “These aren’t a big problem yet, but they’re here now and they may be,” he explained, holding up the bug display box so he could point out the differences between Minnesota’s native stink bugs and this new invader.
If you think all those brown, kind of flat, triangular-shaped stink bugs look the same, think again. Brown marmorated stink bugs have white markings on their abdomens and light-colored bands on their otherwise dark antennae.
Like Japanese beetles, emerald ash borer and other invasive pests that have found their way into the U.S. and, eventually, Minnesota in recent years, the brown marmorated stink bug is likely to cause problems for a wide variety of plants once they become widespread. They particularly enjoy feeding on fruit trees, some vegetables and soybeans. Oh, and true to their name, they sink to high heaven if you disturb them enough to release their stench.
Having just spent last summer battling our first all-out infestation by Japanese beetles, I’m less than thrilled to learn that these stink bugs (which are native to Asia) were spotted in our county in November for the first time. I guess we’re gonna need a whole lot more buckets of soapy water and some nose plugs (Japanese beetles don’t smell so hot either).
Some Things To Know About Japanese Beetles
- On August 22, 2011
- By Meleah
- In Bugs, Organic Gardening, Perennials
- 0
For five years now I’ve fussed over bare-root sprigs and cuttings of Virginia creeper, nursing them into the lush vines that now cover three arbors and a couple of fences at my house. This week, I started ripping all those vines out because, sadly, Japanese beetles just love Virginia creeper. For a while, my husband and I thought we could live with the damage the beetles do —all those green leaves reduced to lacy brown ghosts of their former selves. But when scads of beetles and showers of the dust-like poo they leave behind started raining down from the arbor into our hair every time we shut the back gate, well, goodbye vines.
For those who aren’t familiar with Japanese beetles, they are actually quite fetching little bugs. Dime-sized with shiny purple-green bodies, they almost look like something a wacked-out artificial intelligence researcher would create in a sci-fi film. First spotted in 1968 in Minnesota, as well as on the East Coast, Japanese beetles have since plagued eastern states, primarily, while slowly making their way westward. Larvae, or grubs as they’re usually called, feed on the roots of turf grass and adult beetles feed on a wide variety of ornamental plants.
Read More»Controlling pests in the garden
- On June 12, 2011
- By Meleah
- In Bugs, Organic Gardening
- 0
As I type this I can almost hear the four-lined plant bugs out in my garden chomping away on many of my perennials — even my wee basil plants that are just trying to get a start for the summer. My basil! I have no qualms about squishing these yellow bugs with the fat, black stripes on their backs or flicking them into a pail of water to drown. But I don’t spray them with chemicals anymore. Sevin, insecticidal soup, homemade soap sprays, I’ve tried all kinds of concoctions to try to get rid of four-lined plant bugs and other pests over the years. None of them worked very well.
I don’t use chemicals on bugs anymore. It’s not that I think all chemicals are bad; I don’t. Though I do think chemicals should be used judiciously. Don’t worry. I’m not going to be all preachy in this column about what you should do when trying to deal with pests in your own garden. I’d just like to share what I’ve learned about pesticides over the last few years so you can make your own, informed choices about pest control whether that be through chemical or natural means.
Read More»Mason Bees in the Garden
- On May 09, 2011
- By Meleah
- In Bugs
- 0
With the decline of honey bee populations in recent years, the hunt has been on for alternative pollinators. Orchard mason bees are earning high marks for their ability to pollinate fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables.
Orchard mason bees don’t live in hives. Instead, they nest in hollow areas, such as holes made by woodpeckers and insects. You can buy nesting boxes to attract mason bees, or make one by drilling holes in a wooden box (wood should be untreated). Plans for different types of boxes can be found online. Here are just a couple of the helpful sites I found: North Carolina State University Extension Service at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Other/note109/note109.html and Washington State University Extension Service at http://gardening.wsu.edu/library/inse006/inse006.htm.
Interestingly, hollowed-out spaces are favorable sites for orchard mason bees because of the way females lay their eggs. After gathering a bit of pollen, a female places the pollen at the bottom (or back) of the hole. Next, she lays an egg on top of the pollen and creates a partition with mud before repeating the cycle—pollen, egg, mud, pollen, egg, mud—until she gets to the opening of the hole and covers the end with one last dab of mud.
Because these bees tend to forage within 100 yards of their nest, once you’ve attracted them to your garden you can expect good pollination. Better still, orchard mason bees are much less aggressive than other bees, so there is a lower risk of being stung. The only real downside is that they don’t make honey.
If anyone decides to give these a try, or already has experience with orchard mason bees, please send a note and tell the rest of us about them.
Butterfly Gardening
I saw my first butterfly of the season the other day. I am but a rookie lepidopterist, so I don’t know what kind it was. All I saw was a streak of black, not nearly enough to be of help when looking it up in my field guide. As it swooped over my brown, sleeping garden, I worried about what in the world it would find to eat in these early days of spring. What was it doing here so soon?
The only thing I’m sure of is that it wasn’t one of our Eastern black swallowtails. It’s wings didn’t have the right yellow spots and blue patches. I say “our” swallowtails because for the last two summers my husband, Mike, and I have tried raising swallowtails on our front porch. We got the idea, or I should say I got the idea and my ever-patient husband went along with it, from a man named Jim.
Read More»FAQ: Relationship between ants and peonies
- On April 11, 2008
- By Meleah
- In Bugs, FAQ, Perennials
- 0
Q: Is it true that ants play a role in helping peonies bloom? It doesn’t seem true to me, but people always talk about how they’re needed to make the buds open. What do you think?
A: You’re right; it isn’t true. Ants don’t just go around kindly doing good deeds like helping flowers open. In this case, what’s in it for them is tasty nectar in the structure that covers the buds though they do help the buds, too, by keeping pests that might harm the blooms away.