16 October 2025
Keep in mind the brown marmorated stink bug invasion? Halyomorpha halys was first seen in Allentown PA in 1998 and shortly unfold throughout the state. By 2010 alien stink bugs have been inflicting document injury in Pennsylvania orchards and annoying owners by invading tiny cracks in our houses on the first signal of chilly climate. October was once the worst month for this.
Research again then predicted the place the stink bug was more likely to invade whereas USDA looked for a organic management. They have been searching for a predator throughout the brown marmorated stink bug’s native vary that might not pose a risk to North American species.
In the meantime the stink bug continued to unfold. By inside 20 years it was thick within the I-95 Hall, clearly established east of the Mississippi, and had unfold within the Pacific coast states.
By 2018 researchers had settled on a protected non-stinging wasp, the Samurai wasp (Trissolcus japonicus), that lays its eggs inside brown marmorated stink bug eggs; its larva eats the egg from inside. The map beneath reveals the wasp’s potential vary around the globe. Its outlook as an answer within the japanese U.S. was nice nevertheless it was marginal to unsuitable within the West.
Approvals to import the wasp have been nonetheless grinding by the bureaucratic course of when the Samurai wasp confirmed up by itself as described on this classic article: Stinkbug Predator Exhibits Up On Its Personal.
As quickly as that occurred the wasp grew to become out there to farmers in want of stink bug management and the wasp continued to unfold by itself.
By 2021 it had unfold to North Carolina and surprisingly to southwestern Idaho, a spot that was mapped (above) as marginal to unsuitable habitat for the wasp.
By the wasp doesn’t care. There are stink bugs in Idaho so the wasp flew eastward from Oregon discovered a brand new house. This USDA map on the stopbmsb.org web site reveals the distribution of each species, the stink bug in stable colours, the wasp as dots.
Again right here in Pennsylvania the brown marmorated stink bug is never seen anymore, because of the feminine Samurai wasp who’s a terrific traveler in seek for prey on which to put her eggs.
p.s. I’m wondering how she finds the stink bugs. Can she odor them from afar?
