STINK BUGS!!!

A few are already showing up, and I have too many tomatoes, etc to hand pick them off. Are there any "miracle" remedies out there yet? Does Neem help control them? Safer Brand has a product that claims to, but the cost might be prohibitive.
Help!?

Neem--no, spinosad-no, pyrethrum-no. Nothing organic that I know of will kill them once they are adults. There is a non-organic control, cypermethrin, it has a 7 day wait before harvest, has a half life of 3 or 4 days, does not persist in the soil. I haven't tried this one because we are organic, but another grower said it works.

How disheartening! but thanks for your reply. I haven't had a veggie garden in over 20 yr, but went all in this year. Sign of the times?
Went out this AM and picked and squished a few, along with a few Jap Beetles and looked for eggs. Nothing yet.

You've got to stay on top of them and catch the nymphs! Those shy, cute, little orange "ants" with the long black legs, and that black bump on their butts. They run and hide behind the plant leaves when they're young.

They don't bite, fly, sting, jump, hop. They just run and hide behind things. Almost endearing ---until you remember they grow up to be STINKBUGS!

I use the latex glove or the BIC methods to control them.
►Apply latex gloves to both hands
►Approach nymphs from one direction. Use hand #1 as a decoy, and hand #2 to pop 'em as they run away from hand #1.

Or,

►Use a BIC fireplace lighter on their butts. Light em' up before they run and hide! Long as you singe a few legs, they won't be crawling back up to the plant again.

Predators on the ground will thank you for the snack...

Linda

Oh YES! I like the sound of the BIC method. Taking that long necked grill lighter on an excursion soon!

GG- you forgot to mention the small grass fire....part.

LOLROTFLMBO!!!!!!! YOU tell him!!!!

I like the BIC part, I usually just do a swoop and squish, have even gotten pretty good at squishing the adults (they stink).
I was wondering how the BIC would work in 30mph wind? If I could get it to light, probably wouldn't have to weed for a while.

GG-I wasn't there. It would make more sense coming from you.

ok, dumb question, what do the adult stink bugs do to our plants?

They park on your tomatoes, and stick their needle noses into the fruit. Then, they inject some sort of enzyme into the fruit to break it down, so they can extract juices from it. That enzyme causes hard patches to form on your tomatoes, rendering them unsellable, and less than appealing to eat...

Best to be on the look out for them when they're in the nymphs stage. If you see a HERD of what looks like little orange ants with black legs, and a black bump on their butt, all huddled together, go after them with a vengeance!!!!

I am trying a Bernzomatic TS4000. No, I didn't buy it just to torch stinkbugs, but as long as I have it... It is "instant-on", push-button ignition, uses inexpensive propane, and it will definitely work in 35mph wind.

-Rich

i use castile soap and water and it flat kills the adults on contact. you have to have a direct hit but it kills them. i walk around the garden with my spray bottle and zap them. i had hundreds and hundreds for several years in a row before the castile and now the last two years, i hardly ever see any. for a quart bottle, i use a tablespoon per quart. it will kill anything but don't spray when the bees are flying; wait until evening or early morning.
i almost hate that they're gone....i'm sadistic when it comes to stink bugs....lol

Where do you find Castile soap?

it's called Dr. Bronner's and is liquid. walgreens and i think target both carry it. i buy mine in a two-pack from amazon. it comes in a good sized bottle and in different "flavors"....like mint, lavender, citrus. it makes the garden smell divine!

THANKS! I Googled and saw the flavored varieties at WalMart. I will get some TODAY!!!.

I just ordered the 2-pk. Lavender!

you won't be sorry. i was amazed at how fast it works. it's made up of nothing but oils but yet doesn't feel really greasy and i have never burned a plant with it. of course, i don't ever spray in the heat of the day and do be careful with the bees. one or two quick jets of this and the stink bug is history. since i love walking around my garden, it's easy for me to do but i also use it in a 1 gallon pump up sprayer to get eggs and other nasties that i can't see.
using it these past couple of years, i have noticed a great reduction in all bad bugs but i still have a lot of good bugs, maybe not as many as before because there isn't as much for them to eat.....

Thanks, Trackinsand!

I'll post a report when I use it.

The stuff sold by Safer for Stinkbug control (EndAll, http://www.saferbrand.com/store/garden-care/5102#desc) is according to them nothing but 1% soap, 0.9% neem "extract", and 0.012% natural pyrethrin. Shouldn't be hard to replicate for a lot less than the prepackaged stuff. (Hint: a "Clarified Hydrophobic Extract of Neem Oil" sounds like just the purified / filtered oil itself - it is already hydrophobic, as are most fixed oils).

-Rich

Just saw my first stink bug yesterday. Blech! Toasted his hiney!!

I GOT MY DR. BRONNER'S, AND IT SMELLS WONDERFUL!!!

of course, the stinkbugs have all gone away....no more tomatoes left in my yard...only two waiting to ripen...gasping for air.....gone....

you can use it for spot spraying of spiders, etc. inside the house...if you don't want them there...or you can just shampoo your hair with it! lol

Will this work on flea beetles, or does the Neem/Murphy's Oil Soap do a better job? I have shotgun pellet holes in my new eggplant leaves, and wanna stop the culprit in its tracks...

it truly works on everything it touches. what i like about it is that unlike neem, there is no greasy coating to the leaves and thus the chances of burn are much less. also, it is not a systemic, it must touch and cover the pest.

i thought of you this morning as i made my daily ritual stroll through the garden, bottle in hand. used to be, i'd kill on average, 20 stink bugs in just 10 minutes or so. today i got through the whole garden and in the last couple seconds found one smallish one. it really has made a huge improvement.

another thing i have learned is to educate yourself on what the predatory stink bugs in your location look like, both as nymphs and adults. it is just too cool to watch one stab a bad bug and i have more of these good ones than i ever used to.
the castile will kill them so i take special care now not to spray everywhere without checking first.

You mean the Assassin bugs. I had a herd of them my first spring season at my home. Couldn't figure out why I didn't have a single bug climbing up my buckets to the plants. Then, I discovered the assassins in the Mexican Heather growing around the perimeter of my yard. Exactly beneath my eBuckets!

I haven't seen very many of them at all this season, though. Don't know where they went off to. I let the MH grow hoping they'd return, but they haven't that I can tell. So, I need new artillary against the stinkbugs.

Gonna share some with my neighbor two doors down. His tomato patch is totally overrun with adult stinkbugs, cause he didn't pop the nymphs like I suggested.

Will report on progress with the Dr. Bronner's. Thanks for sharing this tip. Now I wanna go spray the yard, just to have it smell like the lavender!

Assassin Bugs, yes, but i was really talking about the Predatory Stink Bugs. i'll see if i can find some info for you.

The Assassins look just like the Stinkbugs, only they don't have the "leaf" on their legs, and they don't travel in herds.

Nope, I'm wrong. The adult Assassins look more like a larger stinkbug nymph only without the black bump on their butt. And that long nose, and they travel alone, not in herds.

i don't know if this will come up for you or not. i googled Predatory Stink Bugs in Texas and got a few hits: http://peanut.tamu.edu/library/pdf/IllustratedInsects.pdf


another one: http://citybugs.tamu.edu/2010/05/19/stinky-bugs/

This message was edited Jun 18, 2012 6:01 PM

one more: the texas a&m site is loaded with stuff: http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/aimg80.html

This message was edited Jun 18, 2012 6:03 PM

Ok, so I get home, and there are no stinkbugs to be found. Shoot!

So, I peruse the garden and see these little creatures on my baby eggplant leaves. I don't know what they are. They'e sort of longish, translucent ants. They crawl. In any case, they're candidates for what's putting those shotgun holes in my eggplant leaves, so they have to go.

So, I mix up the Dr. Bronner's, just cause I'm dying to see if this stuff works... I didn't have a quart spray bottle, so I found a smaller one and put one teaspoon of Dr.B in it. It turns whitish. Then, I go out and spritz the leaves, top and bottom. Smells GREAT! Bugs stop moving, and they don't move again...it WORKS!

So, I spritzed everything in the yard!

The end....

Yay!!!!!!!! ^^_^^

:-)

Doing the Dr.B dance "^^_^^"

lol

Uh, the bugs are back. It rained today, so maybe the Dr. B got washed off. Maybe I didn't mix it strong enough?

Identifying these bugs is driving me nuts. When you come up on them, they look like translucent ants. When you pick one up, it has wings, but they don't take off flying like a fly. They just fall off the leaf down to the soil, and they use the wings to glide down. I looked at all sorts of nymphs today and didn't find it. Any hints would be appreciated.

castile soap doesn't have any residual effects other than maybe the scent repels certain things (like fleas with lavender). you have to do a direct hit to kill something. if it killed the first time, then the ratio of mix is fine.
it would really be helpful to try and get a photo of these things and post on the insect ID forum. you need to know what you're dealing with.

Since you're using soap, Linda, it will wash off when it rains or when you water. Gotta apply again. :(

We toasted another stink buy today. This time, he was on my pole beans. Also found a very healthy tomato hornworm on my maters. He's history.

even if it didn't wash off, if it didn't hit a bug when you first sprayed it on, it's useless.

I drenched the bugs the first time, before it rained...maybe I didn't mix it strong enough. My sprayer is only about a pint and a half, and I used a teaspoon of Dr. B.

i think you just have many more bugs than you realized. a teaspoon to a pint is about right.