Stink bugs raise agriculture concern on LI

A hungry insect that's proliferating at warp speed is causing millions of dollars in crop damage in several states and now has been spotted in small numbers on Long Island.

The brown marmorated stink bug has a voracious appetite, no domestic natural predators, and a taste for everything from apples to lima beans -- and may just be getting started.

Stink bugs have so severely damaged some varieties of fruit that consumers in some parts of the country could notice higher costs at the supermarket, experts say.

Growers in the mid-Atlantic region have reported the worst problems, and the apple industry appears hit hardest, with $37 million in damage to growers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, according to the U.S. Apple Association. That's about 18 percent of the Mid-Atlantic crop.

Mark Seetin, the association's director of regulatory and industry affairs, called it the worst threat to farmers he's seen in his 40 years in agriculture.

On Long Island, Cornell Cooperative Extension entomologist Daniel Gilrein said the stink bugs' presence here is nothing like the explosive numbers seen elsewhere.

"We are monitoring it and we are doing that with traps," said Gilrein, who notes the bugs have been found in clusters in parts of Nassau County, but only in small isolated numbers in Suffolk.

The bug, named for the foul smell it gives off when crushed, will feed on nearly anything, including cherries, tomatoes and soybeans. It uses a needlelike mouth to pierce the skin of its host fruit or vegetable, leaving behind a spot that is disfigured and discolored.

Gilrein is also spreading the word about stink bugs and raising awareness about the insects.

"We talk a lot to various audiences of farmers, master gardeners, arborists, professional landscapers and just about anyone else who will listen," he said. Outside of one stink bug being spotted on a tractor in Calverton, Gilrein said, none has been seen on farms, orchards or vineyards in Suffolk.

There are several species of stink bugs, Gilrein said, and not all are dangerous to agriculture. The focus, he said, is on the brown marmorated stink bug, which arrived unexpectedly from Asia in 1998. It settled in Allentown, Pa., then fanned out from there.

This spring, stink bugs have been seen in 33 states, including every one east of the Mississippi River and along the West Coast.

Joe Gergela, spokesman for the Long Island Farm Bureau, said he has not seen a brown marmorated stink bug up close and personal, but he is aware they have arrived in New York.

Gilrein said clusters of the bugs spent winter indoors in homes and office buildings in Nassau County and have been spreading across the county in relatively small numbers.

With The Associated Press