Latest WI Insect: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

The hits just keep coming, in the form of more unwanted six-legged visitors whose real home is across the oceans.

A surge of annoying insects has washed over our Lake County neighborhood Pewaukee and Wisconsin in the past 2 decades: the Japanese beetle and gypsy moth to name a few. All are resident to foreign countries. All have caused environmental and economic mayhem in the U.S., where no natural predators exist to control them.

The most recent invader winging its way here will literally make a smell.

The brown marmorated insect is ¾-inch long, with a wide back side that tapers to a point, and a rectangular head with long antennae. Native to China and east Asia, the insect has been journeying west since being first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2001.

Its name is well-earned. When smushed or crushed, the brown marmorated stink bug emits an awful, pungent you'd invite into your Lake County house, right?

Fortunately, the brown marmorated stink bug hasn't arrived in great numbers in Lake County or WI. Stink bug control isn't much of an issue yet. Yet it's only a matter of time.

Farmers dislike them for more than their smell. The stink bug feed on tree fruits, vegetables, sweet corn and soybeans. Mid-Atlantic apple growers sustained an estimated $37 million in crop losses in 2010 to marmorated stink bugs.

The Asian invasive has a relative that is native to the United States. The brown stink bug looks a lot like the brown marmorated version, except the colors of their undersides are different. We somehow doubt you'll get that far identifying them, though.

Brown marmorated stink bugs like to winter inside Lake County your house. If you crack one, you'll figure it out quickly. The nose knows. If you see more in your Lake County house or yard, don't step on them – contact The Mosquito Guy to address their presence in a safe, non-stinky fashion.  Unlike these insects, we'll never stink up your joint.