How to spot a brown marmorated stink bug

WAPATO, Wash. - One of the challenges of controlling the brown marmorated stink bug is that it looks a lot like other kinds of stink bugs.

Researchers, growers, environmental officials and even the Orkin Man are asking people across the nation to be on the lookout for the particular pest known to cause widespread agricultural damage.

And they like to seek refuge in people's homes, putting the general public on the front lines of battling the bugs.

"We actually say they are going to be the first detectors," said Mike Bush, Washington State University Yakima County extension entomoligist.

The brown marmorated stink bug, an invasive species that originated in eastern Asia, has a distinctive shield-shaped shell, white bands on its antennae, a gray underbelly and a blunt face.

However, many stink bugs are native to North America and the Yakima Valley. Some are predators, such as the rough stink bug, which eats aphids and other damaging pests.

The two look so alike, they even fool researchers sometimes. Lee Ream, a chemist at the U.S. Agricultural Research Service lab in Wapato, caught a rough stink bug in the hallways of the lab.

His colleagues were upset, at first. One of his jobs is tending to the population of quarantined brown marmorated stink bugs: "They thought I let one go," he said.

Researchers from universities and federal laboratories nationwide have created a website, stopbmsb.org, that contains pictures comparing native stink bugs with the brown marmorated stink bug.

Oregon State University has similar material.

They encourage those who spot brown marmorated stink bugs to call either state extension agents or other researchers.

• Washington State University Yakima County Extension office, 509-574-1600.

• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Resource Laboratory, Prosser, 509-786-9205.