Fewer Stinkbugs?
The Washington Post’s State of NoVa blog reports fewer stinkbugs in Fall 2011 vs Fall 2010:
Scientists cautioned that the 2011 might be even worse, with the population predicted to peak between August and October.
But there was an unexpected turn of luck: Fall arrived, and the anticipated tidal wave of stink bugs did not.
“We have no idea as to why that is,” said Christopher Bergh, a Virginia Tech associate professor of entomology. “But there does seem to be an emerging consensus that the populations are down compared with last year.”
Here at Old Dominion Wildlife HQ, we have also noticed a decline. While we still dispatch at least a few each day, the task has been much more manageable than last year when I had to repeatedly use the shop vac. Knock on wood and hope the stinkbug invasion does not get worse!
The Latest on Stinkbug Traps
We purchased a pheremone stinkbug trap about a month ago and caught exactly zero stinkbugs with it. The store we bought it from had one setup outside with some stinkbugs inside, but for some reason we had no luck with it despite trying it in multiple locations. Therefore, I do not recommend pheremone traps at this point.
Instead, an inexpensive LED driven trap looks promising. I haven’t built one yet, but will post my experience once I have data to report. Here is the instructional video:
