hello, stink bugs!

the brown marmorated stink bugs have arrived to much fanfare: now everyone wants to know how to eradicate them! they are a very harmful non-native pest that eats everything: roses, fruit trees, vegetables...it doesnt matter: they eat it all. i had a wonderful crop of tomatoes this year (just perfect for me and the mister, not much more though), but several of my larger tomatoes were devastated at the last moment by-you guessed it-the stink bugs. now as days are getting shorter and nights a little cooler, these guys are clamouring to get inside your house to over winter: stinky! the pesticide people and exterminators are trying to capitalize on stink bug mania, but reports from the people studying these beasts DO NOT recommend pesticides and/or fogging devices as they are not effective against stink bugs, kill good bugs and may cause harm to you and your pets over the long term. i have also noticed they are lumping all stink bugs into the same category, whereas the brown marmorated is an introduced non-native bug and we have many other native stink bug species which are not harmful and do serve various gardening purposes. parasitic wasps seem to be the best control for the beasts, but if you are spraying insectacide around, you will kill them also, and have a doubly nasty problem next season. i am just flushing the ones i see inside- which is a lot, btw.