Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
A shield-shaped brown bug with white bands on its antennae. It sucks juice out of fruit, leaving corky dimples on the outside and dry mealy patches under the skin.
Pest checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of them
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Scout the border rows first
They move in from the tree line and from tree-of-heaven, so check the plants nearest the woods edge and harvest those first.
Try this first2Hand-pick into soapy water
Knock the bugs into a jar of soapy water early in the morning while they are slow. Do not squash them on the plant.
3Screen the fruiting vegetables
Fine mesh over pepper, tomato and bean beds keeps them off, but only if you close the edges to the ground.
fine mesh insect netting garden4Seal the house in fall
They crowd indoors to overwinter. Caulk gaps, screen vents and vacuum the ones that get in rather than spraying siding.
door sweep weatherstripping kit5Expect to re-treat if you spray
Labeled pyrethroid, azadirachtin and spinosad products knock down what is present, but new bugs keep flying in, so one spray rarely settles it.
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Which plants get brown marmorated stink bug
Every plant we cover that gets brown marmorated stink bug, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same pest can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
trees5
shrubs4
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Rosaceae, with 7 of the 16 affected plants.
- Rosaceae7 plants
- Solanaceae3 plants
When to treat
Watch the fruit, not the calendar. Numbers build from midsummer into fall as bugs move in from wooded edges, and the heaviest feeding lands right as the crop ripens.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for brown marmorated stink bug and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets brown marmorated stink bug, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.