Forget Asian Beetles; These Bugs Are Set to Invade Minnesota

We've all been inundated by scores of Asian lady beetles or box elder bugs at times, right? Well, watch out, because there's a NEW non-native bug that's set to invade the Land of 10,000 Lakes-- and it stinks.

Literally. Because the new insect menace that's taking aim at the Bold North is none other than... the stink bug. The brown marmorated stink bug, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, if you're being all scientific about it.

It's called the stink bug because when you kill one by crushing it with a paper towel or step on it with your shoe, it emits a peculiar odor that, well, doesn't smell good. You might say it even stinks. In fact, this TwinCities.com story describes the smell as "stale cilantro, rotten eggs, a teenager’s gym socks, paper mills, decaying flesh and even death."

Won't THAT be fun! But brace yourself, Minnesota, because the stink bug is coming our way. In fact, it's already here. The story says the first one was spotted in the state back in 2010 near the Twin Cities. And they've already been spotted this year up in Duluth.

Swarms of them are known to "eat their way across fields of farm crops, orchards, gardens and vineyards and then congregate by the hundreds in your home to spend the winter," the story noted. Great. The only good news-- if you can call it that-- is that the story says stink bugs don't bite.

So how'd it end up here? Well, ag officials believe it hitched a ride in packaging from its native home in Asia before first showing up in the U.S. back in 1996 near Allentown, Pennsylania. Great. So far, they haven't been spotted here in southeast Minnesota, but it would appear it's only a matter of time before they show up here too.

For more information on these little menaces, and how to stop them, check out www.stopBMSB.org. And, if you think you have found a brown marmorated stink bug, get a hold of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Arrest the Pest program at arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us.

Listen to Curt St. John from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5