Hubby said they wiped out his few tomato plants. And then last night, we spottted them on the Cardoon... LOTS of them! I grabbed by bottle of neem oil spray (which has some of the dog shampoo with pyrethrin) and gave it a good soaking. They didn't seem to like it much. And I think maybe half of them died or left. So I gave them another shower of it tonight and then topped it off with some of the spray I use for the apple tree (which has the iodine and pyrethrin). Is there something else I need to try? Sure don't want them getting to my berries or apples and peaches. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Update... those stink bugs are 95% dead or gone after two days of spraying with the Neem Oil mix (that I have on hand to try to combat grasshoppers... thanks Philip) and a spraying of some of the dog shampoo (with pyrethrin) & iodine mix that I have on hand (thanks Mart) to try to battle black spot on my apples. The Cardoon, that looked like a monster just a week ago, now looks very "whipped". I think it's because it's in a spot where the water doesn't drain very well (and we had some good rainfall last week). Or... it's because it was just attacked by a horde of stink bugs. Or both. If anyone has any more suggestions... I'd sure appreciate it. In the meantime, as I spray them, I chant to myself... die you stinky little varmints!
Looks like I'm "lucky" having just the occasional stink bug in my garden! Never knew what they ate until reading your stories here. Last week one almost flew in my hair. I kind of panicked, did a silly little "dance" to avoid it & ended up falling backwards into my border So even just one of those stinky so-and-so's can be harmful to plants (no permanent damage done, just flattened leaves)
I didn't even know they were destructive to a garden. I am so sorry that you had that experience and I will remember your and Philip's remedy.
Oh no Cheryl I'm sorry, I had no clue they were bad either. My daughter saw one in one of my pots yesterday when I was doing container upgrades. I told her leave it But my garden is under neem oil treatments currently so maybe I will be safe. I had a few white flies flying about when doing the upgrades and I just rid my garden of spider mites. Madness I tell ya!! Glad they are all gone. Hey I googled neem oil and sevin dust today cause I didn't know if sevin was organic or which worked better. So learned a little but seriously someone was using murphy oil. Just thought it was funny. The dog shampoo and stuff you mentioned sound fine and normal but wood furniture cleaner can't be safe... have you heard this? Am I weird for thinking that's crazy? Hahaha PS You have apples and peaches? Ohhhh I'm so jelly..... I can't wait till someday I own a house again to grow those....
I've never seen so many stink bugs at once EVER. But they are gone now. I did see alot of dead ones lying on the ground, so I know that they all didn't just fly somewhere else. Laura... my brother bought some fruit trees... the apple isn't doing so great... I've been noticing black spots again. I guess I need to go back to spraying weekly. The peach is doing good.
I think a lot of the problem is all the moisture we have had. Makes all the little problems bigger. Just s-pray !
It sure is different than last year when we were in severe drought conditions at this point. Mother Nature... keeping us on our toes! :-D
