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Mid-Atlantic Dreads Bad Summer of Foul, Hungry Stink Bugs“We hope your day,” it says, “is stink bug free.”

Ask people around Pittsburgh and much of the rest of the Mid-Atlantic region and they are likely to say there have been far too few stink-bug-free days of late, a harbinger of what promises to be another challenging summer, a year after tens of millions of the inchlong pests wreaked havoc on crops and homes.
As the temperatures rise and stink bugs emerge from their winter quarters, entomologists say, the infestation could prove even worse this year, with the bugs making their way into new areas of the country.
The brown marmorated stink bug is believed to have arrived here from Asia in the 1990s. It has made its way from Pennsylvania to at least 33 states, and has been spotted as far west as California and Washington. A continuing advance is inexorable, scientists say, because the bugs have no natural predators and can travel long distances — not by flying, but via a more convenient method: covertly hitching rides in vehicles.
The insect has caused tens of millions of dollars in damage, munching apples, peppers, corn and soybeans, and has proved to be a general irritant — in no small part because of its foul odor, which the bug secretes as a defense mechanism.
“The feeling in the bug world is this is the worst bug we’ve seen in 40 years,” said Michael J. Raupp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland. “It eats peaches and grapes and soybeans. It’s annihilated organic growers who can’t use pesticides. And guess what? After it eats your crops, it comes inside your home. I’ve never seen another bug do that.”
  James McCoy, owner of SBS Pest Control, short for Stinkbugspecialist.com, said Pittsburgh was so rife with the insect that he did not bother with calls seeking help for termites, ants or roaches — the bread-and-butter triple play of pests that extermination companies typically go after. “Everybody has stink bugs,” Mr. McCoy said. “We get one call out of 100 for the other stuff. No one here cares about the other stuff. It’s the stink bugs, and its getting worse every year here.”