For those you don't know, one of the worst pests in the Mid-Atlantic is the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (which we have written about many times before) that showed up in my garden here in Bakerton in 2010. It is an invasive species that feeds on more than 300 species of plants. It first showed up in a shipment from NE Asia, and has been spreading from the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania ever since.
I am not sure why it hasn't spread farther south than it has, but apparently its northern spread is controlled by low temperatures in winter...and this winter we have had plenty of that -- it has been the coldest winter in at least 20 years, though not the snowiest YET...
The Washington Post reported recently that there is a silver lining to the frigid snow-cloud that has overspread us the last two months (it is becoming harder and harder to remember the warm fall): the stink bugs are dying in record numbers and we may actually get some tomatoes and peppers and beans and cucumbers and grapes and raspberries (remember I said 300 different plants!). I sure hope so. Though this is one of my favorite hats (thanks Stanton Gill) I'm not sure it's really about these little bio-Hummers...<G>)
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