How to identify
The classic shield shape — broad, angular shoulders, mottled brown or green, about 1/2 to 3/4 inch, with a blunt triangular head. Nymphs are smaller, rounder, and often brightly patterned in orange, red, or black.
Damage signs
Piercing-sucking feeding leaves cloudy white spots under tomato skins and dimpled, corky patches on peppers and beans. Tomatoes develop 'catfacing' — hard, deformed scars — and fruit becomes unmarketable even though it's technically edible.
Plants it attacks
Tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, okra, sunflowers, fruit trees
Non-chemical controls
- Handpick adults and nymphs into a bucket of soapy water — do it gently, because squishing them releases the famous stink and attracts more.
- Plant sunflowers or millet as a trap crop at the garden's edge; stink bugs congregate there, where you can vacuum or handpick them in bulk.
- Cover fruiting crops with row cover or fine insect netting once fruit sets — a physical wall the bugs can't argue with.
- Clear overwintering habitat: fallen boards, brush piles, and weedy borders near the garden are stink bug winter condos.
- Plant dill, fennel, and buckwheat flowers to attract tachinid flies and assassin bugs, the stink bug's natural enemies.
- Check the sunny sides of plants on warm afternoons — stink bugs bask, which makes them easy to spot and pick.
Nerdy fact: A stink bug's 'stink' is a cocktail of aldehydes — the same chemical family that makes cilantro taste soapy to some people. You're not imagining the connection.