Are stink bugs poisonous?

The stink bug is a very common insect. Its characteristic is that it will emit a very stinky smell as long as you press it, so it is called the stink bug. The stink bug is a small hard-shelled insect. Many people will touch the stink bug out of curiosity, and some people will even try to press it with their hands to see if there will be a bad smell. So is the stench emitted by stink bugs poisonous? Let us take a look at it together below.

Stink bugs are a general term for a group of insects with abnormally modified wings, of which there are more than 30,000 species. Their common characteristics are that their bodies are flat, some are large and some are tiny, and their mouthparts are beak-shaped, suitable for piercing and sucking. In the suburbs of Beijing, stink bugs mainly harm fruit trees such as pears, peaches, and apples. In Hunan, stink bugs mainly harm rice, with the damage rate generally being around 15% to 25%. The damage rate to fruits is as high as over 70%, turning the fruits into "monkey-head peaches" and "pear bumps", tasting bitter and losing their edible value. In urban areas, stink bugs harm many green trees and flowers such as willow, elm, mulberry, poplar, locust, eucommia, paulownia, and pomegranate. They suck the juice of buds, petals, leaves, young leaves, and fruits, greatly reducing the greening and beautification effects.

The adults suck the sap from young buds, tender shoots, flowers and fruits of plants, causing flowers and fruits to fall and leaves to wither; the nymphs spray a smelly liquid onto young leaves, flower spikes and fruits, also causing these parts to appear brown and burned. When it occurs severely, it will seriously affect the yield and even cause harvest failure.

When a stink bug is frightened and mistakenly thinks it is being attacked, its scent glands will spray venom into the person's eyes, making it temporarily invisible to the enemy and giving the enemy the opportunity to escape. When the venom is sprayed into the eyes, the eyes will not stop crying, the eyes will be unable to open, there will be severe pain, and the eyes will be red and swollen. In severe cases, it will cause corneal burns, defects and inflammation. If you are far away from the hospital, you should rinse your eyes several times with pure water to relieve the symptoms. Do not rub your eyes. If you live close to a hospital, you can go to the doctor right after washing.

Prevention and treatment methods

Although the long-citrus stink bug is very harmful to fruits, the number of occurrences is generally not large. Artificial control should be the main method, and attention should be paid to protecting natural enemies. Chemical control should only be used when necessary.

Artificial control

Adults and nymphs often live on leaves or fruits outside the tree canopy in the morning and evening or in rainy weather. They can be caught and killed in the morning or evening when the dew has not dried and they are inactive. The eggs are mostly laid on the leaves in egg masses, which are very easy to find. During the egg-laying period of the adults from May to August, you can conduct in-depth inspections in the orange orchard and remove the egg masses in time. However, if a black ring is found under the egg cover, it means that the egg has been parasitized by a parasitic wasp and should be kept in the field for protection to allow it to reproduce naturally and increase the number of parasitic wasps in the orange orchard.

Chemical control

If the insect population is too large and it is impossible to rely solely on manual control, spray 800-1000 times diluted solution of 90% trichlorfon crystals. If some chlorpyrifos mixture is added to the dichlorvos solution, the control effect can be improved, and the control can be carried out during the first or second instar nymph stage, with better results.