Here's some good info: http://pmtp.wsu.edu/BMSB.html#brown_SB Yes, the serrated shoulders indicate one of the "good" stink bug species at least in the Pacific Northwest. They also supposedly have less distinct banding of the antennae and less distinct checker-boarding of the abdomen edges. The native species are only considered pests in that they may annoy you by getting into your house in the winter, otherwise they are no problem. The new Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is 10 times worse in that respect, and it loves my thornless blackberries too. Note the serrated shoulders (right behind the eyeballs) on these fine fellows: http://bugguide.net/node/view/348093 http://bugguide.net/node/view/284507 I would happily share my house with these guys than share my blackberry patch the BMSB.

I can't remember where I saw this, but there is a marvelous YouTube video around about using diatomaceous earth to deal with stink bugs. Yes, everyone says to use it, but they don't really say how! What you do is get your shop vac out, and connect the hose to the output, so you use it as a blower. Then mist the tomatoes. Now grab a handful of DE and, while standing in front of the tomatoes, blow the DE all over them. It sticks! My understanding is that this *completely* removes the stink bug problem. Yes, rinse off the harvested tomatoes before you eat them. This treatment needs to be done just every few weeks (unless it rains hard.) I had a bad problem with stink bugs and tomatoes last year, before I heard about this strategy. I was picking and vacuuming until I was blue in the face. I've been prepared to use this strategy, but haven't yet seen a single stink bug.

I think hand picking or vacuuming adults, planting beneficial-insect-attracting flowers, and using row covers on the grow beds are your best options for control. The following methods of control are quoted directly from "The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control" CONTROL METHODS: Squash Bugs - Maintain vigorous plant growth; handpick all stages of squash bugs from undersides of leaves; support vines off the ground on trellises; attract native parasitic flies with pollen and nectar plants; cover plants with a floating row cover (you'll need to hand-pollinate flowers. Stink Bugs - Control weeds in susceptible crops; remove or mow weedy areas adjacent to garden beds; attract native parasitic wasps and flies by planting small-flowered plants. As a last resort, dust with pyrethrin.

Matt, Stink bugs are not known to have many natural predators, which is one reason they are so hard to control. There are some species of stink bugs that are herbivores and eat plants early on, and then turn into carnivores and eat....guess what.....other stink bugs! Other than that, some species of lizards and some bugs eat them sometimes, but their 'stinkiness' gives them protection from most other predators. I don't know that the frogs or snakes ever reach the stink bugs. Our frogs tend to be hanging out around the back yard where we have a lily pond, quite a bit of shade, and 30 tomato plants in containers. The big garden is quite some distance from that and most of it is in sun until mid- to late afternoon. There's usually not many frogs in our hot, dry, sunny garden although we have a resident turtle and, every now and then, a toad and some lizards. The snakes are an issue in and of themselves since we mostly have timber rattlers and copperheads (that's what I've been seeing this week), water moccasins in our ponds and creeks (thankfully they are not in the garden) and an occasional western diamondback rattler. Oh, and rat snakes and chicken snakes that like to get in the chicken coop and eat eggs and chicks. While snakes might be helpful in the garden, I don't want them there. I hate snakes. In my garden, the stink bugs are usually on plants anywhere from waist-high to head high, so while a snake might be able to reach them, the toads and frogs and turtles couldn't. At least here (as far as I know), the stink bugs are primarily garden and agricultural pests. In parts of the country where the winters are colder, they invade homes in the fall, undoubtedly looking for a warm place to overwinter. It is my understanding that stinkbugs inside the house are hard to control, and it is hard to keep them out, because they've been known to come down the chimneys! If I had to make my best guess, I'd give our one-day 11.87" rainfall credit for the lower numbers of stinkbugs and squash bugs (so far) this year. I'd bet that relentless rainfall washed away the overwintering ones that weren't up and about yet. We also have been having greatly reduced numbers of grasshoppers, probably for the same reason. Unfortunately, grasshoppers tend to accompany hot, drought-like weather, so we all may have trouble with them later ths summer. I am seeing a lot of tiny hoppers (1/4" to 1/2") just these last couple of days, so clearly another hatch is on. Here at our house, the guineas and chickens control them pretty well though. Dawn