An organic choice for killing stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs

chellestar83

15 years ago

Does anyone have any suggestions???

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Comments (7)

jbann23
15 years ago
Hose down your plants and the stink bugs will come to the tops to dry off. That's when you get them. They don't like to be wet.
digdirt2
15 years ago
Yep and then get out the old dustbuster vacuum and suck them up. Works great. No dustbuster? Take a jar of soapy water with a bit of vegetable oil added, hand pick and drop them in it.

Dave
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Ok, so no answers yet but today I took the little shop vac and long extension cord out to the garden and sucked up what adults and nymphs I could catch off the corn, sunflowers, and squash. It was a little awkward to handle but actually faster than spraying. I can avoid the bees and wasps and target what I can see of the stink bugs and leaf footed bugs. I expect I missed many as the leaf footed bugs are good fast flyers. Perhaps if I can get a good hand vac this would be easier since carrying a small shop vac in one hand and the hose in the other doesn't let me support the plants I'm working around. I'm starting to feel a little better, I was loosing sleep last night trying to figure out how I could continue to garden if I was going to get swarmed like this all the time.
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Yep, looks like one variety of leaf footed stink bug to me. They usually arrive and hatch out a bunch in a hurry when the hot, dry weather arrives. I hope that some one has a sure fire organic way to eradicate them, but I doubt it. Some people take a battery operated hand vacuum and suck them up then dump them into soapy water. I have found that some dish wash liquid mixed with water and sprayed in a little hand held spray bottle will kill them, if your spray it directly on the bugs. DO NOT DRENCH THE PLANTS, especially in the heat of the day under the blazing sun. I am kinda reluctant to tell about that, even though it did enable me to keep my tomatoes ralatively free from damage by the stinkbugs, BECAUSE, then some one is sure to post about how it burned their plants, yada yada yada. I just make a couple of rounds per day, one early, one late and spray it sparingly and directly on the stink bugs themselves, not trying to treat the plant. Some fly away, some stagger around a bit and die on the plant before they can fly off. There always seems to be some the next day, but it seems to disrupt their cycle enough to the point that they do not destroy my tomatoes. They come in a wide array of shapes and colors. If you scroll down far enough on this page you will find quite a few pictures of them, including some of their little red nymphs on a green tomato. They are pretty easy to kill when they are ganged up and are young. As they get older, their shell gets tough. I will also be interested in what response your inquiry in this thread gets. Good luck. Bill P.
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vance8b
15 years ago
I'd like an organic method too. I might buy a dustbuster, but I thought I'd try sevin spray first (I know it's not organic).

The leaf-footed bugs around here are agressive. I just bought the sevin spray (I actually haven't read the label to be sure it kills leaf footed bugs) so I can hit the individuals without 'powdering' my whole plants, and those things come flying right at me! I swear they are trying to get right in my face. I do some wild contortions trying to get away from those noisy things. I hope the sevin spray kills them. It has only been a few days, so I do not know if I am reducing their numbers any.

Last year I cut the top off an old plastic juice bottle and filed with an inch of soap and water. Went out with an old tooth brush and knocked the stink bugs right in. Never a bit of hassle.

The leaf-footed bugs taunt me.

Vance
mcmillan968
15 years ago
To VANCE!!!
I was like you but my fear of killing BEE'S of ANY KIND NOW is pushing me HARD AWAY!!!I cant kill ANY KIND OF BEE now.
And no I didnt care before but we ALL need to care now.
I do aLOT of hand picking and I use a lot of garden safe products.After all I grow so I can eat hEALTHIER TOO!!
chellestar83
Original Author
15 years ago
Soapy water and a toothbrush, here I come. I hate those things, they give me the creeps!
vance8b
15 years ago
mcmillan968

I'm with you on the desire to be as chemical free as possible. My purchase of sevin spray was my first 'chemical' purchase in a few years.

As you read, I use soap and water for the stink bugs, but I am finding the leaf-footed a bit harder to deal with. If they continue to ruin all of my tomatoes, or at least damage them to the point that they are undesireable to me, then at that point I can stop gardening and save all kinds of energy.

If I buy a dustbuster just to deal with the leaf-footed bugs, then I might be doing more environmental harm than just using sevin. A new dustbuster just adds one more battery to our environment.

That is, however, why I bought the sevin spray, so I can spray just the individual bugs, as opposed to dusting the entire plant with sevin dust as I did my first year gardening. A spot treatment I believe is what I am employing. Besides, leaf-footed bugs do not sit on flowers, only tomatoes, so sevin will never be sprayed on the flowers, so hopefully the bees will not contact tje sevin.

I'll take your kind words to heart and keep looking for convenient methods that do not involve needless chemicals. I guess I'll have to work on my method of grabbing them mechanically a bit more.

Thanks

Vance
lightt
15 years ago
What I've been fighting as stink bugs must be something different than what you guys are dealing with because the bugs I have wouldn't even think about allowing themselves to be tooth-brushed into anything!!!! Mine scamper around the tomatoes they're on at ANY movement close to them and immediately drop if I reach around to try and get them back into eye sight.

Can't think of many things that are as unappealing as a tomato that has been "sponged" by a stinkbug!

Terry Light
Oak Hill, Virginia

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An organic choice for killing stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs

Comments (7)

jbann23

digdirt2

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mcmillan968

chellestar83
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An organic choice for killing stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs

Comments (7)

jbann23

digdirt2

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vance8b

mcmillan968

chellestar83Original Author

vance8b

lightt

COMPANY

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chellestar83
Original Author