Posted on Mon, Sep. 05, 2011 last updated: September 05, 2011
07:38:16 PM The Asian stink bug has started its migration into
North Carolina, and a team of researchers at N.C. State
University have prepped their labs, set their traps and launched
a monitoring website - all in an effort to stop the pest's
spread. Their work is urgent. This insect, also known as the
brown marmorated stink bug, has decimated crops in the mid-
Atlantic states. The North Carolina researchers have their eyes
on apples, peaches, tomatoes and corn — aiming to save these
high-dollar crops from the stink-bug scourge. "It's where a
small amount of damage has a pretty big economic impact," said
Jim Walgenbach, a researcher at N.C. State's Mountain
Horticultural Crops Research & Extension Center, in Mills River.
Farmers in northern Virginia, eastern West Virginia, Maryland,
Delaware, and south central Pennsylvania reported losing more
than half of some crops in 2010 — mainly apples, peaches,
blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes