I used to think that stink bugs were just annoying little pests found in my home, but I found evidence of one attacking my orchid plants. They CAN damage orchid plants, and I’ll describe my experiences in this post and show you what stink bug damage looks like.
STINK BUGS AND ORCHID PLANTS
Brown marmorated stink bugs (Halyomorpha halys) are an invasive species native to Asia and they were thought to have been accidentally introduced to the United States shortly before 2000, and since then, they have done significant damage to agricultural crops.
Stink bugs have established themselves throughout much of North America, Europe and South America. They are called stink bugs because they emit an odor which is similar to the smell of coriander. They have developed this as a defense mechanism against being eaten. You can trigger the stink bug to release its odor by simply handling it or attempting to move it.
The stink bug is a sucking insect that uses its proboscis to pierce and suck on plant material. Usually, when the weather starts to get colder, we will find them in our homes because they’re seeking shelter and warmth.
Here is a stink bug that I photographed on the floor in my house.
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
I have seen plenty of stink bugs in our house, but I’ve never seen any evidence of any damage for a long time, until I actually saw evidence. One day I noticed a stink bug crawling on one of my orchid plants by my piano. I didn’t think anything of it and just left it.
The next day, I went back to sit down at my piano, and looked at the orchid plant and I noticed damage that wasn’t there the previous day. This is what I saw.
And you can see the stink bug was back and sitting on my Phalaenopsis orchid leaf in the bottom right hand corner of the photo. You can see the damage that it caused on the moth orchid leaf. The damage is much more visible when there is light behind the plant.
You can see the circular areas, backlit by the light coming from the window, on the top of the orchid leaf shown below.
The damage on the back of the leaf looks similar. Remember, these bugs use their proboscis to poke a hole in the leaf and they suck out juices from the plant, causing the lighter colored, circular spots that you see on the leaves. And you can see the dot, in the middle of the lighter circle, where the stink bug inserted its proboscis to feed on the leaf.
If you were to look this exact same orchid leaf without any backlighting, you can still see the damage, but it isn’t as pronounced. This photo below was taken right after the other photos, in different lighting, and the damage is much less visible.
So, what should you do if you see any marmorated stink bugs in your home? Whenever I see one, I now take a few square of toilet paper and I’ll pick up the stink bug and will flush it down the toilet. They are quite large so they are easy to see.
I would not recommend throwing them outside. These are invasive bugs and are not native outside of Asia, so they must be destroyed because they have done significant harm to agricultural crops.
And like I mentioned before, they tend to find their way into buildings and homes when temperatures are starting to cool down outside. The U.S. EPA has some recommendations to keep stink bugs from entering homes. These include:
Keeping the perimeter of your home’s foundation free from leaves and debris (which can harbor many bugs).
Caulking your windows indoors and outdoors so that there are no open gaps for bugs to crawl through.
Sealing any cracks in the foundation of your home so nothing can crawl through.
Adding a cap or screen at the top of your chimney to prevent bugs from coming in.
So make sure you keep an eye out for stink bugs so that they don’t damage your orchid plants! A little prevention and action can go a long way.
