Watch out for these stinkers: Bad guys attack tomatoes, fruit

Right now, Sacramento gardeners are seeing a bunch of real stinkers – stink bugs and their close cousins, leaffooted bugs. Gardeners see them scrambling over ripening tomatoes, especially in late afternoon or early evening. They like to dine on other juicy fruit, too, such as peaches, pears and pomegranates.

Both stink bugs and leaffooted bugs inject their long “tongues” into fruit and suck out as much juice as possible. In the process, they leave behind yucky-tasting residue and telltale pinpricks on the fruit’s skin.

Stink bugs are shaped like little gray or brown shields. Mature adults can fly but younger stinkers tend to just hop, which makes them easier to catch.

Brown marmorated stink bugs (BMSB) have gotten a lot of recent publicity because of their potential threat; they like to eat almost everything and have few if any natural predators in California. Spotted in several Sacramento area neighborhoods, this invasive insect from Asia is voracious and attacks vegetables and ornamental plants as well as fruit.

BMSB likes to lay its eggs (that look like little pearls) on the back of sunflower leaves. That makes sunflowers a good sentinel plant; check sunflower leaves regularly and when eggs are spotted, pick and destroy the leaf. That can prevent the appearance of more BMSB.

Much more common in Sacramento is the consperse stink bug. This stink bug looks a lot like BMSB. Its most visible difference is its antennae; BMSB have white stripes, consperse do not.

Parasitic wasps usually keep consperse stink bug populations from exploding out of control. Consperse stink bugs are relatively slow moving and easily caught; they hop down when disturbed.

Pesticides are not very effective on stink bugs, and not necessary. Instead, spray tomatoes with insecticidal soap (1 tablespoon mild dish detergent or liquid soap to 1 quart water) if stink bugs are seen.

Or use the bucket method: Place under the tomato plant a bucket or dishpan half filled with water and a teaspoon of dish detergent (the soap breaks the water’s surface tension). Give the plant a gentle shake; stink bugs will fall into the water and drown. (They can’t swim.)