Stink bug activity

You might recall I’ve written in the past about how there are some types of stink bugs that cause an awful lot of damage to edible crops like veggies and fruits. (see these posts: Stink bug news and Invasion of the stink bugs)

While at Manito Park last week, my husband saw something a bit worrisome to both of us. Along the perimeter of Rose Hill, they are growing Globe Thistle (Echinops). On the flower buds, there were a whole bunch of stink bugs and we could see damage that they’d caused to the flower heads.

We are also growing some Globe Thistle in our own garden and even though our plants don’t have flower buds just yet, we are going to keep an eye on them to see if stink bugs are drawn to them as well.

If it turns out that they are, that would be a good place to trap them in the hopes of keeping them away from our edible crops. They caused a fair amount of damage to our artichokes last year, which just happen to be in the same plant family (Asteraceae). Interesting, eh?

Just wanted to let you know about this observation. Will keep you posted on what we discover.