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Stink Bug Population Up In Maryland

By: Elliott Francis // October 9, 2012
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Stink bug populations have surged with a vengeance.
Jimmy Smith: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmysmith/4012606668/
Stink bug populations have surged with a vengeance.

Stink bugs are back in a big way across Maryland, some of the state's entomologists tell the Associated Press.

The population of brown stink bugs in Frederick County alone is up 60 percent from a year ago, a spokesperson with U.S. Department of Agriculture reports.

But one organic farmer is Adamstown tells the AP the numbers are not as high as 2010. That's the year federal regulators temporarily allowed fruit growers to fight the insects with certain pesticides which aren't normally allowed in orchards. 

State scientists are considering solutions such as baited traps, a native predator called the wheel bug and a tiny Asian wasp that holds promise as an even more effective predator to help reduce the stink bug population.

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