"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, peppers, sweet corn and soybeans. Some reported total crop loss."

Alicia W. Roberts reports for the Charlotte Observer September 5, 2011. [2]