I'm beginning to see lots of stink bugs on my leaves and fruit.  I'm not sure if they're eating away at them just yet, but wondered if anyone has had issues with them on your trees.  They laid eggs all over our squash last year and ate away lots of the leaves.  Thanks!

I hate stink bugs. I try give them a good solid flick whenever I see one. If I have a soap can in hand for Japanese beetles, the stinkers get the same treatment.

Frank,

The only problem I've seen with stink bugs are tomato related. They will pierce the fruit while it's still green, causing a bruise and for the fruit to not ripen correctly or at all. I would assume, all stink bugs to be a bad thing and to get rid of them as best you can. The traps that they sell for them, were a waste of money for me. I've had to resort to getting up early in the morning and tapping them into a jar of soapy water. Hope this helps.

Von

Thank you, Calvin and Von.  They love my pear tree too.

Stink bugs seem to not have anything they won't potentially eat (see the bottom of page 2):

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/apple/BMSB%20Article%203-1-11.pdf

Most research I've seen is geared towards commercial crops here in the NE (little monsters came into the US about 45 minutes north of me), but peaches, apples, raspberries, most vegetables, and many ornamentals are all fair game.

Technically speaking stink bugs don't eat anything. They have piercing mouth parts that they stick into the fruit and suck out juices. This causes wounds that may harden or sometimes rot. On blackberry they impart their odor to the fruit making it unappetizing to eat. Not sure if that happens on figs. They don't eat leaves.

Frank, I haven't seen any damage to my figs from stink bugs.  They can cause a lot of damage to other crops.  The leaves eaten on your squash would be from something besides stink bugs.  They do their damage from piercing and sucking  the fruit.

Are they the native 'green' ones?
Or, are they the more nasty & newly introduced exotic 'brown' ones that also invade houses in winter?

I have seen stink bugs or other "shield" bugs on my fig trees for years, but have never seen any damage. Pretty sure the stink bugs only purpose is to stink up my house, fly to lights and the tv when I turn them on, stink when I crush them out of anger, and have no other organism eat them. Nice little racket.

They decimate my pomegranates. They seem to swarm on the figs after something else has started eating them, but not always. Like Calvin, I take great pleasure in pinging them, then stomping on them. One stink bug this year equals a thousand next year. Kill them!

@ako:
>>> Pretty sure the stink bugs only purpose is to stink up my house, ...

Yeap!, those are the 'brown' ones, they are poor fliers too, one of these days,
one of them is going to crash-land on my face while reading by my bed light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_marmorated_stink_bug

Thanks for the responses.  Yep, it's the brown ones.  Good to hear they don't eat leaves.  I do have a Gino Black that's about 2 days away from perfection and I'll be raging if they get a hold of it.  Not to mention the other pests that may get to it as well.

We have them here in large numbers...they damage the tomatoes, peppers and peaches but have never noticed them on the figs, thankfully.  Same goes for the leaf footed bugs that also pierce.