Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum
Vegetable gardeners who had a bad time with stink bugs last season -- or who fear one this season -- are wondering what they can plant that these annoying and damaging insects don't like.
Stink bugs not only cluster in great numbers and smell terrible when crushed, they use their mouthpieces to pierce fruits and vegetables and suck out food and moisture. The resulting puncture wound causes fruit and vegetables to decay or develop disease.
I asked Ellen Nibali of the University of Maryland Extension's Home and Garden Information Center what she would recommend. Here are her thoughts on which vegetable to plant, the use of row covers and mulch. (There is more information at the HGIC website on dealing with stink bugs in your home.)