When stink bugs are found in the cage, farmers would know to apply pesticides before it is too late.

WSJ: Out of Odor: Offensive-Smelling Bugs Put U.S. Farmers on the Defensive

Anybody who has dealt with an infestation of stink bugs knows what a nuisance these armoured insects can be.

BBC: US & Canada

Spiders will eat stink bugs, but there is no American predator that relies on them as their main food source, Ms. Leskey says.

WSJ: Out of Odor: Offensive-Smelling Bugs Put U.S. Farmers on the Defensive

Unlike many insects that feed on a small group or even a single plant, the brown marmorated stink bugs, which originated in Asia, eat pretty much anything.

BBC: US & Canada

Matt Buffington, a research entomologist at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), says the stink bugs arrived in the US sometime between the late 1990s and 2003 to find an "enemy-free space".

BBC: US & Canada

"I got pretty cocky, I guess, about the tomatoes and peppers and the staples we grew, " says Mr. Biggins, who averaged five pounds of tomatoes per plant before stink bugs arrived on his farm.

WSJ: Out of Odor: Offensive-Smelling Bugs Put U.S. Farmers on the Defensive

Researchers have hope for tiny parasitic wasps from Asia, which scientists are studying to see if they can be hungrily effective if introduced in the U.S. The wasps lay their eggs within the stink bugs' own egg masses.

WSJ: Out of Odor: Offensive-Smelling Bugs Put U.S. Farmers on the Defensive

Millions of stink bugs are emerging from their hibernation, a sign of spring that strikes fear into the hearts of farmers across the US. Could a tiny wasp be the ultimate weapon in the battle against the foreign bug invasion?

BBC: US & Canada