Question
I have what seems to be hundreds of stink bugs in my garden. Are they good or bad, and if they are bad how can I get rid of these pests without harmful chemicals?

Answer
Stink Bugs (Cosmopepla bimaculata) belong to the order called Hemiptera, in the Family Pentatomidae (stink bugs. They are not usually a problem but are becomming so as their numbers increase.

They usually feed on developing seed, or stems and foliage of plants. The amount of damage depends on the growing stage of the plant when it is attacked. Immature fruit and pods can become deformed as they develop. Seeds might become flat and shriveled. Germination could be reduced, or the seeds may fail to germinate.

They feed on a wide variety of plants, including milk thistle, asparagus, oats, echinacea, mints, and goldenrod, fruits, and tomatoes, by injecting enzymes into a plant breaking down plant tissue and cell walls, then sucking up the juices.

Damage can also include fruit drop and depressed spots on fruits, okra, tomatoes, peaches, squash, peas, and on stems of melons and asparagus and tomatoes.  

You might plant part of the garden as a trapping area, which would draw them to that part of the garden to feed, leaving the others alone while you hand pick them or treat them with an organically approved pesticide. Intercropping will greatly help, confusing them and making it difficult to find their host plants.  

You can contorl infestations with pyrethrum, an organic growing approved pesticide, applied at three day intervals during the early evening so you can protect the beneficial insects, since it can harm them as well.  

The good news is that stink bugs munch on many other types of beetles and garden pests that do even more damage to plants.