Huge numbers of stink bugs fly to fruit trees in Shizuoka

On October 1, 2026, the pest^*1 control office of Shizuoka, an area of Japan, gave a warning to fruit farmers. Very large numbers of stink bugs^*2 are coming to the fruit trees. The warning is about three kinds of bugs: the brown-winged green stink bug^*3, the glossy green stink bug^*4, and the brown marmorated stink bug^*5. These bugs hurt citrus fruits^*6 and other fruits like persimmons^*7 and kiwis. The office says the bugs will be in every part of Shizuoka in October, and there will be a lot of them.

The office already gave a smaller advisory^*8 on August 26. But after the middle of September, the number of bugs went up very fast. The office has four light traps^*9 in Shizuoka. From September 1 to September 20, each trap caught 19,512 bugs on average^*10. In a normal year, a trap catches about 960 bugs in that time. This year's number is about 20 times higher. It is even higher than in 2024, a year with an unusually large number of bugs.

The office also counted the bugs on cypress trees^*11. Stink bugs eat the cones^*12 of these trees. Workers found 37.5 bugs on every 10 branches with cones. In a normal year, they find about 6.1 bugs. This is the highest number for September since 1996. The workers also counted the marks the bugs leave when they eat. In early and middle September, the average number of marks was 21.1. The normal number is 16.2. At 60 percent of the 20 places, the number was over 20. This means the bugs are probably starting to leave the cypress trees. Large numbers of bugs have already been seen flying into orchards^*13 in the west and center of Shizuoka.

The weather office in Nagoya, a city in Japan, gave a one-month forecast^*14 on September 24. It says the temperature will be higher than normal. The pest control office says warm weather helps the bugs, so there may be even more of them.

1. *1 pest: a small animal or insect that hurts plants, fruit, or crops
2. *2 stink bugs: insects with a flat body that give off a bad smell and eat fruit and plants
3. *3 brown-winged green stink bug: a kind of green stink bug with brown wings that lives in Japan
4. *4 glossy green stink bug: a kind of shiny green stink bug that lives in Japan
5. *5 brown marmorated stink bug: a kind of brown stink bug with light and dark marks
6. *6 citrus fruits: fruits like oranges and lemons
7. *7 persimmons: a sweet orange fruit that grows on trees in Japan
8. *8 advisory: an official message that tells people to be careful; smaller than a warning
9. *9 light traps: boxes with a light inside that pull insects in and catch them
10. *10 on average: the usual or middle number when you add things up and divide
11. *11 cypress trees: tall trees with small green leaves that stay green all year
12. *12 cones: the hard, round seed cases that grow on some trees
13. *13 orchards: fields where fruit trees grow
14. *14 forecast: a report that says what the weather will probably be like