An invasion of the brown marmorated stink bug - the pest discovered recently in three Japanese car shipments - would devastate New Zealand's fruit, vegetable and wine industries, destroying more than $4 billion of export value and costing thousands of jobs, according to a new report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER). Over 100 of the stink bugs, which originate in Asia but have spread to the US and Europe, were found last week by Ministry of Primary Industries biosecurity staff in three car carriers that arrived at the dock in Auckland. But this is just the latest disturbing infestation. Border biosecurity patrols have discovered previously unheard of quantities of the imported beetles over the last two years. Of course, stink bugs are nothing new in New Zealand. Most gardeners will have come across our native bright green, shield-shaped stink bugs, which suck sap from your veges and give out a nasty smell when squashed. These insects, often called shield bugs are pretty harmless. Not so their mottled brown Asian cousins. A soon-to-be released report commissioned by Horticulture New Zealand from NZIER suggests that if the brown marmorated stink bug becomes established in New Zealand, real GDP could fall by a minimum of $3.6 billion over the next 20 years, and horticultural exports could fall by $4.2 billion a year. Chief executive of Horticulture New Zealand Mike Chapman is unequivocal - the insect must be kept out of New Zealand. "If this stink bug arrives in New Zealand, it's going to devastate our horticulture, it's going to devastate our food production, it's going to devastate our rural communities, it's going to infest our homes across the country, and not just rural homes, urban homes. "It's going to take out people's vegetable gardens, it's going to attack their flower gardens. This is one really nasty bug." Some farmers have compared the potential impact of the stink bug to that of foot and mouth disease outbreaks in animals; Mr Chapman likens it to the impact of the bacteria PSA, which devastated kiwifruit growers and workers. Only this infestation would be worse, he says, because it wouldn't be restricted to one industry, but would hit fruit and vegetable producers across the board. "It just eats everything. It is a very hungry little bug. It has been sweeping across the United States; it's swept through Europe. We are talking about long term effects here. We are talking about billions of dollars. We are talking about rural communities." NZ Winegrowers biosecurity and emergency response manager Dr Edwin Massey says it isn't clear why marmorated stink bug numbers have skyrocketed in countries like Japan, the US and Italy. But the more bugs multiply overseas, the more they hitchhike to New Zealand. Between 2014 and 2016, MPI staff found stink bugs 55 times at the borders. Now it's far more. "In terms of interceptions, we are well into the hundreds now, with that accounting for thousands of bugs. Most of those are dead, but this year there has also been an increase in the number of finds of a mixture of both dead and alive bugs, which is concerning." In the US, some farmers have reported crop losses of up to 90 percent when stink bugs move in. Source - https://www.radionz.co.nz