"At last, the “Vine that Ate the South” may have met its match. To most longtime Southerners, it sounds great: a bug that loves to eat kudzu and can kill off half an infestation of the tangled vine in a couple of years. What’s not to like?"
"A lot, it turns out.
The bean plastapid, commonly called the kudzu bug, also likes to eat soybeans as well as wisteria and some ornamental plants. (Kudzu, wisteria and kudzu bugs all come from Asia, especially Japan.) Like stink bugs, kudzu bugs smell bad, and like ladybugs, they try to come inside people’s houses. They fly in clouds and form clumps of thousands on white homes. The insect leaves behind orange stains when smashed and gives some people a skin rash."
S. Heather Duncan reports for the Macon Telegraph January 3, 2013.
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