What to do about stink bugs

[beckyh]

Hello! My husband and I had a garden last year and the stink bugs ate all of our produce. This year we are getting ready to spend a lot of money on seeds and such to have a good garden since this is my first summer raw. So we would like to know what we can do to keep the stink bugs away from our garden so that we can have a good harvest. Thanks for your suggestions!

[Revvell]

I got myself a book called "Great Garden Companions" which I'm going to be using to eliminate pests and bring in beneficial creatures. Good to know which are which too.

What this book is about is planting plants near others to "confuse" the pests so they don't know what it is they like ~ or something like that.

Also, someone here ~ Lafsalot, I think it was ~ told me to make my yard bird friendly and they will eat a lot of the bugs you don't want ~ and maybe some you do such as praying mantis and ladybugs. I'm planning on putting "resting posts" in my garden and sunflowers to attract them to hang out in my garden more.

According to the book, stink bugs are beneficial as they eat eggs or larvae of Colorado potato beetles, Mexican bean beetles, asparagus beetles and cabbage loopers. Sounds as though you may want to keep them.