Even Lady Liberty would turn her nose up at these foreign visitors.
Pentatomoidae — insects called stinkbugs because they emit an odor like rotten cheese — have landed in Brooklyn, and they’re spreading.
The fingernail-sized flying beetles are native to China, Korea and Japan, but made landfall in the US in 1998 in Allentown, Pa., according to Rutgers University entomologist George Hamilton.
“They’re good hitchhikers,” said Hamilton of the insects, which can lay up to 30 eggs at a time. “They get into clothes and suitcases and spread.”
And while they don’t pose a health risk, they’ve been turning stomachs in Park Slope this winter.
Residents there are finding that when squashed or even vacuumed, the brown, long-antennaed bugs stink to high heaven.
Deborah Orr, 42, a grant editor, said she first spotted the pests last winter but didn’t know what they were. This year, the pesky problem grew and her kids now keep a tally of how many “stinkies” they catch.
“We’re on stinky number 15,” Orr lamented.
Robert Macri, a pest-control specialist, advises: “If you smash them, the odor comes out. The best is to pick them up and flush them. The problem is they’re hard to catch because they fly.”