Brown stink bugs are causing millions of dollars in crop damage, with the apple industry being hit the hardest. Growers in the mid-Atlantic region have reported the worst problems with about 18 per cent of the crop ruined.
The industry has reported $37million in damage to apple growers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia this spring.
The bug, a three-quarter-inch invader native to Asia, has a huge appetite and has no domestic natural predators.
It is believed to have been brought first to the Allentown area of Pennsylvania in 1998.
The bug began appearing in mid-Atlantic orchards in 2003-04 and exploded in number last year.
They have now been seen in 33 states, including every one east of the Mississippi River and as far west as California, Oregon and Washington.
Research entomologist Tracy Leskey, who works at the U.S. Agriculture Department's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia, said: 'All that we do know for certain is that a tremendously large population went into overwintering in fall 2010.
'So, if they survived, there could be a very large population emerging.'
Mark Seetin, the association's director of regulatory and industry affairs, called it the worst threat to farmers he's see in his 40 years in agriculture.
America's biggest apple producer, Washington state, has yet to report serious so far.
Aside from apples, the bug, named for the foul smell it gives off when crushed, will feed on nearly anything, including cherries, tomatoes, grapes, lima beans, soybeans, green peppers and peaches.
It uses a needle-like mouth to pierce the skin of its host fruit or vegetable, leaving behind a spot that is disfigured and discolored.
Stink bugs wiped out up to 40 per cent of Tom Haas's peaches last season at his Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Mr Haas, the owner of the family-run orchard, said: 'This is the worst, probably, that I've dealt with in 25 years. The damage they do to fruit is horrendous.' Read More
