The Stink of Spring

I don't want to alarm you, but it seems that the stink bug season will be upon us soon.
The Asian brown marmorated stink bug has invaded the US and is about to descend in Biblical proportions on delicious US crops, devouring all in its path and laying waste to the landscape, turning once fertile fields into windblown, desert desolation.
OK, it's not THAT bad, but the nasty bugs do pose a threat to US crops, and 2013 is looking to be a bad year. Not only do they feast on a wide variety of crops, but they are very difficult to eradicate. Even swatting them with a magazine or a slipper leaves a bad smell behind which is itself very difficult to remove.
Being "Asian" stink bugs, we have them here in Japan, of course, and have suffered from the "over-wintering" problem in our house. They sneak into the crooks and crannies of the walls and hibernate, then when warmer spring weather arrives, they come out in their masses, looking for dates. They crowd around on the windows and walls, checking each other out, often pairing off and ... well... this IS a family blog... you can imagine what they do.
We vacuum them up, but that leaves a very bad smell – true to their name – in the vacuum exhaust.
In the US, they are experimenting with various ways of eliminating this destructive pest. They have tested pheromones to lure the stinky creatures into traps, but these have not proven to deal with the large numbers of bugs around. Chemical solutions have been tried as well, but the sprays they use must go on the fruits and vegetables which humans also eat, so the risk of toxicity to consumers is also a concern. There is a small parasitic wasp that lays its eggs among stink bug eggs. The wasp eggs hatch and eat up the stink bug eggs around them. The trouble with using a non-native species of wasp is that nobody knows what other side effects it might have. Non-native species can be unexpectedly dangerous. The inadvertent introduction of the brown snake in Guam, for example, almost obliterated the native bird population. Similar disastrous effects have been shown in New Zealand as well; mammals brought in from outside killed off a lot of the native birds which had evolved to become flightless for lack of predators, making them easy prey.
What can be done about the stink bugs?
First of all it's important to relate to them in their own language. These ARE Asian stink bugs after all, and most – if not all – of them probably understand Japanese. So we should look to Japan to see what they do to deal with these pests.
In Japan, cracking down on social problems such as criminal gangs and the like is done by flying large banners that say things like, "Stop Idling" or "Stop Old People Traffic Accidents", "Stop Motorcycle Rough Riders", or even "Stop Gangs".  This same strategy also applies to stink bugs.
Yes, they fly banners in the fields saying "Stop Stink Bugs". These red banners make the stink bugs feel unwelcome and encourage them to move along and not eat up the tender stalks of rice. Most of them probably go to the US.
The US needs to buy these banners and fly them in its fields and orchards to make the stink bugs move to another place. Some of the stink bugs may have adapted to American life, so it would not be a bad idea to have banners in both Japanese and English, just in case.
If we can continue this program, eventually we can convince the stinky insects that they all must move to Canada or some other inhospitably cold place where they will "overwinter" for their whole lives, never coming out in spring.