A field of grapes, sans stink bugs.

The brown marmorated stink bug is a growing problems.  Since the Asian insect came to the United States in the late 1990’s, the bugs have spread like wildfire.  Now, those bugs are hitting us where it hurts:  the booze!  Asian brown marmorated stink bugs are attacking wineries across the US.  All it takes are 10 crushed stink bugs to permanently alter the flavor of a full ton of grapes.  That means, wine is very easily spoiled by the Asian brown marmorated stink bug, which has no natural predators in the United States due to being an invasive species.

So, in order to rid the grapes of stink bugs, vineyard workers have to remove the bugs, by hand, from the bunches of grapes.  Given the size of the stink bug problem in wine-making states like Virginia, Oregon, California, and Washington, you can imagine just how much time it takes for workers to pick these annoying bugs off and toss them aside (or squash them).

Tags: stink bugs attacking vineyards, Asian brown marmorated stink bug, marmorated stink bug, asian stink bug,  invasive species, 10 stink bugs can ruin a vat of vine, vineyards attacked by stink bugs, wine, asian stink bugs getting into wine, vineyards, wineries, stink bugs ruin wine, 10 stink bugs ruin a ton of grapes

I’ve never had a problem eating food from a gas station.  Just two weeks ago, I ate a couple of hot dogs purchased from a gas station.  They were delicious.  That’s not the first time I’ve eaten gas station food, and I doubt it will be the last.  There’s nothing like a fun food novelty. […]

Commissioner Roger Goodell gathered 32 NFL owners for one big question.  One of the league’s most wanderlust-stricken franchises is looking to move again.  The Oakland-Los Angeles-Oakland Raiders, tired of gutting it out in a run-down stadium, were once again looking for greener pastures.  Only the Miami Dolphins refused to cooperate.  With a vote of 31-1, […]

In 2006, an injury to Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe opened the door for an undrafted free agent by the name of Tony Romo to take the helm of America’s Team and lead the Dallas Cowboys to an early playoff exit.  Bledsoe went from starter to afterthought in a season.  Now, the circle continues […]

For 89 years, Oscars has never had a major mistake.  The last few Oscars might have had a few flubs, but at least they never got the most important category of the night wrong.  Well, that’s now changed, all thanks to OG Bonnie and Clyde legends Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.  When Faye Dunaway called […]

Tom Brady has been wildly successful, if controversial.  He’s the first quarterback ever to win five Super Bowls and only the second player to do so after Charles Haley.  Unlike Haley, Brady won all his Super Bowls with the same team, the New England Patriots.  The only thing that seems to be able to stop […]

Ben Affleck, no matter what you might think of him, is a talented actor and director.  He’s got the goods, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s in over his head.  All along, since he took on the mantle of Batman, he’s had his eyes on writing, directing, and starring as the Caped Crusader. […]

In May, students for the for-profit American College of Education were running into some problems.  Their access to email accounts and course information was locked down by Google, who had disabled their accounts.  The reason why?  A fired IT worker for the American College of Education locked the school out of their Google cloud account. […]