If you thought the air quality at Sydney’s train stations was as bad as it gets, think again. Foreign stink bugs have been finding their way into the luggage of travellers arriving in Sydney from Asia and Europe, and the government is urging travllers to check their luggage before more of these smelly pests make their way onto Australian shores.
To help you ID these stowaways: the marmorated stink bugs – formally known as Halyomorpha halys – are brown in colour, around 2 to 17mm long and 7 to 10mm wide (about the size of a five-cent coin), with white bands on their antennae, legs and the sides of their abdomen. And, crucially, when they’re disturbed they’re known to emit a pungent odour (hence the stink bug moniker). So you might smell them before you put eyes on them, anyway.
The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is monitoring a home in NSW where two stink bugs (which stowed themselves in luggage arriving from Asia) were recently found. As well as causing olfactory disturbance, the introduction of these bugs to Australia could pose a risk to our ecosystem. After an infestation in some western Sydney warehouses in 2017-18, the marmorated bugs were successfully eradicated in NSW in August 2018. Hence the eagerness to keep it that way.
The NSW Government is urging travellers to be extra vigilant to stop any more stink bugs from settling.“Look for brown marmorated stink bug in your luggage, including clothes and shoes, around the home and in yards and call the NSW Exotic Plant Pest Hotline, 1800 084 881 if you find any – dead or alive,” says Minister for Agriculture, Regional and Western NSW, Tara Moriarty.
If you’re on your way back from overseas, triple check your pockets. We can only hope and pray that Tarvis Kelce’s luggage wasn't affected.