ATHENS — There have been 13,000 sightings of the stink bug in the past week alone. This could be bad for Georgia’s cotton industry.

The bug specifically loves to eat cotton boils. Georgia is the second leading state in terms of cotton production. The industry brought in $1.16 billion of revenue last year.

The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål), is a voracious eater that damages fruit, vegetable, and ornamental crops in North America.

The bug uses a stem to sink into fruits and suck out juices, causing the crop to go through necropsy and fall off.

UGA entomologists want people to fill out a tracking survey is to see what counties these bugs are most likely to be spotted in, to try and tackle the issue before it becomes a much bigger problem for our crop production.