Something has found its way to American shores from Asia that feeds on the vine that ate the South.

It’s the Megacopta cribraria, also known as the globular stink bug.

The bug feeds on kudzu vines, which grow in abundance in Georgia. But the insect is not native to the state, let alone the Western Hemisphere.

“It is not known in the New World – it is from Asia,” said Dan Suiter, associate professor of entomology at the University’s Griffin campus. “We have no idea how long it has been here or how it got here.”

Suiter said his department has an insect identification lab where it receives insect samples from county extension agents throughout Georgia. In mid-October, the lab received samples from the side of a house in Gwinnett County.

“There were 10,000 bugs on the light-colored side of the house in Gwinnett,” Suiter said. “We looked at the bugs and thought we knew what it was. It wasn’t until I was in a meeting with a colleague and he looked at the thing and said that this was not native to the U.S.”

Suiter called around to make sure the bug had not been imported as a type of biological control for kudzu.

“Nothing had ever been imported for that purpose,” he said.

Pest control agents soon found the source of the infestation was a kudzu patch in the home’s backyard.

The button-sized bug has since been identified in eight other Georgia counties, including Clarke.

The pest primarily feeds on legume crops – such as kudzu – but Georgia officials worry the bug could begin feeding on the state’s soybean crops.

“There is a real threat it could move from kudzu to soybeans,” Suiter said. ” It has the potential to make growing soybeans difficult. We don’t know enough about the bug to establish proper prevention techniques. Currently we are just using pesticides.”

The insect has no natural enemies in Georgia. It is not yet known how widespread the problem is in the state. When threatened , the insect expels a mildly offensive odor.

“We will be working with the University of Georgia and USDA to find the best way of dealing with this insect. At this time there is not enough information to determine its current range and what its potential as a pest may be,” Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said in an e-mail interview.

As winter inches closer, the bug will begin to seek warmer shelter from the cold. Much like lady bugs, they are attracted to light surfaces and resemble a tick with wings.

“We have sent out a pest alert across the state. It has been quiet outside the counties currently affected. We are keeping in touch with pest control agents across Georgia and currently have 30 to 40 homes with the problem.” Suiter said.

The extent of the bugs’ presence in Georgia is not yet known, but at this point, eradication is out of the question, Suiter said.

“I think we are at the peak right now but it is too early to know if it will migrate to the state’s soybean crop,” he said. “In the coming weeks, we plan to travel around the state and take kudzu samples to figure out how widespread this problem is.”

Kudzu was brought to America from Japan in 1876 as an ornamental plant. Southerners began planting the vine as protective ground cover and decorative foliage. In the 1930s and ’40s state officials used it across Georgia as soil control.

The state’s mild winters, annual rainfall and warm temperatures were ideal for the vine and it soon spread rapidly across the state.