The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, a native of Asia, has become 
a serious invasive pest in the USA. H. halys was first detected in the USA in 
the mid 1990s, dispersing to over 41 other states. Since 1998, H. halys has 
spread throughout New Jersey, becoming an important pest of agriculture, and a 
major nuisance in urban developments. In this study, we used spatial analysis, 
geostatistics, and Bayesian linear regression to investigate the invasion 
dynamics and colonization processes of this pest in New Jersey. We present the 
results of monitoring H. halys from 51 to 71 black light traps that were placed 
on farms throughout New Jersey from 2004 to 2011 and examined relationships 
between total yearly densities of H. halys and square hectares of 48 
landscape/land use variables derived from urban, wetland, forest, and 
agriculture metadata, as well as distances to nearest highways. From these 
analyses we propose the following hypotheses: (1) H. halys density is strongly 
associated with urban developments and railroads during its initial 
establishment and dispersal from 2004 to 2006; (2) H. halys overwintering in 
multiple habitats and feeding on a variety of plants may have reduced the Allee 
effect, thus facilitating movement into the southernmost regions of the state by 
railroads from 2005 to 2008; (3) density of H. halys contracted in 2009 possibly 
from invading wetlands or sampling artifact; (4) subsequent invasion of H. halys 
from the northwest to the south in 2010 may conform to a stratified-dispersal 
model marked by rapid long-distance movement, from railroads and wetland 
rights-of-way; and (5) high densities of H. halys may be associated with 
agriculture in southern New Jersey in 2011. These landscape features associated 
with the invasion of H. halys in New Jersey may predict its potential rate of 
invasion across the USA and worldwide.