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A Stinker of a Pest: IPM Researchers, Educators Team Up Against Brown Marmorated Stink Bug

A new pest has been pigging out on many of North America’s most important crops, posing an unpreced-ented threat to U.S. farmers. The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) burst onto the scene in 2010, causing catastrophic damage in most mid-Atlantic states. Some growers of sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, and peaches reported total losses that year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has now awarded $5.7 million to ten institutions across the country for research and education to help growers cope.The NEW new bad bugThe value of susceptible crops in the 33 states where BMSB has been established or sighted exceeds $21 billion, says Tracy Leskey, the USDA entomologist at the project’s helm. Last year, the pest cost apple growers alone $37 million.Leskey’s team of 51 researchers has its work cut out: uncover the mysteries of BMSB and use that knowledge to find management tactics that work—traps and lures, biopesticides, and natural enemies that kill BMSB. The Northeastern IPM Center will coordinate outreach, putting solutions in the hands of growers who need them.A broad-spectrum pestBMSB arrived from Asia circa 1996, touching down in Allentown, PA, and quickly becoming a nuisance pest by overwintering in homes, office buildings, and warehouses. By 2004 it was showing up on farms and in forests. BMSB has a huge host range, also hitting field crops, ornamentals, and woodland trees, feeding on about 300 species altogether.“It’s the worst I’ve seen yet,” said University of Maryland entomologist Galen Dively, whose career spans 45 years. Growers will need sprays for the near term, so Dively and a group of researchers are testing a range of conventional and biological pesticides on tomato, pepper, and eggplant. “You can kill ninety percent of them, but the next day you might have just as many,” Dively said in June 2011 as he surveyed research plots in eastern Maryland. Since these pests move in waves from woods to fields and orchards, he guessed that this year they’d see an “order of magnitude” more than in 2010.They might have—but then came July’s record heat and drought. Young BMSB molt five times before adulthood and are vulnerable to drying—and dying—right after they’ve shed their skins. “I think it scorched them,” Dively says. “Right now we aren’t seeing

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Stink bugs are aptly named. Some say this species smells like a combination of cilantro and burnt rubber. But not all stink bugs are pests and some are beneficial, preying on common garden pests.

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nearly what we expected.” Losses in 2011 weren’t as devastating—but wacky weather could be why.A balancing act for growersGrowers have sprayed aggressively to keep BMSB in check. But broad-spectrum sprays such as pyrethroids also kill beneficial insects that dine on pests, hampering nature’s own checks and balances. Beneficial insects help IPM growers protect crops through science-based tactics that keep environmental and economic costs as low as possible.Henry Chiles of 1,500-acre Crown Orchard in Virginia saw severe damage in 2010. “We tried everything possible, including many sprays of pyrethroid insecticides, with no results,” he reported in a letter to USDA in 2010. “Now we’ve destroyed our IPM program that we have worked so hard for the past 10-plus years to establish and maintain.”The New Jersey Peach Promotion Council’s 2010 letter echoed these sentiments: though pyrethroids worked in some orchards, they also “lead to increased mite populations and other secondary pests, creating the need for more pesticides. This means that our IPM programs are at risk, and pesticide use and associated costs will increase.”In West Virginia, Clarissa Mathews, entomologist and environmental sciences professor at Shepherd College—and also co-owner of Redbud Organic Farm—is experimenting with movable cages for tomato and pepper crops on her farm. The cages are made of PVC pipes and screening—“sort of like mini hoop-houses,” she says. But they’re still unproven. And Mathews might not have much time. “Two bad years would put us under,” she says. “Every week we talk about whether we can keep Redbud going.”

New York is among northeastern frontier states where BMSB is on the move, and 2011 marked the first agricultural sighting. “Organic peppers were badly injured on a Hudson Valley farm,” says Peter Jentsch, a Cornell University researcher on the team. Indeed, organic growers have a hard row to hoe. No organically approved pesticides keep BMSB at bay. Traps and lures, beneficial insects, and biorationals could be several years from deployment.Staying one step aheadThe spark for a broad-based BMSB management project came in early 2010 when Tracy Leskey assembled a working group funded by the Northeastern IPM Center. The group’s early discuss-ions spurred members to pursue a coordinated solution, and within a few months plans for national research and outreach were underway. None too soon: this pest loves oranges and has hitchhiked to Florida and the West Coast.

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Tracy Leskey (USDA Agricultural Research Service) examines BMSB injury to fruit at an emergency meeting with growers in Maryland.

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The BMSB working group wants to stay one step ahead, and it met with the project team in late November 2011 to share the lessons from this year. “We have so much to learn,” says Leskey. “We’re looking at every angle to fight this thing.”

Source: Woodson, M. 2012. A Stinker of a Pest: IPM Researchers, Educators Team Up Against Brown Marmorated Stink Bug.

Northeastern IPM Center, United States Dept of Agriculture. Online at http://www.northeastipm.org/about-us/publications/ipm-insights/a-stinker-of-a-pest-ipm-researchers-educators-team-up-against-bmsb/

Biology, ecology, and management of brown marmorated stink bug in specialty crops

Range The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB)is native to eastern Asia: China, Japan, and Korea. In North America, it has been found in 41 states and two Canadian provinces (see map below). In Asia, people recognized it as a pest; however, the insect has not caused nearly as much damage there as it has in North America. It has caused greatest crop damage in the mid-Atlantic region. In China, BMSB feeds on Eucommia, a small tree threatened in the wild, but cultivated for use in tradi-tional medicine. BMSB also

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attacks a variety of fruit and ornamental trees, including pear, peach, apple, plum and mulberry. In northern Japan, the first outbreaks of BMSB occurred in the 1990s, and by 2011, the insect had become a significant pest. In Korea, it is a major pest on agricultural crops, including soybean, sweet persimmon, yuzu, and citrus. Cross-cultural partner-ships with China, Korea, and Japan to research the biology of BMSB and find a sustainable and effective defense has become essential, now that BMSB has arrived in the Americas.Stink Bug in North AmericaBMSB was accidentally imported from Asia to North America in the late 1990s. Spreading from the place of early sightings in Allentown, Pennsylvania, BMSB quickly became a nuisance pest, overwintering in homes, office buildings, and warehouses. With few natural predators and an abundance of food sources, the invasive insect spread quickly. By 2004 the stink bug was widely identified on farms and in forests. In 2010, the invader caused catastrophic damage in most mid-Atlantic states, with some growers of sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, apples, and peaches reporting total losses that year. DescriptionAdults are flying insects, approximately 17 mm long (25 mm = one inch) and are shades of brown on both the upper and lower body surfaces. They are the typical “shield” shape of other stink bugs, almost as wide as they are long. To distinguish them from other stink bugs, look for lighter bands on the antennae and darker bands on the membranous, overlapping part at the rear of the front pair of wings. They have patches of coppery or bluish-metallic colored puntures (small rounded depressions) on the head and pronotum. The name “stink bug” refers to the scent glands located on the dorsal surface of the abdomen and the underside of the thorax.The eggs are elliptical (1.6 x 1.3 mm), light yellow to yellow-red with minute spines forming fine lines. They are attached, side-by-side, to the underside of leaves in masses of 20 to 30 eggs.There are five nymphal instars (immature stages, see image below). They range in size from the first instar at 2.4 mm to the fifth instar that is 12 mm in length. The eyes are a deep red. The abdomen is a yellowish red in the first instar and progresses to off-white with reddish spots in the fifth instar. While the adults blend in with tree bark, the nymphs are more brightly colored. Nymphs do not have wings and cannot fly.

4 | P a g eFrom left to right, four nymphal stages of BMSB, second through fifth instar; adult male, and adult female. Photo by W. Hershberger

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Protuberances are found before each of the abdominal scent glands on the dorsal surface. The legs, head and thorax are black. Spines are located on the femur, before each eye, and several on the lateral margins of the thorax.BiologyThis species probably has a single generation per year in the mid-Atlantic, depending on the temperatures.  Warm spring and summer conditions could permit the development of two or three generations.  However, in parts of sub-tropical China, records indicate from four to possibly six generations per year. Adults will emerge sometime in the spring of the year (late April to mid-May), and begin mating in about two weeks. Females deposit eggs from May through August, and the female may deposit as many as about 486 eggs in a lifetime. Development from egg to adult requires approximately 538 degree days, a measure of temperature and time for insect growth, with an additional 148 degree day period before eggs are laid. Its light-green eggs are often laid on the underside of leaves, deposited in masses of approximately 28 eggs. The eggs hatch into small black and red nymphs that go through five molts. Adults begin to search for overwintering sites starting in September through the first half of October, and overwinter in a protective sleeplike state.

Although the stinkbug has some natural predators in the U.S. (including predatory stink bugs, assassin bugs, and two egg parasitoids), those predators can't keep up with the size of the stinkbug population. In Asia, Trissolcus, a tiny, parasitic wasp thrives on destroying brown marmorated stinkbugs and has kept them from becoming the extreme pests they are in the U.S. When a female wasp happens upon a cluster of stinkbug eggs, she will lay her own eggs inside them. As the larval wasp develops, it feeds on its host—the stinkbug egg—until there's nothing left. Some scientists are evaluating the introduction of this parasitic wasp as a control measure; however, there is risk that the wasp may disrupt the new ecosystem in unexpected ways.Stinkbugs are attracted to blue, black, and white light, and to certain pheromones. Pheromone lures have been used with some success in stinkbug traps, but the method hasn't yet been evaluated for catching the bugs in large numbers.Damage to Crops

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In its native range, it feeds on a wide variety of host plants. Fruits attacked include apples, peaches, figs, mulberries, citrus fruits and persimmons. This true bug has also been reported on many ornamental plants, weeds, soybeans and beans for human consumption. Feeding on tree fruits such as apple results in a characteristic distortion referred to as “cat facing,” that renders the fruit unmarketable.

This insect is becoming an important agricultural pest in Pennsylvania. In 2010, it produced severe losses in some apple and peach orchards by damaging peaches and apples.  It also has been found feeding on blackberry, sweet corn, field corn and soybeans.  In other states, it has been observed damaging tomatoes, lima beans and green peppers.

Sources: Biology, ecology, and management of brown

marmorated stink bug in specialty crops. (USDA-NIFA SCRI Coordinated Agricultural Project Online at http://www.stopbmsb.org/ [Accessed August 7, 2014]

Fact Sheet: Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys). (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, 2014.). Online at

http://ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/brown-marmorated-stink-bug Zuckerman, C. 2013. Stink bug threat has farmers worried. National Geographic News, March 1, 2013. Online at

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130301-asian-brown-marmorated-stink-bugs-pests-agriculture-farming-science/

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Peach and Sweet Corn Damage

Apple Damage

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Source:

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http://www.saferbrand.com/advice/stinky-truth-on-stink-bugs-infographic

Scientists draw maps to stop stink bug pirates A monitoring system set up in the early 1980s to track common vegetable pests in New Jersey has led to a treasure trove of maps about a new invader, the brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB). Scientists are analyzing the maps to stop BMSB from pirating a wide range of fruit and vegetables in North America.George Hamilton, an entomologist and extension specialist at Rutgers University, leads a team that is using this valuable store of historic information about BMSB movement to help them predict future BMSB activity across other regions.The 2004 invasion“In 1999, we first detected BMSB in New Jersey,” Hamilton said. “In 2004, Anne Nielsen and I monitored an invasion of BMSB as it came into Philipsburg, NJ, right across the river from Allentown, PA.” Since then, Hamilton and his team have followed the expansion of BMSB throughout New Jersey using a statewide network of black light traps.Growers, working with scientists, had installed a series of 70 or more black light traps on their farms in the early 1980s, sentinels against the European corn borer and corn earworm. This integrated pest management program has been running continuously, albeit with modifications such as new computer technology, for more than 30 years.Hamilton’s group prepares weekly statewide maps of their BMSB catches in New Jersey. These maps signal to growers where hotspots—rising numbers of BMSB and other pests—are found. In 2004, they did what they could to warn growers to check their crops, but at the time BMSB was not classified as an agricultural pest. “What we can do now,” Hamilton said, “is more accurate hotspot identification.”How growers use this informationScientists use the maps to track insect counts, distance, and time. This information helps them estimate how quickly BMSB reproduces and how far it travels. The predictions about what areas may be at risk are immensely valuable for growers. As Hamilton knows, it’s hard work to go into the field, collect samples, and update the database. One of Hamilton’s students, Noel Hahn, has been studying BMSB movement in and out of orchards. In 2012 he visited orchards weekly, sampling specific trees on the borders and in the middle, and noting land-use types. He analyzes landscape features and tries to determine statistically from where BMSB is invading. Adam Wallner, a researcher with Rutgers trained in geospatial relationships and statistics, is working on making forecasts and predicting trends.

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This black light trap stands guard against fruit and vegetable pests, including the brown marmorated stink bug, in a network of about 70 similar traps in New Jersey. Source: G. Hamilton, Rutgers University.

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Accurate maps, useful forecastingToday scientists seek out the maps made from historical data, wanting to understand what it looks like when BMSB invades new territory. Hamilton has created maps of his team’s data

since 2010, but he can map any year by going back to the 1980s-era vegetable and pest monitoring system. “We can look at the [2004] invasion as if it were happening in real time. We can assess how fast BMSB mates, how far it can move every year. I’m aware of only a few invading pests—the emerald ash borer would be one—where we had such an extensive monitoring system already in place.”

Bringing maps to growers on the Internet“Three years ago,” Hamilton said, “we started publishing these maps. Growers can receive our newsletters, go to the website, and find BMSB hotspots. If there is a BMSB hotspot in their area, they should go out in their fields, looking themselves. If they find BMSB, they will need to make their own management decisions.”The map research is part of a broader Coordinated Agricultural Project entitled “Biology, Ecology and Management of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug in Specialty Crops” that has been funded through the USDA-NIFA Specialty Crop Research Initiative. “Other states are calling us about this program,” Hamilton said, with a touch of reserved pride. Adapted from: Gonzalez, C. Stink Bug Bulletin: Scientists draw maps to stop stink bug

pirates. From StopBMSB.org. Online at http://www.stopbmsb.org/stink-bug-bulletin/scientists-draw-maps-to-stop-stink-bug-pirates/

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A map shows the intense BMSB activity of July, 2011, illustrating the potential of mapping to warn growers about pest risk. Source: G. Hamilton, Rutgers University.

Interesting small-scale population

estimate.Data collected by Doug Inkley,

Ph.D., Senior Scientist at National Wildlife Federation.

Online at http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/T

hreats-to-Wildlife/Invasive-Species/Stink-Bugs.aspx

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Citizen-Scientists Assisting on Stink Bug ProjectVirginia Tech researchers have enlisted citizen-scientists to

test a low-cost trap to catch stink bugs in houses.May 7, 2014

BLACKSBURG, Va. – A Virginia Tech team of researchers has proven that homemade, inexpensive stink bug traps crafted from simple household items outshine pricier models designed to kill the invasive, bugs. This discovery comes just as warm weather is coaxing the critters out of crevices of the homes they were hiding in during the cold winter.Researchers from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences found that the best way to get rid of the little buggers is to fill a foil roasting pan with water and dish soap and put a light over the pan to attract the bugs in a dark room. The trap eliminated 14 times more stink bugs than store-bought traps that cost up to $50. The only price of the homemade model is the cost of a roasting pan, dish soap, and a light. Though the solution is not new and has been promoted on Youtube and other websites, this is the first time it was tested in a scientific experiment. The findings will be published in the Journal of Extension.

“We knew that insects are generally attracted to light, so we were able to exploit that with these traps,” said John Aigner, a doctoral student in the Department of Entomology. To conduct the study, Aigner and Tom Kuhar, an entomology professor, enlisted the help of citizen scientists — homeowners who were annoyed by the infestation of stink bugs in their houses — to evaluate different types of traps for ridding homes of bugs. The study was conducted in 16 houses over two years.

“Currently there are no in-home insecticides labeled for use against brown marmorated stink bugs, so that presented us with a challenge,” Aigner said.The homemade trap is not only inexpensive, it is also pesticide-free. Unfortunately, the traps are only practical in homes. Farmers around the mid-Atlantic have seen millions of dollars in damage to their crops since the brown marmorated stink bug invaded the region in the late 2000s. The bug is now found in 41 states. Still, the solution could give some reprieve to homeowners who find thousands of these cilantro-smelling bugs in their homes.“The real devastation comes in the form of damage to farmers,” said Kuhar. “Stink bugs feed as nymphs and adults on the fruit and pods of plants, which maximizes their chances to render a crop unmarketable. These bugs feed on many of our important agricultural crops including apples, peaches, grapes, soybeans, peppers, tomatoes, corn, and cotton.”Treatment of the insects in crops is costly because the insecticides required to control it are broad spectrum toxicants that are highly disruptive to integrated pest management programs.

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Check out this video on how to make a Stink Bug

Trap http://vimeo.com/9235480

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“The few native natural enemies they have can easily be killed with the same insecticide used to target the stink bugs themselves,” he said.Source: Citizen-Scientists Assisting on Stink Bug Project. May 17, 2014. Pest Control Technology. Online at

http://www.pctonline.com/Virginia-Tech-Stink-Bug-Project.aspx

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