There are ways to manage Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) has established itself in North America and most likely will continue to pose a serious threat to agricultural systems for some time. During the last two years, researchers and Extension specialists throughout the mid-Atlantic region have documented the alarming potential BMSB has to devastate fruit and vegetable crops.
According to Greg Krawczyk and Larry Hull, entomologists with Penn State University, damage on fruit can occur throughout the entire growing season. Although the BMSB feeding mechanism is similar throughout the season, the time of the season the feeding occurs can have a profound influence on the type and appearance of injury. For example, early season feeding usually causes misshapen fruit, whereas late-season feeding usually causes depressions on the fruit surface and the appearance of browning or dead tissue just below the skin. This led to many BMSB injuries being confused with corking disorder, normally caused by a calcium deficiency.
Management for BMSB is quite complicated and quite frustrating for growers. Despite using the best available practices to conserve IPM programs, utilizing the best available products and tactics to control BMSB didn’t have the desired effect. Fruit injury levels in affected orchards ranged from low to extremely high, with most well above acceptance levels for growers and customers, according to the entomologists.
The estimated losses during 2010 for mid-Atlantic fruit growers exceeded $37million, said Mark Seetin, director of regulatory and industry affairs for the U.S. Apple Association. Although the amount of damage varied significantly among different locations, some stone and pome fruit orchards reported more than 60 percent of their fruit was injured by harvest.
Management
Testing done during late 2010 demonstrated various efficacies of currently registered insecticides against BMSB. With 10 currently available chemical controls that cause above 50 percent mortality, there are enough tools available to growers to control BMSB populations that enter orchards throughout the entire growing season, according to the entomologists.
The challenge with this approach is to manage the usage of these various products so they manage BMSB, but also other pests throughout the season without totally disrupting IPM procedures.
Available products are not equal in their efficacy against BMSB, and they are not equal in their activity against other pests at the time insecticide applications might be needed. A grower can choose to ignore these other pests and concentrate only on the management of BMSB, but based on results prior to BMSB that might not be the best option – especially with known pressures from codling moth, oriental fruit moth, leafrollers and other pests, which can cause significant damage, according to the entomologists.
When developing a seasonal strategy to manage BMSB, Krawczyk and Hull said the following factors need to be considered during the planning process:
- Insecticides: The efficacy ratings against BMSB are two of the most important factors in choosing insecticides. Growers should also consider the time of the season and other pests likely active in the orchard. Factors such as an insecticide’s pre-harvest intervals, the number of available applications per season and the amount of the active ingredient that can be used for the entire season need to be critically assessed. Since all products have a limited number of applications that can be used during a season, utilizing the most effective insecticides before they are needed reduces the effectiveness later in the season.
- Keep your eyes open: BMSB’s ability to move quickly from location to location means you need a constant and vigilant monitoring program.
- Crop/block-specific characteristics: While some fruit blocks might require seasonal, intensive management options against BMSB, other blocks might require a less intensive program. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for successful management in dealing with this pest.
- Necessity of controlling other pests: In selecting control options, growers should consider what other pests and beneficials might be affected.
- Season-long control: Since no one can predict when BMSB will move into an orchard or how intense populations and feeding will be, growers should prepare for a season-long monitoring and management program.
To watch a video with more information on BMSB, click here.