AG TODAY: Stink bug activity on the rise
Posted By Admin on May 31, 2011
This week brown marmorated stink bug activity is definitely on
the rise. For the first six weeks of monitoring this year, things
have been pretty quiet which is certainly in part due to the very
cool, wet spring we have had so far. But in the last two weeks we
have seen stink bugs wandering into the traps and into the orchards
in western Maryland and West Virginia. Other areas in the region
are beginning to experience about the same thing we are seeing here
as far as activity. However, in southern Virginia scouts have
observed stink bugs feeding on small fruit. This is without
question an indication of what is to come for us. Last year, a
great deal of damage occurred in our area long before we realized
what was happening. This made it extremely difficult to evaluate
control measures later in the season because there was already so
much damage and due to the fact that some of the piercing injury is
very difficult to see on the outside of the fruit.
I am guardedly optimistic that this year we will have a better
chance to achieve control of stink bugs in all crops simply because
we now know what to look for and are already in the field making
observations ahead of the emergence of stink bugs. Beginning last
week, as part of these observations, we began sampling fruit in
both the interior and exterior of the blocks of peaches and apples.
This has required me to buy reading glasses by the dozen so that I
can see the fruit on the trees. In the last week in seven orchards
I have lost or broken four pairs of glasses by either sitting on
them or dropping them and stepping on them as I look over the
trees. This may get expensive as I have about 18 more weeks of
monitoring to do.
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