Good Fruit Grower

March 2012

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Pest Management Stinkbug poses BIG THREAT The brown marmorated stinkbug has not yet reached orchards and vineyards in the Pacific Northwest, but it is on its way. by Geraldine Warner T he dreaded brown marmorated stinkbug is gradually making its way towards major tree fruit and grape growing regions in Oregon and Washington where $4 billion in crops are at risk. This stinkbug species, which originated in Asia, is much larger than native stinkbugs and can be far more damaging. It has a host range of more than 300 crops. It was first collected in Pennsylvania in the 1990s, but not officially identified until 2001. It began to be a prob- lem in Mid-Atlantic tree fruit orchards in 2008, and caused an estimated $37 million in damage to apples in the region in 2010, as well as extensive damage to peaches. The brown marmorated stinkbug's first appearance on the West Coast was in Portland, Oregon, in 2004. It has not yet been found in commercial orchards in the region, Dr. Peter Shearer, director of Oregon State University's Mid- Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center, told growers during the Washington State Horticultural Association's annual meeting in December, but it is moving steadily towards them. From Portland, it has been spreading south down the Willamette Valley towards Oregon's Pinot Noir grape growing region. At the same time, it has spread north across the Columbia River to Vancouver, Washington. It turned up at Arlington in eastern Oregon, presumably after hitching a ride on a dump truck to the landfill there. It's moved east along the Columbia Gorge and was found literally on Shearer's doorstep—outside his office—last year. It is now within 60 miles of Yakima, Washington's main fruit growing region. "So, it's coming," warned Shearer, who is hoping that biological con- trols will be developed before the pest becomes established as an orchard pest in the West. "This is going to be the thing that saves us from this beast. Ultimately, a successful biocontrol program is going to be the key to mitigating this problem. We'll have the good bugs take care of the bad bugs, so we don't have to use a lot of chemicals to take care of them." …PUTTING ZINC ON PUTTING TECH-FLO® Just because you put a foliar zinc on doesn't mean the job's done. Some zinc products are so ineffective they are better suited as sun- screens or paint. In trial after trial, TECH- FLO® ZETA ZINC 22 (22% Zinc) has been shown to be the most effective foliar zinc Parasitic wasps The U.S. Department of Agriculture has imported a couple of promising parasitic wasps from Asia in the hope that they might be able to control the brown marmorated stinkbug. One, Trissolcus halyomorphae, is in quarantine at Shearer's lab. Next year, OSU scientists will begin col- lecting specimens of native beneficial stinkbugs to make sure that the parasite won't have a negative impact on them, since they are important predators of orchard pests. Shearer and other scientists at OSU and Washington State University are collaborating in a nationwide research project on the bug that has been funded by the federal Specialty Crop Research Initiative for three years. Fourteen institutions across the country are involved, with Tracy Leskey, with USDA in Kearneysville, West Virginia, as lead investigator. Aims are to understand the biology and phenology of the bug, develop monitoring and management tools, and develop effective chemical management programs. Because the bugs are difficult to kill with insecticides, ZINC IN… ZETA ZINC 22 product on the market today, getting the zinc into the tree where it is needed. For the best value for your nutritional dollar, choose TECH-FLO® ZETA ZINC 22. ASK YOUR P.C.A. OR CALL NUTRIENT TECHNOLOGIES TOLL-FREE: 877/832-4356 FOR THE DEALER NEAREST YOU. 14 MARCH 1, 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER they've been a major disruption to both conventional and organic international pest management programs in the East, Leskey said. "We've been in crisis mode and want to understand how to keep our growers in business." Some classes of pesticides knock down the bugs, but they are able to recover. Leskey's seen orchards where, after treatment, there was a carpet of bugs on the ground, but within 48 hours they start recovering and climbing back up into the trees. Working with scientists at Pennsylvania State Univer- sity and Virginia Tech, Leskey has been doing lab tests to assess the effectiveness of more than 40 pesticides on brown marmorated stinkbugs. Bugs were exposed to dry pesticide residues for 4.5 hours, and their mortality was tracked for seven days to make sure those that looked moribund actually died. The scientists saw the knock- down and recovery effect from pyrethroids and nicoti- noids. The broad-spectrum, highly regulated materials looked the most promising, Leskey reported. "There's no chemical class that was perfect, but within each chemical class, we did find promising materials." www.goodfruit.com UNSURPASSED FOLIAR ZINC PERFORMANCE!

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