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counted 26,000 bugs in an attic in 2011— but one of the questions researchers hope to answer is where it overwinters in nature. Leskey said the bug can overwin- ter in standing dead trees, but she will be working with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to use sniffer dogs to detect bugs in other over- wintering sites. • Tracy Leskey However, results in the lab haven't always translated to the field because few materials have more than three days of residual activity against immigrating adult bugs. Eastern growers have taken a conservative approach and have been spraying alternate row middles every seven to ten days, or three to four days during peak periods of activity. On larger farms, where it might take seven days to cover the acreage, growers are spraying every single day, she said. On diversified farms, every crop is at risk. Another problem is that growers are reaching the maximum seasonal label rate on some materials, she said. The best strategy would be to target the bug with those products only at times when the crop is most at risk. For example, peaches become vulnerable as soon as after fruit set. If they are controlled at that time, the fruit should not be vulnerable again until midseason and then again during the late season when there are fewer other hosts available for the bugs. Monitoring Leskey and her colleagues are looking at combining visual and olfactory stimuli as monitoring tools. They tested a pyramid trap baited with methyl decanoate, a sub- stance reported to be attractive to stinkbugs, but it failed to catch stinkbugs during the early and midseason in a peach orchard, even though there were 20 to 50 bugs in each tree. Agricultural Research Service scientists are working to develop an aggregation pheromone as a lure that might be more attractive to the bugs. Scientists are also exploring visual cues, and identifying optimal wave- lengths and intensities of light to attract the insects to traps. In tests the last couple of years, traps with lights captured 200 to 400 times more stinkbugs than unlit traps. Leskey said the scientists will continue the work to make sure they can attract bugs earlier in the season as well as during the summer. If successful, this method could potentially be used as part of an attract- and-kill strategy. The bug commonly overwinters in houses and buildings—one homeowner www.goodfruit.com The most potent codling moth virus...ever. High Potency CYD-X® HP [] ©2012 Certis USA www.CertisUSA.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER MARCH 1, 2012 15