Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/466321
www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER MARCH 1, 2015 35 LENGES Pest Management In four mid-Atlantic states in 2013, trap crops of millet, sunflowers, sor- ghum, and okra were tested. "They came!" she said about the bugs. "Sorghum was the clear winner but sun- fl owers worked, too." Researchers in 2014 then tested the concept of using sorghum and sunfl ower trap crops planted around the perimeter of sweet pepper plantings. "We can attract them. Now what we need is to add an insecticide that could be sprayed while they are there," she said. Conventional growers will fi nd that less diffi cult than organic growers. She found the trap crops attractive enough that they even pulled some bugs back out of the peppers. Combining a trap crop with a pheromone may be even more effective, she said. In related research, Nielsen and her lab colleagues have noticed a strong edge effect and found that orchards endure less damage on the inte- rior because most of the stinkbugs don't penetrate deep into orchard blocks. They move into orchards from outside, and go just far enough to fi nd the fruit they want to feed on. Treating the orchard border with insecticide prevented BMSB from moving to the interior and resulted in the same injury to fruit but with signifi cantly less insecticide than when spraying the whole orchard. Similar trials have evaluated using kaolin clay (Surround) to repel the stinkbugs, but that tended to drive them out of sprayed trees and deeper into the orchard block, she said. There is some evidence as well that native predators are developing a taste for this Asian invader species. Last year, individual BMSB egg masses were vid- eotaped to see what came to eat them. "Katydids consumed entire egg masses," Nielsen said, and generalist predators had, she estimated, a 5 to 10 percent impact on the BMSB population. • growers ONLINE Dr. Anne Nielsen and About 50 researchers from multiple institutions across the country are using Specialty Crop Research Initiative and Organic Research and Education Initiative funding to study the stinkbug. They have informative websites at www.stopbmsb.org and at http://bit.ly/1zAtKbb. COURTESY CHRIS HEDSTROM