The deadly bugs called brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), or simply the stink bug, is an insect in the family Pentatomidae, and it is native to China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. It was accidentally introduced into the United States, with the first specimen being collected in September 1998. The brown marmorated stink bug is considered to be an agricultural pest, and by 2010-11 had become a season-long pest in U.S. orchards. The adults are approximately 1.7 centimeters (0.67 in) long and about as wide, forming the shield shape characteristic of other stink bugs. They are various shades of brown on both the top and undersides, with gray, off-white, black, copper, and bluish markings.
The brown marmorated stink bug is an agricultural pest that can cause widespread damage to fruit and vegetable crops. In Japan it is a pest to soybean and fruit crops. In the U.S., the brown marmorated stink bug feeds, beginning in late May or early June, on a wide range of fruits, vegetables, and other host plants including peaches, apples, green beans, soybeans, cherries, raspberries, and pears. It is a sucking insect, a “true bug“, which uses its proboscis to pierce the host plant in order to feed. This feeding results, in part, in the formation of dimpled or necrotic areas on the outer surface of fruits, leaf stippling, seed loss, and possible transmission of plant pathogens.
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Beat down soybean insect pests before they cause damage to your crop
Jan 17, 2014Patrick R. Shepard, Contributing Writer
When you see soybean loopers blowing out the top of the canopy, you’ve waited too long to take action,” says Gus Lorenz, Extension IPM specialist at Lonoke, Ark. “They start at the bottom of the plant and work their way up, so you can’t windshield scout loopers.”
Scouting is critical, especially in a late-planted year like 2013.
“For example, we had really spotty bollworm infestations, Lorenz says. “You could walk across the turnrow from one field that was blooming into another field, and one field would have treatment level while the other field would hardly have any worms. That’s why scouting by the grower and/or consultant is critical.
“There’s no rhyme or reason why bollworms infest one field and not one beside it. I saw some drilled beans that had higher numbers than row beans with open canopy.
“We need to scout every field and don’t assume that just because the middles have lapped that we’re safe. I encourage growers to use newer products like Belt, Prevathon or Besiege for bollworm control.”
Stink bugs, which have been a perennial problem for South Carolina soybean growers for some time, were very pronounced in 2013.
“We experienced a lot of pressure from stink bugs because of lush plant growth from all of the rain,” says Jeremy Greene, Clemson University entomologist at Blackville. “Stink bugs represent a group of our most damaging insect pests — they infest a large percentage of our fields regularly, particularly late in the season.”
The corn earworm can also cause problems in the state’s soybeans.
Stink bugs can cause a lot of damage if not brought under control. Traditional methods include the use of pesticides and insecticides on target plants such as corn and tomatoes. But the problem with such a solution is that there is always the danger of these toxic pesticides entering our ecosystem. Also, these harmful pesticides can get leached into the target vegetable or fruit and cause contamination. Many of these pesticides contain potentially harmful and proven carcinogenic compounds like benzene and its derivatives. Thus while using such hazardous products; we are taking a huge risk with the environment as well as human life. That established it is imperative that we find a solution for this problem.
C Tech Corporation can offer a solution in the form of their non-toxic, non-hazardous product Termirepel™. Termirepel™ is an eco-friendly insect aversive. It is available in the form of polymer masterbatches which can be incorporated in agricultural films, mulches, etc during processing. Termirepel™ can also be incorporated in silage bags and packaging films to protect the crops in post-harvest stage from pest damage.