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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #162451
Title: STINK BUG RESPONSE TO FIVE TRAP TYPES IN APPLE AND PEACH ORCHARDS

Author
item HOGMIRE, HENRY - PROFESSOR, WVU
item Leskey, Tracy

Submitted to: Annual Cumberland Shenandoah Fruit Workers Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/30/2004
Publication Date: 5/31/2004
Citation: Hogmire, H., Leskey, T.C. 2004. Stink bug response to five trap types in apple and peach orchards. Annual Cumberland Shenandoah Fruit Workers Conference.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Management of stink bugs in orchards is hindered by the lack of effective monitoring tools for threshold-based decision making. Monitoring is especially challenging because of the polyphagous nature and high mobility of stink bugs, and has consisted primarily of tree beating, weed sweeping, and fruit injury assessments. Therefore, we evaluated five trap types that could be used as a potential monitoring tool. They included masonite, plywood, and plastic pyramid traps coated with industrial "safety yellow" paint and placed between trees, and clear jar traps and jar traps coated with industrial "safety yellow paint" hung within tree canopies in commercial and unmanaged apple and peach orchards. All traps contained a small piece of an insecticide ear tag and were either baited with the Euschistus spp. aggregation pheromone, methyl 2,4-decadienoate or left unbaited. Pyramid traps painted 'industrial safety yellow' and baited with Euschistus spp. aggregation pheromone, methyl 2,4-decadienoate, captured more stink bugs than all other traps in both apple and peach orchards. Unbaited pyramids and baited and unbaited jar traps had significantly fewer, but similar captures of stink bugs. Overall captures were similar among the three versions of pyramid traps (plywood, plastic, masonite). Once attracted to traps, capture depends upon ease of entry and escape, with escape minimized either by trap design or immobilization of stink bugs after entry. However, captures in all baited traps were reduced due to high rates of escape and poor kill of stink bugs with insecticide ear tags as well as arrestment of bugs prior to trap entry. Future studies will need to address these trap/pheromone limitations in order to develop a more effective monitoring tool for stink bugs.